First and Second Natures

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.

An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.

- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The point about the word "virtue" - if we can recapture it in its strong sense - is that it refers, not so much to "doing the right things", but to the forming of habits and hence of moral character.

I remember Rowan Williams [the Archbishop of Canterbury] describing the difference between a soldier who has a stiff drink and charges off into battle waving a sword and shouting a battle cry, and the soldier who calmly makes 1000 small decisions to place someone else's safety ahead of his or her own and then, on the 1001st time, when it really is a life-or-death situation, "instinctively" makes the right decision. That, rather than the first, is the virtue of "courage".

Yes, we modern westerners - and even more postmodern westerners - are trained by the media and public discourse to think that "letting it all out" and "doing what comes naturally" are the criteria for how to behave. There is a sense in which they are - but only when the character has been trained so that "what comes naturally" is the result of that habit-forming training.

- N. T. Wright, The Rebirth of Virtue: An Interview with N. T. Wright

Some things are by nature and some things are by nurture. To be sure, we just cannot nurture some things to become part of our first nature. For example, we just cannot nurture a man to be a woman or a woman to be a man. However, we can at least nurture some things to become second nature to us.

In particular, we can (and should) 'train [ourselves] to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come' (1 Timothy 4:7-8, NIV).

Wisdom and Folly in Proverbs

"The wealth of the wise is their crown, but the folly of fools yields folly." - Proverbs 14:24 (NIV)

"The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly." - Proverbs 15:14 (NIV)

"As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." - Proverbs 26:11 (NIV)

Wisdom and folly are not just individual choices. They are habits which are consciously (or subconsciously!) cultivated. Wisdom begets wisdom, which in turn begets more wisdom... and folly begets folly, which in turn begets more folly...

To return to C. S. Lewis, 'good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance'.