All we have said above goes on the assumption that matter is the evil.
But if it were something else, as, for instance, malice, and if the
essence of matter were to receive sensation, would intimacy with what
is better still be the good of matter? But if it were not the malice
itself of matter which choose the good, it was what had become evil in
matter. If the essence (of matter) were identical with evil, how could
matter wish to possess this good? Would evil love itself, if it had
self-consciousness? But how could that which is not lovable be loved?
For we have demonstrated that a being's good does not consist in that
which is suitable to it. Enough about this, however.