"Virtue in the Axial Age: A Comparison of Greek and Chinese notions of Virtue"
http://chewingofthecud.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/virtue-in-axial-age-comparison-of-greek.html
"When virtue is something less than an aristocratic notion, something well within the grasp of everyone and not only the exceptional, when we debase it and make it common or even accessible in common, its proper function is compromised. In this way it is just like any other thing which has been debased by inflation; its value approaching zero from being copied too many times over, without a corresponding increase in that which stands behind it."
In case you were wondering, the word "virtue" has suffered much the same fate as the word "gentleman" (as described by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity).
