The profligate, as we said, Footnote 17.2. does not feel remorse, for he abides by his choice; the unrestrained man on the other hand invariably repents his excesses afterwards. Hence the objection that we stated Footnote 22.10. does not hold good; on the contrary, it is the profligate who cannot be cured, whereas the unrestrained man can; for Vice resembles diseases like dropsy and consumption, whereas Unrestraint is like epilepsy, Vice being a chronic, Unrestraint an intermittent evil. Indeed Unrestraint and Vice are entirely different in kind, for Vice is unconscious, whereas the unrestrained man is aware of his infirmity.
Among the unrestrained themselves, the impulsive Footnote 3ἐκστατικός is here used as equivalent to προπετής, impetuous,
in 7.8; whereas below, 8.5, as in 1.6 and 2.7, it denotes the quality with which it is here contrasted. sort are better than those who know the right principle but do not keep to it; for these succumb to smaller temptations, and they do not yield without deliberation, as do the impulsive; the unrestrained Footnote 4i.e., the feeble sort who stop to think and yet succumb; the impulsive man is not the typical unrestrained man. man is like people who get drunk quickly, and with a small amount of wine, or with less than most men.
That Unrestraint is not strictly a vice (though it is perhaps vice in a sense), is clear; for Unrestraint acts against deliberate choice, Vice in accordance with it. But nevertheless in the actions that result from it it resembles Vice: just as Demodocus wrote of the people of Miletus—
Similarly the unrestrained are not unjust, but they do unjust things.Milesians are no fools, ’tis true But yet they act as fools would do.
Again, Footnote 5The argument is here resumed from 8.1. the unrestrained man is so constituted as to pursue bodily pleasures that are excessive and contrary to right principle without any belief that he ought to do so, whereas the profligate, because he is so constituted as to pursue them, is convinced that he ought to pursue them. Therefore the former can easily be persuaded to change, Footnote 6i.e., to change his conduct. The unrestrained man’s belief is right already and he needs only to be induced to act up to it; whereas the profligate must be persuaded to change his belief before he will alter his conduct. but the latter cannot. For virtue preserves the fundamental principle, Footnote 7Cf. 6.5.6. vice destroys it, and the first principle or starting-point in matters of conduct is the end proposed, which corresponds to the hypotheses Footnote 8The context might indicate that the definitions are meant, which, themselves apprehended intuitively, are the starting-points of mathematical deductions. But these are ordinarily distinguished by Arisotle from hypotheses, which are assertions of the existence of things, not of their nature. It is therefore suggested that the term here means the propositions of mathematics, which are assumed as the starting-point of the analytical process by which a proof of a theorem or solution of a problem may be discovered: cf. 3.3.12. of mathematics; hence no more in ethics than in mathematics are the first principles imparted by process of reasoning, but by virtue, whether natural or acquired by training in right opinion as to the first principle. The man of principle therefore is temperate, the man who has lost all principle, profligate.
But there is a person who abandons his choice, against right principle, under the influence of passion, who is mastered by passion sufficiently for him not to act in accordance with right principle, but not so completely as to be of such a character as to believe that the reckless pursuit of pleasure is right. This is the unrestrained man: he is better than the profligate, and not absolutely bad, for in him the highest part of man, the fundamental principle, is still preserved. Opposed to the unrestrained man is another, who stands firm by his choice, and does not abandon it under the mere impulse of passion.
It is clear then from these considerations that Self-restraint is a good quality and Unrestraint a bad one.