{INTRODUCTION ^paragraph 210}
Virtue is always in progress, and yet always begins from the
beginning. The former follows from the fact that, objectively
considered, it is an ideal and unattainable, and yet it is a duty
constantly to approximate to it. The second is founded subjectively on
the nature of man which is affected by inclinations, under the
influence of which virtue, with its maxims adopted once for all, can
never settle in a position of rest; but, if it is not rising,
inevitably falls; because moral maxims cannot, like technical, be
based on custom (for this belongs to the physical character of the
determination of will); but even if the practice of them become a
custom, the agent would thereby lose the freedom in the choice of
his maxims, which freedom is the character of an action done from
duty.