P42: Blessedness/Flourishing is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; nor do we enjoy it because we restrain our lusts; on the contrary, because we enjoy it, we are able to restrain them.

Dem.: Blessedness/Flourishing consists in Love of God/Nature (by P36 and P36 S), a Love which arises from the third kind of knowledge (by P32 C). So {II/308} this Love (by IIIP59 and P3) must be related to the Mind insofar as it acts. Therefore (by IVD8), it is virtue itself. This was the first point.

Next, the more the Mind enjoys this divine/universal Love, or blessedness/flourishing, the more it understands (by P32), i.e. (by P3 C), the greater the power it has over the affects, and (by P38) the less it is acted on by evil affects. So because the Mind enjoys this divine/universal Love or blessedness/flourishing, it has the power of restraining lusts. And because human power to restrain the affects consists only in the intellect, no one enjoys blessedness/flourishing because he has restrained the affects. Instead, the power to restrain lusts arises from blessedness/flourishing itself, q.e.d.

Schol.: With this I have finished all the things I wished to show concerning the Mind’s power over the affects and its Freedom. From what has been shown, it is clear how much the Wise man is capable of, and how much more powerful he is than one who is ignorant and is driven only by lust. For not only is the ignorant man troubled in many ways by external causes, and unable ever to possess true peace of mind, but he also lives as if he knew neither himself, nor God/Nature, nor things; and as soon as he ceases to be acted on, he ceases to be. On the other hand, the wise man, insofar as he is considered as such, is hardly troubled in spirit, but being, by a certain eternal necessity, conscious of himself, and of God/Nature, and of things, he never ceases to be, but always possesses true peace of mind.