On Sobriety 12

¹This then is Noah’s prayer for Shem. Let us now consider the nature of his prayer for Japhet. “May God widen for Japhet,” he says, “and let him dwell in the houses of Shem, and let Canaan become their servant” (Gen. 9:27). ²If we hold that moral beauty is the only good, the end we seek is contracted and narrowed, for it is bound up with only one of our myriad environments, namely, with the dominant principle, the mind. But if we connect that end with three different kinds of interests, the concerns of the soul, those of the body and those of the external world, the end is split up into many dissimilar parts and thus broadened. ³And therefore there is a fitness in the prayer that breadth should be added to Japhet, that he may be able to use not only the virtues of the soul, prudence, temperance, and each of the others, but also those of the body, health, efficiency of the senses, dexterity of limb and strength of muscle, and such as are akin to these; and once again that he may have all the external advantages which have their source in wealth and reputation and the means of enjoying and using such pleasures as are necessary.