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Principles | | |
 Virtue
H Virtue
Definition: Virtue is the origin of union of
goodness, greatness, etc. in one good,
great etc. substantial being.
Distinctions and clarification: Virtue is a
principle that initiates its own action, so
that its existence and action be more
virtuous and so that virtue and virtuous
beings be more within the natural essence
of goodness etc. Hence, supreme virtue is
the one which initiates its own action as a
substantial being, and by reason of virtue,
this initiating substantial being is above
any virtue that initiates its act not as a
substantial being, but as a part of one,
given that the lesser substantial being
comprises several different essences and
natures in one number. On account of this
diversity, active virtue can fail and vice can
exist in the subject of virtue on account of
the time, quantity and other accidents in
which this virtue exists.
Nature: The inherent correlatives of virtue
are: active virtue, passive virtue and the
act of virtue, which are one essence full of
virtue and unity, and in major unity, the
habit is more intense and powerful than in
dispersion.
Without virtue, everything would be feeble,
as all would convert into impossibility and
non being.
Virtue, as a principle of this Art, allows
the artist to know the conditions of virtue
and to know his own virtue in what he is
and does on his own; this knowledge
promptly enables his intellect to acquire
and discover the virtue of its object and to
gauge its truth by its virtue because truth
and virtue are convertible. Now, as virtue
arises substantially from the conjunction
of goodness, greatness, etc. it also arises
accidentally from the conjunction of the
goodness, greatness, duration, etc. that
constitute conceptual understanding of
morality, and through this virtue the artist
apprehends the moral nature of the
objects he desires.
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