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CHAPTER ELEVENBut that the fortunes of a person's descendants
and all his friends contrib-ute nothing whatsoever [to his
happiness] appears to be excessively op-posed to what is dear67and
contrary to the opinions held. And becausethe things that may
befall us are many and differ in various respects- 25some hitting
closer to home, other less so-thoroughly distinguishingeach appears
to be a long and even endless task. But perhaps for the mat-ter to
be stated generally and in outline would be adequate.Just as some
of the misfortunes that concern a person himself have acertain
gravity and weight as regards his life but others seem lighter, so
30also the misfortunes that concern all his friends are similar;
and if, con-cerning each thing suffered, it makes a difference
whether the friends arealive or have met their end, far more than
if the unlawful and terriblethings in tragic plays occur before the
action of the play or during it, thenone must indeed take this
difference into account-and even more, per-haps, when it comes to
the perplexity raised concerning those who have 35passed
away,68that is, whether they share in something good or in
theopposite. For it seems, on the basis of these points, that even
if anything ttotbat all does get through to them, whether good or
its contrary, it is some-
thing faint and small, either simply so or to them. And if this
is not so,then what gets through to them is, at any rate, of such a
degree and kindthat it does not make happy those who are not such
or deprive those whoare happy of their blessedness. The friends'
faring well, then, appears tomake some contribution to the
condition of those who have passed away,as does, similarly, their
faring ill-but a contribution of such a kind anddegree as not to
make the happy unhappy or anything else of that sort.66 Or,
"according to reason" (seen. 63).67 Or, perhaps, "excessively
unfriendly" or even "hateful" (aphilon).68 Literally, "those who
have grown weary;' a euphemistic term, characteristic of trag-edy,
that can be applied either to the sick or to the dead. 22] BOOK 1,
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER TWELVE10 With these things defined, let us examine
closely whether happiness issomething praised or rather honored,
for it is clear that it does not be-long among the capacities, at
any rate.69Now, everything praised appearsto be praised for its
being of a certain sort and for its condition relative tosomething:
we praise the just person, the courageous person, and, in gen-15
eral, the good person as well as virtue itself, on account of the
actions andworks involved; and we praise the strong man and the
swift runner andeach of the rest for their being, by nature, of a
certain sort and for theircondition in relation to something good
and serious. This is clear also on
the basis of the praises offered to the gods, since it is
manifestly laughable20 for them to be compared to us; but this
happens because praise arisesthrough comparison, as we said. And if
praise is of things of that sort, itis clear that not praise but
something greater and better than praise ap-plies to the best
things, as in fact appears to be the case: the gods we deemblessed
and happy, and the most divine of men we deem blessed.7025 The case
is similar with the good things too: none praise happiness theway
they praise justice; rather, people deem happiness a blessed thing,
onthe grounds that it is something more divine and better. And
Eudoxus too
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seems to have nobly pleaded his case that the first prize
belongs to plea-sure. For the fact that it is not praised as being
among the good things re-30 veals, he supposed, that it is superior
to the things praised; and such, hesupposed, is the god and the
good. For it is to these that all else is com-pared. Indeed, praise
belongs to virtue: people are apt to do noble thingsas a result of
virtue, whereas encomiums belong to the works ofboth bodyand soul
alike. But perhaps being very precise about these things is more35
appropriate to those who have labored over encomiums; to us it is
clear,11o2a on the basis of what has been said, that happiness
belongs among thethings that are honored and complete. This seems
to be the case also onaccount of its being a principle: it is for
the sake of this that we all do ev-erything else, and we posit the
principle and the cause of the good thingsas being something
honorable and divine.69 For a possible interpretation of this line,
see Aristotle's treatment of capacities in2.1 and 2.5.70 The
reading of the MSS. Burnet, following the text of Bywater and the
suggestionofSusemihl, deletes the final verb such that the emended
text would read in translation,"we deem blessed and happy the gods
as well as the most divine of men." BOOK 1, CHAPTER 13 [ 23CHAPTER
THIRTEENNow, since happiness is a certain activity of soul in
accord with complete
virtue, what concerns virtue would have to be examined. For
perhaps inthis way we might better contemplate happiness as well.
