It
therefore exceeds the intermediate by one, and the intermediate
exceeds by one that from which something was taken. By this, then,
we shall recognize both what we must subtract from that which has
more, and what we must add to that which has less; we must add to
the latter that by which the intermediate exceeds it, and subtract
from the greatest that by which it exceeds the intermediate. Let the
lines AA', BB', CC' be equal to one another; from the line AA' let the
segment AE have been subtracted, and to the line CC' let the segment
CD have been added, so that the whole line DCC' exceeds the line EA'
by the segment CD and the segment CF; therefore it exceeds the line
BB' by the segment CD. (See diagram.)
These names, both loss and gain, have come from voluntary
exchange; for to have more than one's own is called gaining, and to
have less than one's original share is called losing, e.g. in buying
and selling and in all other matters in which the law has left
people free to make their own terms; but when they get neither more
nor less but just what belongs to themselves, they say that they
have their own and that they neither lose nor gain.
Therefore the just is intermediate between a sort of gain and a sort
of loss, viz. those which are involuntary; it consists in having an
equal amount before and after the transaction.
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