To which of the three does virtue or excellence belong?
It cannot be a Passion; for passions are not in themselves good or evil, and are not accompanied with deliberate choice [Greek: prouiresis], will, or intention.

Nor is it a Faculty: for we are not praised or blamed because we _can_ have such or such emotions; and moreover our faculties are innate, which virtue is not.

Accordingly, virtue, or excellence, must be an acquirement [Greek: hexis]--a State (V.).

This is the _genus_.
Now, as to the _differentia_, which brings us to a more specific statement of the doctrine of the _Mean_.

The specific excellence of virtue is to be got at from quantity in the abstract, from which we derive the conceptions of more, less, and equal; or excess, defect, and mean; the equal being the mean between excess and defect.