Does matter continue to be evil when it happens to participate in
the good? Yes, because it was formerly deprived of good, and did not
possess it. That which lacks something, and obtains it, holds the
middle between good and evil, if it be in the middle between the two.
But that which possesses nothing, that which is in indigence, or rather
that which is indigence itself, must necessarily be evil; for it is not
indigence of wealth, but indigence of wisdom, of virtue, of beauty, of
vigor, of shape, of form, of quality. How, indeed, could such a thing
not be shapeless, absolutely ugly and evil?