2
All of us, he said, are so constituted by nature that we can live without fault and nobly — not that some of us can and others cannot; and there is strong evidence of this in the fact that lawgivers alike prescribe to all what must be done and forbid what must not be done, exempting none of those who are disobedient or who do wrong so that they should go unpunished — not the young, not the old, not the strong, not the weak, no one whatever. And yet, if virtue were something entirely brought in from outside, and we had no part in it by nature, then just as in the tasks belonging to the other arts no one who has not learned the art is required to be without fault, so too in the affairs of life no one who has not thoroughly learned virtue would be required to be without fault — since virtue alone makes a person not go wrong in life. But as it is, in the care of the sick no one expects anyone to be without fault except the physician, and in the use of the lyre no one but the musician, and in the use of the rudder no one but the helmsman; whereas in life they no longer expect only the philosopher to be without fault — the one who alone seems to attend to virtue — but they expect it alike of everyone, even of those who have taken no care of it at all. It is clear, then, that the cause of this is nothing other than the fact that the human being has come into existence for virtue. And indeed there is this further strong evidence that we have a share in virtue by nature: that all people speak of themselves as though they possess virtue and are good. For there is no one among ordinary people who, when asked whether he happens to be foolish or wise, will admit to being foolish; nor again, when asked whether he happens to be unjust or just, will he say that he is unjust. And likewise, if someone asks whether he is self-controlled or unrestrained, he answers, when asked, that he is self-controlled; and simply, if anyone is asked whether he is good or base, he would say good — and this though he could name neither any teacher of nobility of character for himself, nor any learning or training in virtue that he happens to have undertaken. Of what else, then, is this evidence but that there is a natural predisposition in the human soul toward nobility of character, and that a seed of virtue is present in each of us? And because it altogether befits us to be good, some of us deceive ourselves into thinking that we actually are good, while others are ashamed to admit that we are not. For why, in the name of the gods, does no one who has not learned letters or music or wrestling claim to know these things, nor pretend to possess these arts unless he can also name a teacher with whom he studied — yet everyone professes to possess virtue? Because in none of those other things has the human being a share by nature, nor does anyone come into life already possessing predispositions