ABSTRACT
Virtues of the requisite quality are clearly subordinate to virtues of the righteous quality, for they are of value only when they accompany such virtues. Virtues of the generous quality depend more on natural endowments than the other two classes do, and are hardly to be acquired merely by the conscientious doing of one’s duty. Different circumstances, or a different ethos, made the actions in these two cases very different, but the high virtue of courage was the same in both. This is so much the case that the chief value of the analytical study of certain of the virtues is that it confirms the view that there are kinds of conduct that are objectively good and that a reasonable explanation of their goodness is that they conform to a natural law of some sort.
