What is "due" or "undue" exercise of a power, is a question which your common sense should decide in each case with reference to the person acting and the circumstances under which he acts. The only general rule that can be laid down is implied in the ideal of perfection explained in the previous Notes. Every exercise of any of your mental or bodily power is right or wrong according as it does, or does not, tend to the perfection of yourselves or your offspring, and your community or race.
I have only to add that the Principle of Moderation, in the form in which I have roughly described it, is fully recognized by such up-to-date writers on the Science of Ethics as Sir Leslie Stephen, one of the two talented Editors of the Dictionary of National Biography.
Maxim of the Mean or Average.
2. Addressing Muslims the Qur'an says:—
كذا لك جعلناكم امة وسطا لتكونوا شهداء على الناس
"We have thus made you a middle nation (= a moderate people) in order that you should be an example to mankind."—i. 137.
One of the ways in which God has made Muslims a moderate people is by enjoining them to avoid extreme courses of action and to adopt the middle or the mean course whenever and wherever it is possible[76].
The Maxim of the Mean is the objective counter-part of the subjective Principle of Moderation. The latter says: Don't over-, or under-exercise any of your faculties; and the former says: Don't have too much or too little of any thing. Too much of any thing is good for nothing. Too little of it is worse than nothing. "Too much" and "too little" are relative terms and signify nothing by themselves. It is only with reference to oneself and one's environment at any particular time and place that they acquire a meaning as "excess" and "defect" respectively. I cannot explain it better than give a few instances in a tabular form where the "mean" comes between the "excess" and the "defect" of a quality of the head or heart, or a course of action.
(1) Qualities of the Head (Reason):—
| Excess. | Mean. | Defect. |
| Caution | Prudence | Neglect |
| Doubt | Conviction | Uncertainty |
| Conceit | Modesty | Diffidence |
| Sensitive | Attentive | Indifferent |
(2) Qualities of the Heart (Passions):—