Elsewhere[190] it is objected that matter does not exist; here the
attempt is to show that matter is not evil in so far as it exists. (If
this were the case), we should not seek the origin of evil outside of
the soul, but it would be located within the soul herself; there evil
consists in the absence of good. But, evidently, the soul would have
nothing good on the hypothesis that privation of form is an accident
of the being, which desires to receive form; that, consequently, the
privation of good is an accident of the soul; and that the latter
produces within herself wickedness by her ("seminal) reason." Another
result would be that the soul would have no life, and be inanimate;
which would lead to the absurdity that the soul is no soul.