we never say "a goodness": it must always be "a virtue." Hence common usage encourages us to think that we can possess particular virtues, just as we possess clothes and houses. But a virtue is not a particular thing like a hat or an umbrella that we may acquire or cast away without affecting the self. A virtue has reference to character and conduct: it may be called-adjectival to character, though such a phrase does not emphasise nearly enough the intimacy of its connection with character. When we say, in ordinary speech, that a man has the virtue of courage, we really mean that his character and conduct are courageous. If we say that he displays the virtue of justice, we really mean that his character and conduct are just. The virtues, then, are aspects of goodness. Perfect goodness is compact of all the virtues, and the perfectly good character would be perfectly virtuous. Goodness may appear in an infinite variety of aspects: the man of good character will express his goodness in actions of the most diverse kinds, and his conduct will vary in accordance with changing circumstances. The virtues are infinite in number. But most moralists have found it convenient to classify them under four heads, viz. Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom. These are usually called the Cardinal Virtues, i.e. the hinges on which all good actions hang.[1] This classification was originally given by Plato,[2] and though it is not free from defects, and many other classifications have been suggested since
