144 AN TIEN T METAPHYSICS. Bx)ok lU. 



moral actions, fiich as I believe is given by no other pliiloropher *. 

 As to Viitue, he has given a moft excellent definition of it in 

 general, foimded upon that natural perception which every intelli- 

 gent animal has of-the Beautiful "f : And, as to the particular virtues, 

 he has fpoken of them in all his three works upon morals; and has 

 defined and explained them more accurately than is to be found 

 in any other work, or in all the other works upon the fubjed of 

 morals put together. For he has not only explained to us what 

 the virtues are, but what the oppofite vices are; and he has fhown us 

 that all the virtues are a middle betwixt two extremes, the one of 

 excefs, the other of defect : And he has diRinguifhed moft properly 

 betwixt \.\\t prciclice of the virtues, and the habit or 'gf;?, from which 

 \X\2iX. pralfice proceeds; and he has fhown us that all virtues are truly 

 habits^ formed by cuftom and practice, and therefore very properly 

 called by him ethical virtues. And even Prudence, which one fhould 

 think confifted wholely in fpeculation, he confiders likewife as form- 

 ed by cuftom and habit; and, indeed, without practice and experi- 

 ence no man can have, in any degree of perfed:ion, the virtue of 

 Prudence, any more than of Temperance or Fortitude. 



He has a fourth treatife upon morals, entitled De Virtutibtis ct Vitiis^ 

 which I confider as an excellent fummary and abridgment of the 

 three other treatifes ; for he has there fliortly defined all the feveral 

 virtues and vices, and defcribed what is proper and peculiar to each 

 of them. In fiiort, Ariftotle's works upon Morals are as complete 

 as any work can be; and they may be confidered not only as a philo- 

 fophical work, but as a dictionary of all the words belonging to mo- 

 rals, charaders, fentiments, and pafifions. And he makes diftlndions 

 in that matter, which are no where elfe to be found. Thus, he diftin- 

 guifties betwixt (To<po(; and (p^oviu^o^y the firft applying to a man learned 

 not only in the philofophy of life and manners, but in the higher 



parts 

 * See Cap. 2. Lib. t. of the Eudemia, 

 -I- See p. 125. of this vol. 



