Here follows still another demonstration of the necessity of evil.
Since good does not remain alone, evil must necessarily exist by
issuing from the good.[183] We might express this differently, as
the degradation and exhaustion (of the divine power, which, in the
whole hierarchic series of successive emanations weakens from degree
to degree). There must, therefore, be a last degree of being, beyond
which nothing further can be begotten, and that is evil. Just as the
existence of something after a first (Good) is necessary, so must also
a last degree (of being) be necessary. Now the last degree is matter,
and contains nothing more of the First; (and, as matter and evil are
identical,) the existence of evil is necessary.