"As the various organs of the body have no function, and therefore no real existence apart from the living body, so particular good things (virtue, health, beauty, wealth) have no existence, except as elements of the noble life. The Idea of the Good is the unity of good things, and that by reason of which they are good, -- that definite system of order, by belonging to, and observing which, particular things are said to be good, rather than pleasant, or otherwise attractive to mere sense . . . . Nous in man, like phusis in the plant and animal worlds, recognises and imposes definite limits. Particular details are valued by it, not for themselves (for if they were, no limit could be assigned to their desirable multiplication) but for the sake of the beautiful Life which transforms them." -- Professor J. A. Stewart, Notes on the Nicomachean Ethics, Vol. I, p. 96, ed. 1892.

Of God and His Creatures: 3.132