Rhetoric   

their belief, to belong to men whose state of mind is good. Also by
those whom all others think deserving. We also feel it about anything
for which our ancestors, relatives, personal friends, race, or country
are specially honoured, looking upon that thing as really our own, and
therefore feeling that we deserve to have it. Further, since all good
things that are highly honoured are objects of emulation, moral
goodness in its various forms must be such an object, and also all
those good things that are useful and serviceable to others: for men
honour those who are morally good, and also those who do them service.
So with those good things our possession of which can give enjoyment
to our neighbours-wealth and beauty rather than health. We can see,
too, what persons are the objects of the feeling. They are those who
have these and similar things-those already mentioned, as courage,
wisdom, public office. Holders of public office-generals, orators, and
all who possess such powers-can do many people a good turn. Also those
whom many people wish to be like; those who have many acquaintances or
friends; those whom admire, or whom we ourselves admire; and those who
have been praised and eulogized by poets or prose-writers. Persons of
the contrary sort are objects of contempt: for the feeling and notion
of contempt are opposite to those of emulation. Those who are such as
to emulate or be emulated by others are inevitably disposed to be
contemptuous of all such persons as are subject to those bad things
which are contrary to the good things that are the objects of
emulation: despising them for just that reason. Hence we often despise
the fortunate, when luck comes to them without their having those good
things which are held in honour.
This completes our discussion of the means by which the several
emotions may be produced or dissipated, and upon which depend the
persuasive arguments connected with the emotions.
Part 12
Let us now consider the various types of human character, in relation
to the emotions and moral qualities, showing how they correspond to
our various ages and fortunes. By emotions I mean anger, desire, and
the like; these we have discussed already. By moral qualities I mean
virtues and vices; these also have been discussed already, as well as
the various things that various types of men tend to will and to do.
By ages I mean youth, the prime of life, and old age. By fortune I
mean birth, wealth, power, and their opposites-in fact, good fortune
and ill fortune.
To begin with the Youthful type of character. Young men have strong
passions, and tend to gratify them indiscriminately. Of the bodily
desires, it is the sexual by which they are most swayed and in which
they show absence of self-control. They are changeable and fickle in
their desires, which are violent while they last, but quickly over:
their impulses are keen but not deep-rooted, and are like sick
people's attacks of hunger and thirst. They are hot-tempered, and
quick-tempered, and apt to give way to their anger; bad temper often
gets the better of them, for owing to their love of honour they cannot
bear being slighted, and are indignant if they imagine themselves
unfairly treated. While they love honour, they love victory still
more; for youth is eager for superiority over others, and victory is
one form of this. They love both more than they love money, which
indeed they love very little, not having yet learnt what it means to
be without it-this is the point of Pittacus' remark about Amphiaraus.
They look at the good side rather than the bad, not having yet
witnessed many instances of wickedness. They trust others readily,
because they have not yet often been cheated. They are sanguine;
nature warms their blood as though with excess of wine; and besides
that, they have as yet met with few disappointments. Their lives are
mainly spent not in memory but in expectation; for expectation refers
to the future, memory to the past, and youth has a long future before
it and a short past behind it: on the first day of one's life one has
nothing at all to remember, and can only look forward. They are easily
cheated, owing to the sanguine disposition just mentioned. Their hot