4p25d.md (570B)
1 The endeavour, wherewith everything endeavours to 2 persist in its being, is defined solely by the essence of the 3 thing itself (III. vii.); from this alone, and not from the 4 essence of anything else, it necessarily follows (III. vi.) that 5 everyone endeavours to preserve his being. Moreover, this 6 proposition is plain from IV. xxii. Coroll., for if a man should 7 endeavour to preserve his being for the sake of anything else, 8 the last–named thing would obviously be the basis of virtue, 9 which, by the foregoing corollary, is absurd. Therefore no one, 10 &c. Q.E.D. 11 12