Book 2
2
This is why it is a hard task to be good, for it is hard to find the middle point in anything: for instance, not everybody can find the center of a circle, but only someone who knows geometry. So also anybody can become angry—that is easy, and so it is to give and spend money; but to be angry with or give money to the right person, and to the right amount, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way—this is not within everybody’s power and is not easy; so that to do these things properly is rare, praiseworthy, and noble.
3
Hence the first rule in aiming at the mean is to avoid that extreme which is the more opposed to the mean, as Calypso advisesHom. Od. 12.219: really the words are said by Odysseus, conveying to his steersman Circe’s advice, to avoid the whirlpool of Charybdis which will engulf them all, and steer nearer to the monster Scylla who will devour only some of them.— Steer the ship clear of yonder spray and surge. For of the two extremes one is a more serious error than the other.
4
Hence, inasmuch as to hit the mean extremely well is difficult,Or to hit the mean is extremely difficult. the second best way to sail,A proverb, meaning to take to the oars when the wind fails. as the saying goes, is to take the least of the evils; and the best way to do this will be the way we enjoin.
