Thomas Taylor: eudaimonia

To a felicity [eudaimonia  ] in every respect complete and perfect, as far as is possible to man in the present life, external goods are requisite; though a truly worthy man will still be worthy, and essentially happy, if deprived of them. I say he will still be essentially happy, because his felicity consists in intellectual energy [noûs], and of this he can never be deprived by any adverse circumstances, because the energy of intellect is the same with its essence. I refer the reader who is desirous of seeing a specimen of this perfect felicity, to my translation of the life of Proclus   by Marinus, prefixed to my translation of Proclus on Euclid. Such an instance as is there exhibited of complete felicity in one man, is hardly perhaps to be paralleled in all antiquity ; and it would be folly to attempt to find a parallel to it in modern times.