And the politi-cian in the true sense seems to have labored over
this especially, for hewishes to make the citizens good and
obedient to the laws. We have asmodels of these the lawgivers of
the Cretans and Lacedaimonians, and 10any others of that sort there
might have been. And if this examination isa part of the political
art, it is clear that the investigation would be in ac-cord with
the choice made at the beginning.But that we must examine the
virtue distinctive of a human being isclear, for we were seeking
both the human good and human happiness. 15We mean by "virtue
distinctive of a human being" not that of the bodybut that of the
soul, and by "happiness" we mean an activity of soul. Butif these
things are so, then it is clear that the politician ought to
know
in some way about the soul, just as also someone who is going to
treatthe eye must know the whole body as well-and even more so
inasmuch 20as the political art is more honorable and better than
medicine. Thosephysicians who are refined take very seriously what
pertains to knowl-edge of the body, and the politician too ought to
contemplate the soul;but he ought to contemplate it for the sake of
these things and up to thepoint that is adequate for what is being
sought: to be more precise is per- 25haps too difficult given the
tasks set forth. But some points concerningthe soul are stated
sufficiently even in the exoteric71arguments, and oneought to make
use of them-for example, that one part of it is nonra-tional,
another possesses reason. Yet whether these things are divided,
like the parts of the body and every divisible thing, or whether
they aretwo in speech but naturally inseparable, like the convex
and the concave 30in the circumference of a circle, makes no
difference with a view to thepresent task.Of the nonrational, one
part seems to be that which is held in com-mon and vegetative-!
mean that which causes nutrition and growth.For someone could posit
that such a capacity of the soul is in all things 11o2b that are
nourished and in embryos, and that this same capacity is presentin
the completed things as well, for this is more rational than
positing
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71 Evidently a reference to writings intended for a wider or
more popular audience;see also n. 26. BOOK 1, CHAPTER 13some other
capacity. A certain virtue belonging to this capacity, then,
ap-pears to be common and not distinctive of a human being. For
this partand its capacity seem particularly active in sleep, but
the good person andthe bad would be least distinct in sleep. (So it
is that people assert that forhalf oflife, the happy do not differ
at all from the wretched, and this is tobe expected: sleep is an
idleness of that in reference to which the soul issaid to be
serious or base.) Unless, that is, certain motions do reach them10
to a small degree, and in this way the dreams of the decent72are
betterthan those of people at random. But enough about these
things: let thenutritive part be, since it does not naturally share
in human virtue.Yet there seems to be also a certain other nature
of the soul that is non-rational, although it does share in reason
in a way. For in the case of theself-restrained person and of the
one lacking self-restraint, we praise their15 reason and that part
of their soul possessing reason, since it correctly ex-horts them
toward the best things. But there appears to be something elsein
them that is by nature contrary to reason, which does battle with
andstrains against reason. For just as when we choose to move
paralyzed parts20 of the body to the right and they are, to the
contrary, borne off to the left,
so also with the soul: the impulses of those lacking
self-restraint are to-ward things contrary [to their reason]. Yet
whereas in the case of bodies,we see the thing being borne off, in
the case of the soul we do not see it.But perhaps one must hold
there to be, no less in the case of the soul too,25 something
contrary to reason that opposes and blocks it. How it is dif-ferent
does not matter at all; it too appears to share in reason, as we
said.In the case of the self-restrained person, at any rate, it is
obedient to thecommands of reason-and perhaps it heeds those
commands still morereadily in the case of the moderate or
courageous person, since then it isin all respects in harmony with
reason.It appears, therefore, that the nonrational part is twofold,
for the veg-30 etative part has nothing in common with reason; but
that part character-ized by desire, and by longing in general,
shares somehow in reason inas-
much as it heeds it and is apt to be obedient to its commands.
Thus weassert that [he who is in this way obedient to the commands]
of his fa-ther and friends in some manner possesses reason-and not
that he doesso in the manner of [someone knowledgeable in]
mathematics. That thenonrational part is somehow persuaded by
reason is indicated both by72 Epieikes, here in its general sense
of"decent," is also rendered as "equitable" in thediscussion of
justice and equity in 5.10. BOOK 1, CHAPTER 13 [25admonition and by
all criticism as well as exhortation. But if we must as- 1103a sert
that this part too possesses reason, then that which possesses
reasonwill be twofold as well: what possesses it in the
authoritative sense and initself, on the one hand, and, on the
other, what has it in the sense ofbeing
apt to listen as one does to one's father.Virtue too is defined
in accord with this distinction, for we say thatsome of the virtues
are intellectual, others moral:73wisdom, comprehen-sion, and
prudence being intellectual, liberality and moderation beingmoral.
For in speaking about someone's character, we do not say that heis
wise or comprehending but that he is gentle or moderate. Yet we
praisethe wise person too with respect to the characteristic that
is his, and wesay that of the characteristics, the praiseworthy
ones are virtues.
