of
moral philosophy, how men might be rendered happy in the present world.
In the first place, he refutes the opinion of the voluptuous, who make
happiness to consist in corporal pleasures. "Not only," said he, "are
these pleasures fleeting, they are also succeeded by disgust; and while
they enfeeble the body they debase the mind."

He next rejects the opinion of the ambitious, who place happiness in
honors, and, with this object in view, pay no regard to the maxims of
equity or the restraints of law. "Honor," he said, "exists in him who
honors." "The ambitious," he adds, "desire to be honored in consequence
of some virtue of which they wish themselves supposed to be possessed;
that consequently, happiness consists in virtue, rather than in honors,
especially as these are external and do not depend upon ourselves."

In the last place, he refutes the system of the avaricious, who
constitute riches the supreme good. "Riches," he said, "are not
desirable on their own account; they render him who possesses them
unhappy, because he is afraid to use them. In order to render them
really useful it is necessary to use and to distribute them, and not to
place happiness in what is in itself detestable and not worth the
having."

The opinion of Aristotle is, that happiness consists in the most perfect
exercise of the understanding and the practice of the virtues. The most
noble exercise of the understanding, he considered to be speculation
concerning natural objects; the heavens, the stars, nature, and chiefly
the First Being. He observed, however, that without a competency of the
good things of fortune suited to a man's situation in life, it was
impossible to be perfectly happy, because without this we could neither
have time to pursue speculation, nor opportunity to practise the
virtues. Thus, for example, one could not please his friends; and to do
good to those whom we love is always one of the highest enjoyments of
life.

"Happiness depends therefore," he said, "on three things: the goods of
mind, as wisdom and prudence; the goods of the body, as beauty, health,
strength; and the goods of fortune, as riches and nobility." Virtue he
maintained, is not sufficient to render men happy; the goods of the body
and of fortune are absolutely necessary; and a wise man would be unhappy
were he to want riches or if his share of them were insufficient.

He affirmed, on the other hand: "Vice is sufficient to render men
unhappy. Though