Even of the large work, which consists of ten books, three books (V.VI.

VII.), recurring in the Eudemian Ethics, are considered by Sir A.Grant, though not by other critics, to have been composed by Eudemus, the supposed author of this second treatise, and a leading disciple of Aristotle.
Like many other Aristotelian treatises, the Nicomachean Ethics is deficient in method and consistency on any view of its composition.
But the profound and sagacious remarks scattered throughout give it a permanent interest, as the work of a great mind.

There may be extracted from it certain leading doctrines, whose point of departure was Platonic, although greatly modified and improved by the genius and personality of Aristotle.
Our purpose will be best served by a copious abstract of the Nicomachean Ethics.
Book First discusses the Chief Good, or the Highest End of all human endeavours.

Every exercise of the human powers aims at some good; all the arts of life have their several ends--medicine, ship-building, generalship.

But the ends of these special arts are all subordinate to some higher end; which end is the chief good, and the subject of the highest art of all, the Political; for as Politics aims at the welfare of the state, or aggregate of individuals, it is identical with and comprehends the welfare of the individual (Chaps.