Both incontinence and continence imply something beyond the average character of men; for the one is more steadfast than most men can be, the other less.

Of the several kinds of incontinence, that of the melancholic temper is more curable than that of those who make resolutions but do not keep them, and that which proceeds from custom than that which rests on natural infirmity: it is easier to alter one’s habit than to change one’s nature. For the very reason why habits are hard to change is that they are a sort of second, nature, as Euenus says⁠—

Train men but long enough to what you will,

And that shall be their nature in the end.

Train men but long enough to what you will, And that shall be their nature in the end.