or, as stated
above (A. 1). But great and little are accidental to honor. Therefore
it is not essential to magnanimity to be about great honors.

Obj. 2: Further, just as magnanimity is about honor, so is meekness
about anger. But it is not essential to meekness to be about either
great or little anger. Therefore neither is it essential to
magnanimity to be about great honor.

Obj. 3: Further, small honor is less aloof from great honor than is
dishonor. But magnanimity is well ordered in relation to dishonor,
and consequently in relation to small honors also. Therefore it is
not only about great honors.

_On the contrary,_ The Philosopher says (Ethic. ii, 7) that
magnanimity is about great honors.

_I answer that,_ According to the Philosopher (Phys. vii, 17, 18),
virtue is a perfection, and by this we are to understand the
perfection of a power, and that it regards the extreme limit of that
power, as stated in _De Coelo_ i, 116. Now the perfection of a power
is not perceived in every operation of that power, but in such
operations as are great or difficult: for every power, however
imperfect, can extend to ordinary and trifling operations. Hence it
is essential to a virtue to be about the difficult and the good, as
stated in _Ethic._ ii, 3.

Now the difficult and the good (which amount to the same) in an act
of virtue may be considered from two points of view. First, from the
point of view of reason, in so far as it is difficult to find and
establish the rational means in some particular matter: and this
difficulty is found only in the act of intellectual virtues, and also
of justice. The other difficulty is on the part of the matter, which
may involve a certain opposition to the moderation of reason, which
moderation has to be applied thereto: and this difficulty regards
chiefly the other moral virtues, which are about the passions,
because the passions resist reason as Dionysius states (Div. Nom. iv,
4).

Now as regards the passions it is to be observed that the greatness
of this power of resistance to reason arises chiefly in some cases
from the passions themselves, and in others from the things that are
the objects of the passions. The passions themselves have no great
power of resistance, unless they be violent, because the sensitive
appetite, which is the seat of the passions, is naturally subject to
reason. Hence the resisting virtues that are about these passions
regard only that which is great in such