So then Happiness is manifestly something final and self-sufficient,
being the end of all things which are and may be done.

But, it may be, to call Happiness the Chief Good is a mere truism, and
what is wanted is some clearer account of its real nature. Now this
object may be easily attained, when we have discovered what is the work
of man; for as in the case of flute-player, statuary, or artisan of any
kind, or, more generally, all who have any work or course of action,
their Chief Good and Excellence is thought to reside in their work, so
it would seem to be with man, if there is any work belonging to him.

Are we then to suppose, that while carpenter and cobbler have certain
works and courses of action, Man as Man has none, but is left by Nature
without a work? or would not one rather hold, that as eye, hand, and
foot, and generally each of his members, has manifestly some special
work; so too the whole Man, as distinct from all these, has some work of
his own?

What then can this be? not mere life, because that plainly is shared
with him even by vegetables, and we want what is peculiar to him. We
must separate off then the life of mere nourishment and growth, and next
will come the life of sensation: but this again manifestly is common to
horses, oxen, and every animal. There remains then a kind of life of
the Rational Nature apt to act: and of this Nature there are two parts
denominated Rational, the one as being obedient to Reason, the other as
having and exerting it. Again, as this life is also spoken of in two
ways, we must take that which is in the way of actual working, because
this is thought to be most properly entitled to the name. If then the
work of Man is a working of the soul in accordance with reason, or at
least not independently of reason, and we say that the work of any given