For, on the one hand, the virtuous Epicurus like many men even now who are morally well meaning, although they do not meditate deeply enough on their principles committed the mistake of already presupposing the virtuous attitude in the persons for whom he wanted first of all to indicate the incentive to virtue (and in fact a righteous person cannot think himself happy if he is not first conscious of his righteousness; for, with that virtuous attitude, the reprimands which his own way of thinking would compel him to cast upon himself in the case of transgressions and the moral self condemnation would rob him of all enjoyment of the agreeableness that his state might otherwise contain).