XLI. A person is said to be pusillanimous whose desire is restrained by the fear of a danger which his equals dare to meet.
Explanation.—Pusillanimity, therefore, is nothing but the dread of some evil which most persons do not usually fear, and therefore I do not ascribe it to the emotions of desire. I wished, notwithstanding, to explain it here, because in so far as we attend to desire, pusillanimity is the true opposite of the emotion of audacity.
XLII. Consternation is affirmed of the man whose desire of avoiding evil is restrained by astonishment at the evil which he fears.
Explanation.—Consternation is therefore a kind of pusillanimity. But because consternation springs from a double fear, it may be more aptly defined as that dread which holds a man stupefied or vacillating, so that he cannot remove an evil. I say stupefied, in so far as we understand his desire of removing the evil to be restrained by his astonishment. I say also vacillating, in so far as we conceive the same desire to be restrained by the fear of another evil which equally tortures him, so that he does not know which of the two evils to avoid.
XLIII. Courtesy or moderation is the desire of doing those things which please men and omitting those which displease them.
XLIV. Ambition is the immoderate desire of glory.
Explanation.—Ambition is a desire which increases and strengthens all the emotions, and that is the reason why it can hardly be kept under control. For so long as a man is possessed by any desire, he is necessarily at the same time possessed by this. Every noble man, says Cicero, is led by glory, and even the philosophers who write books about despising glory place their names on the title-page.
XLV. Luxuriousness is the immoderate desire or love of good living.
XLVI. Drunkenness is the immoderate desire and love of drinking.
XLVII. Avarice is the immoderate desire and love of riches.