But in the case of moral actions, the arithmetical mean may not hold (for example, six between two and ten); it must be a mean relative to the individual; Milo must have more food than a novice in the training school.

In the arts, we call a work perfect, when anything either added or taken away would spoil it.

Now, virtue, which, like Nature, is better and more exact than any art, has for its subject-matter, passions and actions; all which are wrong either in defect or in excess.

Virtue aims at the mean between them, or the maximum of Good: which implies a correct estimation of all the circumstances of the act,--when we ought to do it--under what conditions--towards whom--for what purpose--in what manner, &c.

This is the praise-worthy mean, which virtue aspires to.