Book 6
5
This is why it is thought that these qualities are a natural gift, and that a man is considerate, understanding and intelligent by nature, though no one is a wise man by nature.
6
That this is so is indicated by our thinking of them as going with certain ages: we say that at such and such an age a man must have got intelligence and considerateness, which implies that they come by nature.
6
[Hence Intelligence is both a beginning and an end, for these things are both the starting-point and the subject matter of demonstration.]This sentence seems irrelevant here. It might come in after 11.4.
6
Consequently the unproved assertions and opinions of experienced and elderly people, or of prudent men,This addition is auspicious: no one can become prudent merely by getting old ( Burnet). are as much deserving of attention as those which they support by proof; for experience has given them an eye for things, and so they see correctly.
7
We have now discussed the nature and respective spheres of Prudence and Wisdom, and have shown that each is the virtue of a different part of the soul.
