The first character is the only one
to which we can, strictly speaking, attach the idea of merit, and is
also the only one which is capable of rising to high efforts of
continuous and heroic self-sacrifice; but on the other hand, there is a
charm in the spontaneous action of the unforced desires which
disciplined virtue can perhaps never attain. The man who is consistently
generous through a sense of duty, when his natural temperament impels
him to avarice, and when every exercise of benevolence causes him a
pang, deserves in the very highest degree our admiration; but he whose
generosity costs him no effort, but is the natural gratification of his
affections, attracts a far larger measure of our love. Corresponding to
these two casts of character, we find two distinct theories of
education, the aim of the one being chiefly to strengthen the will, and
that of the other to guide the desires. The principal examples of the
first are the Spartan and stoical systems of antiquity, and, with some
modifications, the asceticism of the Middle Ages.
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