The first movement is called beginning.
“To do right is the beginning of the good way.”
Prov. xvi. 5, LXX. Just actions are truly the first steps
towards a happy life. Again, we call “beginning” the
essential and first part from which a thing proceeds, such as the
foundation of a house, the keel of a vessel; it is in this sense that
it is said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom,”
Prov. ix. 10. that is to say that
piety is, as it were, the groundwork and foundation of
perfection. Art is also the beginning of the works of artists,
the skill of Bezaleel began the adornment of the
tabernacle. cf.
Arist., Met. iv. 1. ῎Αρχη ἡ μὲν
λέγεται
ὅθεν ἄν τι
τοῦ
πράγματος
κινηθείη
πρῶτον·
οἱον τοῦ
μήκους, καὶ
ὁδοῦ…ἡ
δὲ ὅθεν
ἂν κάλλιστα
ἕκαστον
γένοιτο·
οἷον καὶ
μαθήσεως,
οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ
πρώτου καὶ
τῆς τοῦ
πράγματος
ἀρχῆς
ἐνίοτε
ἀρκτέον,
ἀλλ᾽ ὅθεν
ρᾷστ᾽ ἂν
μάθοι, ἡ δὲ,
ὅθεν πρῶτον
γινεται
ἐνυπάρχοντος·
οἷον ὡς
πλοίου
τρόπις, καὶ
οἰκίας
θεμέλιος. Often even
the good which is the final cause is the beginning of
actions. Thus the approbation of God is the beginning of
almsgiving, and the end laid up for us in the promises the beginning of
all virtuous efforts.