"Now to begin with Fortitude, they say it is the meane between
Cowardise and rash Audacitie; of which twaine the one is a defect, the
other an excesse of the yrefull passion: Liberalitie, betweene
Nigardise and Prodigalitie: Clemencie and Mildnesse, betweene
senselesse Indolence and Crueltie: Justice, the meane of giving more or
lesse than due: Temperance, a mediocritie betweene the blockish
stupiditie of the minde, moved with _no touch of pleasure_, and all
unbrideled loosenes, whereby it is abandoned to all sensualitie."--
_The Philosophie of Plutarch_, fol. 1603.
It really does appear to me that there could not be a happier or more
appropriate designation, for a philosophy made up in this way of "meanes"
and adjustments, so as to steer between the _plus_ and _minus_, than a
system of _checks_--not fixed, or rigid rules, as they are sometimes
interpreted to be, but nice allowances of excess or defect, to be
discovered, weighed, and determined by individual reason, in the audit of
each man's conscience, according to the strength or weakness of the
passions he may have to regulate.