* Horace. ["Let the wise man bear the name of fool, and the just of
unjust, if he pursue virtue herself beyond the proper bounds."]
{INTRODUCTION ^paragraph 205}
For otherwise it is absurd to imagine that one could be too wise
or too virtuous. The emotion always belongs to the sensibility, no
matter by what sort of object it may be excited. The true strength
of virtue is the mind at rest, with a firm, deliberate resolution to
bring its law into practice. That is the state of health in the
moral life; on the contrary, the emotion, even when it is excited by
the idea of the good, is a momentary glitter which leaves exhaustion
after it. We may apply the term fantastically virtuous to the man
who will admit nothing to be indifferent in respect of morality
(adiaphora), and who strews all his steps with duties, as with
traps, and will not allow it to be indifferent whether a man eats fish
or flesh, drink beer or wine, when both agree with him; a micrology
which, if adopted into the doctrine of virtue, would make its rule a
tyranny.