But the discussion of this difficulty leads to a further confirmation of our account. For nothing human is so constant as the excellent exercise of our faculties. The sciences themselves seem to be less abiding. And the highest of these exercises 17 are the most abiding, because the happy are occupied with them most of all and most continuously, (for this seems to be the reason why we do not forget how to do them 18 ).

The happy man, then, as we define him, will have this required property of permanence, and all through life will preserve his character; for, he will be occupied continually, or with the least possible interruption, in excellent deeds and excellent speculations; and, whatever his fortune be, he will take it in the noblest fashion, and bear himself always and in all things suitably, since he is truly good and “foursquare without a flaw.”