ppiness
Falls in the hearts of few,
Planted by God within the Souls
Spread to receive His dew;

that is to say, whose body is in every part perfectly prepared,
ordered, or qualified.

For if the Virtues are the fruit of Nobility, and Happiness is
pleasure or sweetness acquired through or by them, it is evident that
this Nobility is the seed of Happiness, as has been said. And if one
considers well, this definition comprehends all the four arguments,
that is to say, the material, the formal, the efficient, and the
final: material, inasmuch as it says, "to the Soul spread to receive,"
which is the material and subject of Nobility; formal, inasmuch as it
says, "That seed;" efficient, inasmuch as it says, "Planted by God
within the Soul;" final, inasmuch as it says, "of Happiness," Heaven's
blessing. And thus is defined this our good gift, which descends into
us in like manner from the Supreme and Spiritual Power, as virtue into
a precious stone from a most noble celestial body.

CHAPTER XXI.

That we may have more perfect knowledge of Human Goodness, as it is
the original cause in us of all good that can be called Nobility, it
is requisite to explain clearly in this especial chapter how this
Goodness descends into us.

In the first place, it comes by the Natural way, and then by the
Theological way, that is to say, the Divine and Spiritual. In the
first place, it is to be known that man is composed of Soul and body;
but that Goodness or Nobility is of the Soul, as has been said, and is
after the manner of seed from the Divine Virtue. By different
philosophers it has been differently argued concerning the difference
in our Souls; for Avicenna and Algazel were of opinion that Souls of
themselves and from their beginning were Noble or Base. Plato and some
others were of opinion that they proceeded by the stars, and were
Noble more or less according to the nobility of the star. Pythagoras
was of opinion that all were of one nobility, not only human Souls,
but with human Souls those of the brute animals and of the trees and
the forms of minerals; and he said that all the difference in the
bodies is form. If each one were to defend his opinion, it might be
that Truth would be seen to be in all. But since on the surface they
seem somewhat distant from the Truth, one must not proceed according
to those opinions, but according to the opinion of Aristotle and of
the Peripatetics. And therefore I say t