Why then do we not also classify the beautiful among the relatives?
Because beauty is such by itself, because it constitutes a quality,
while "more beautiful" is a relative. Nevertheless the thing which is
called beautiful would sometimes appear ugly, if it were compared to
some other, as, for instance, if we were to contrast the beauty of men
with that of the gods; hence the expression (of Heraclitus's[384]):
"The most beautiful of monkeys would be ugly if compared with an animal
of a different kind." When beauty is predicated of something, it is
considered in itself; it might perhaps be called more beautiful or more
ugly if it were compared to another. Hence it results that, in the
genus of which we are treating, an object is in itself great because of
the presence of greatness, but not in respect to some other. Otherwise,
we would be obliged to deny that a thing was beautiful because of
the existence of some more beautiful one. Neither therefore must we
deny that a thing is great because there is only one greater than it;
for "greater" could not exist without "great," any more than "more
beautiful" without "beautiful."