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Chapter 4: Disposition
Temperance: Temperance is a mean between
insensibility and self-indulgence. Therefore,
it is a mean regarding the pleasures of taste, touch,
food, drink, and sexual intercourse. These are the
same pleasures in which animals share. The temperate
character is not pained at the absence of what
is pleasant and at their abstinence from it. They
dislike the pleasures that the self-indulgent character
enjoys most. Temperate characters avoid excessive
pleasure. Also, temperate characters only rarely
feel pain or craving when these pleasures are absent.
If felt, then the pain or craving is moderate at
most. The exercise of appetite increases its innate
force. If appetites are strong and violent, then they
even expel the power of calculation. Hence appetites
should be moderate and few.
Liberality: Liberality is a mean between
meanness and prodigality. Moreover, liberality is a
mean regarding wealth, especially the giving and taking
of wealth. As a virtue, liberality is mostly concerned
with the giving of wealth. Riches, therefore,
will be used best by the character who has liberality.
A liberal character is more likely to give to the right
characters and take from the right sources than to
take wrongly. Liberal characters are almost the most
loved of all moral characters, since they are useful,
which depends on their giving. The liberal character
gives wealth to the right characters, in the right
amounts, and at the right time, with all the other
qualifications that accompany giving rightly. Also, a
liberal character feels pleasure while giving, or at least
does not feel pain. A liberal character will not take
from the wrong sources. Taking from the wrong
sources is characteristic of valuing wealth more than
is right. It is unbecoming to confer benefits and ask
continually for things or favors. A liberal character
cares for their own property, since they wish to help
others by means of their property. Liberal characters
refrain from giving to anybody and everybody,
so that they may have something to give to the right
characters at the right time. It is common for a
liberal character to give excessively and leave too little
for themselves. By nature, liberal characters focus
on others, not themselves. However, a character
who gives less may be the more liberal character if
they have less to give. Characters are considered to
be more liberal if they inherited their wealth instead
of making it. The liberal character does not value
wealth for its own sake, but as a means to giving.
When Haggling, (see Chap. 8: Skills), it is easier to
deal with a liberal character, since they do not value
money as much as others. Liberal characters are
more annoyed if they have not spent something that
they ought, than pained if they have spent something
that they ought not.
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