Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1920 — “Cardinal Virtues" [ARTICLE]

“Cardinal Virtues"

Our English word cardinal femes from the Latin word “cardlnalta,” which means to hinge, hence applied to that on which something turns "or "depends; so in the case of the phrase cardinal, virtues, the adjective is used in the sense of chief, or principal. The cardinal virtues of the ancients were- Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude, and were so called because the whole of human virtues were supposed to hinge or turn upon them. This mode of dividing the virtues Is to be found as far back as Socrates, and these were regarded by the Catholic church as moral in distinction from the theological, virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. “But' this classification’ into cardinal virtues,” says William Whewell, the celebrated English scientist and philosopher, “Is somewhat arbitrary," and he points out that it wholly omits the fundamental virtue of benevolence.