Book 5
15
Justice then in this sense is perfect Virtue, though with a qualification, namely that it is displayed towards others. This is why Justice is often thought to be the chief of the virtues, and more sublime or than the evening or the morning starAccording to a scholiast, this is a quotation, slightly altered, from the lost play Melanippe of Euripides (fr. 490 Dindorf).; and we have the proverb— In Justice is all Virtue found in sum.Theog. 147. And Justice is perfect virtue because it is the practice of perfect virtue; and perfect in a special degree,In the mss. the words in a special degree follow perfect in the line before. because its possessor can practise his virtue towards others and not merely by himself; for there are many who can practise virtue in their own private affairs but cannot do so in their relations with another.
16
This is why we approve the saying of Bias, Office will show a man; for in office one is brought into relation with others and becomes a member of a community.
17
The same reason, namely that it involves relationship with someone else, accounts for the viewPut into the mouth of the sophist Thrasymachus in Plato’s Plat. Rep. 343c. that Justice alone of the virtues is the good of others, because it does what is for the advantage of another, either a ruler or an associate.
18
As then the worst man is he who practises vice towards his friends as well as in regard to himself, so the best is not he who practises virtue in regard to himself but he who practises it towards others; for that is a difficult task.
19
Justice in this sense then is not a part of Virtue, but the whole of Virtue; and its opposite Injustice is not a part of Vice but the whole of Vice
20
(the distinction between Virtue and Justice in this sense being clear from what has been said: they are the same quality of mind, but their essence is differentCf. 6.8.1.; what as displayed in relation to others is Justice, as being simply a disposition of a certain kind is Virtue).
