1. Let us now see whether that opinion of the philosophers is true, by which they define four virtues as, so to speak, certain fountains of all virtues, and four vices likewise as, so to speak, certain origins of all evils. That there are four principal virtues, not only do the philosophers hold, but our own also concur. But why four, or what are the works of each, this, with the Lord enlightening us, we ought briefly to demonstrate. That the number four is consecrated to perfection almost no one is ignorant. Inasmuch as the whole world is found to be determined by four parts or angles—East and West, North and South; and Adam himself, who is the father of the human race—or rather the general name which is called «man» (homo)—is spelled out in four letters.
The body too, constructed of four elements, contains within itself the mystery of the number four. The ancients also subtly discovered that there are four affections of the soul itself, by which we are inclined either to good or to evil, and posterity, approving their findings, received them. 2. But also the four rivers which proceed from the fountain of paradise (Gen. 2:10), or the four Gospels, the four wheels of the divine chariot, and the living creatures, their four wings and faces (Ezek. 1:5ff.), abundantly commend the dignity of this number:
and therefore these virtues, which contain so much of perfection in their number, we ought carefully to consider—how great a holiness they confer upon the Christian soul, and that there is nowhere any perfection which is not in these virtues. For if temperance makes one temperate, prudence prudent, justice just, fortitude brave; than him who acts temperately, justly, prudently, and bravely, I know not what could be more perfect. And so it is indeed difficult for us to set forth the names of the virtues which arise from those four which we have called principal; but when their properties and acts have begun to be opened up, from the very affections of each it will perhaps appear which virtues spring from which. 3.
Nevertheless, this above all we ought to know and hold: that these four virtues, or all those which arise from them, are gifts of God; and that no one has them, has had them, or will have them, except him upon whom God—who is the property and origin of all virtues—has conferred them. Since whoever, at whatever time, among whatever nation, believing in God, have lived by faith, were certainly able, by His gift, to become temperate and prudent, just and brave. But those who, not knowing God, or even blaspheming, have lived without faith, are to be believed to have been able to receive or possess none of those virtues from God.