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There are cases of expenditure which we call honourable, such as

are dedicatory offerings to the gods, and the furnishing their

temples, and sacrifices, and in like manner everything that has

reference to the Deity, and all such public matters as are

objects of honourable ambition, as when men think in any case

that it is their duty to furnish a chorus for the stage

splendidly, or fit out and maintain a trireme, or give a general

public feast.

Now in all these, as has been already stated, respect is had also

to the rank and the means of the man who is doing them: because

they should be proportionate to these, and befit not the work

only but also the doer of the work. For this reason a poor man

cannot be a Magnificent man, since he has not means wherewith to

spend largely and yet becomingly; and if he attempts it he is a

fool, inasmuch as it is out of proportion and contrary to

propriety, whereas to be in accordance with virtue a thing must

be done rightly.