4. So far as the nature of bodies participates in matter, it is an
evil; yet it could not be the primary Evil, for it has a certain form.
Nevertheless, this form possesses no reality, and is, besides, deprived
of life (?); for bodies corrupt each other mutually. Being agitated
by an unregulated movement, they hinder the soul from carrying out
her proper movement. They are in a perpetual flux, contrary to the
immutable nature of essences; therefore, they constitute the secondary
evil.
THE SOUL IS NOT EVIL BY HERSELF, BUT MAY DEGENERATE BY LOOKING AT
DARKNESS.
By herself, the soul is not evil, and not every soul is evil. What
soul deserves to be so considered? That of the man who, according to
the expression of Plato,[170] is a slave to the body. In this man it
is natural for the soul to be evil. It is indeed the irrational part
of the soul which harbors all that constitutes evil: indetermination,
excess, and need, from which are derived intemperance, cowardliness,
and all the vices of the soul, the involuntary passions, mothers
of false opinions, which lead us to consider the things we seek or
avoid as goods or evils. But what produces this evil? How shall
we make a cause or a principle of it? To begin with, the soul is
neither independent of matter, nor, by herself, perverse. By virtue
of her union with the body, which is material, she is mingled with
indetermination, and so, to a certain point, deprived of the form which
embellishes and which supplies measure. Further, that reason should be
hindered in its operations, and cannot see well, must be due to the
soul's being hindered by passions, and obscured by the darkness with
which matter surrounds her. The soul inclines[171] towards matter.
Thus the soul fixes her glance, not on what is essence, but on what
is simple generation.[172] Now the principle of generation is matter,
whose nature is so bad that matter communicates it to the beings
which, even without being united thereto, merely look at it. Being
the privation of good, matter contains none of it, and assimilates to
itself all that touches it. Therefore, the perfect Soul, being turned
towards ever pure Intelligence, repels matter, indeterminateness, the
lack of measure, and in short, evil. The perfect Soul does not approach
to it, does not lower her looks; she remains pure and determined by
Intelligence. The soul which does not remain in this state, and which
issues from herself (to unite with the body), not being determined by
the First, the Perfect, is no more than an image of the perfect Soul
because she lacks (good), and is filled with indetermination. The soul
sees nothing but darkness. The soul already contains matter because she
looks at what she cannot see; or, in the every-day expression, because
the soul looks at darkness.[173]