The Nicomachean Ethics — trans. F. H. Peters (1881)
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The translator’s English as printed (F. H. Peters). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
The little-minded man falls short, whether we 12 compare his claims with his own deserts or with what the high-minded man claims for himself.
The vain or conceited man exceeds what is due to 13 himself, though he does not exceed the high-minded man in his claims.*
But the high-minded man, as he deserves the 14 greatest things, must be a perfectly good or excellent man ; for the better man always deserves the greater things, and the best possible man the greatest possible things. The really high-minded man, therefore, must be a good or excellent man. And indeed greatness in every virtue or excellence would seem to be necessarily implied in being a high-minded or greatsouled man.
* For that is impossible.
p. 115
It would be equally inconsistent with the highminded man's character to run alonor swinginof his arms, and to commit an act of injustice ; for what thing is there for love of which he would do anything unseemly, seeing that all things are of little account to him?
Survey him point by point and you will find that the notion of a high-minded man that is not a good or excellent man is utterly absurd. Indeed, if he were not good, he could not be worthy of honour; for honour is the prize of virtue, and is rendered to the good as their due.
High-mindedness, then, seems to be the crownins grace, as it were, of the virtues ; it makes them greater, and cannot exist without them. And on this account it is a hard thing to be truly high-minded ; for it is impossible without the union of all the virtues.
The high-minded man, then, exhibits his character especially in the matter of honours and dishonours, and at great honour from good men he will be moderately pleased, as getting nothing more than his due, or even less ; for no honour can be adequate to complete virtue ; but nevertheless he will accept it, as they have nothing greater to offer him. But honour from ordinary men and on trivial grounds he will utterly despise ; for that is not what he deserves. And dishonour likewise he will make light of; for he will never merit it. 18 But though it is especially in the matter of honours, as we have said, that the high-minded man displays his character, yet he will also observe the mean in his feelings with regard to wealth and power
116 NICOMACHEAN ETHICS OP ARISTOTLE. [Bk. IV.
and all kinds of good and evil fortune, whatever may befall him, and will neither be very much exalted by prosperity, nor very much cast down by adversity ; seeing that not even honour affects him as if it were a very important thing. For power and wealth are desirable for honour's sake (at least, those who have them wish to gain honour by them). He then who thinks lightly of honour must think lightly of them also.
And so high-minded men seem to look down upon everything.
But the gifts of fortune also are commonly thought to contribute to high-mindedness. For those who are 19 well born are thought worthy of honour, and those who are powerful or wealthy; for they are in a position of superiority, and that which is superior in any good thing is always held in greater honour. And so these things do make people more high-minded in a sense ; for such people find honour from some. But 20 in strictness it is only the good man that is worthy of honour, though he that has both goodness and good fortune is commonly thought to be more worthy of honour. Those, however, who have these good things without virtue, neither have any just claim to great things, nor are properly to be called high-minded ; for neither is possible without complete virtue.
But those who have these good things readily 21 come to be supercilious and insolent. For without virtue it is not easy to bear the gifts of fortune becomingly ; and so, being unable to bear them, and thinking themselves superior to everybody else, such people look down upon others, and yet themselves dop. 117 whatever happens to please them. They imitate the high-minded man without being really like him, and they imitate him where they can ; that is to say, they do not exhibit virtue in their acts, but they look down
22 upon others. Only the high-minded man never looks down upon others without justice (for he estimates them correctly), while most men do so for quite irrelevant reasons.