ad of gravity, and the
foot-print of tranquillity: yet so that there be neither study nor
affectation, but natural and artless movement." Therefore seemingly
there is no virtue about the style of outward movements.
_On the contrary,_ The beauty of honesty [*Cf. Q. 145, A. 1] pertains
to virtue. Now the style of outward movements pertains to the beauty
of honesty. For Ambrose says (De Offic. i, 18): "The sound of the
voice and the gesture of the body are distasteful to me, whether they
be unduly soft and nerveless, or coarse and boorish. Let nature be
our model; her reflection is gracefulness of conduct and beauty of
honesty." Therefore there is a virtue about the style of outward
movement.
_I answer that,_ Moral virtue consists in the things pertaining to
man being directed by his reason. Now it is manifest that the outward
movements of man are dirigible by reason, since the outward members
are set in motion at the command of reason. Hence it is evident that
there is a moral virtue concerned with the direction of these
movements.
Now the direction of these movements may be considered from a twofold
standpoint. First, in respect of fittingness to the person; secondly,
in respect of fittingness to externals, whether persons, business, or
place. Hence Ambrose says (De Offic. i, 18): "Beauty of conduct
consists in becoming behavior towards others, according to their sex
and person," and this regards the first. As to the second, he adds:
"This is the best way to order our behavior, this is the polish
becoming to every action."
Hence Andronicus [*De Affectibus] ascribes two things to these
outward movements: namely "taste" (_ornatus_) which regards what is
becoming to the person, wherefore he says that it is the knowledge of
what is becoming in movement and behavior; and "methodicalness"
(_bona ordinatio_) which regards what is becoming to the business in
hand, and to one's surroundings, wherefore he calls it "the practical
knowledge of separation," i.e. of the distinction of "acts."
Reply Obj. 1: Outward movements are signs of the inward disposition,
according to Ecclus. 19:27, "The attire of the body, and the laughter
of the teeth, and the gait of the man, show what he is"; and Ambrose
says (De Offic. i, 18) that "the habit of mind is seen in the gesture
of the body," and that "the body's movement is an index of the soul."
Reply Obj. 2: Although it is from natural disposition that a man is
inclined to this or
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