superhuman; for it is not as being man that one will live thus, but by virtue of a certain divine element subsisting within us. Just as this element far excels our composite nature, so does its operation excel action according to the moral virtues. Reason in comparison with man is something divine, and so is the life of Reason divine in comparison with the routine of man’s life. One must not, however, obey those who bid us ‘think humbly as being mortal men,’ nay rather we should indulge immortal longings, and strive to live up to that divine particle within us, which, though it be small in proportionate bulk, yet in power and dignity far surpasses all the other parts of our nature, and which is indeed each man’s proper self. By living in accordance with it our true individuality will be developed. And such a life cannot fail to be happy above all other kinds of life.”
This, then, is the “mark” which Aristotle sets before men to “shoot at” (‘Eth.’ I. ii. 2)—namely, the attainment of a state in which one should live above the world, occupied with philosophic thought. It is an ideal picture, to which, however, approximations may doubtless be made. To attain it completely would be, according to Aristotle, to attain the life of the blessed existences, such as the sun and the fixed stars, and of God Himself, whose essence is Reason, and His life “a thinking upon thought” (‘Met.’ XI. ix. 4). This, he admits, is impossible for us; but yet, he says, we should aim at it. “Secondary to this,” he says, “in point of happiness, is the life of moral virtue.”
