If matter is also said to be the cause of evil, where does it
originate? For the darkness existed already, as say (the Gnostics),
when the soul has seen and illuminated them. From whence (comes
darkness)? If (the Gnostics) answer that it is the soul herself that
created (darkness) by inclining (downwards to matter), then evidently
(the darkness) did not exist before the inclination of the soul.
Darkness therefore is not the cause of this inclination; the cause is
in the nature of the soul. This cause may thus be related to preceding
necessities, and as a result to first principles.[365]
INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING OF THE WORLD, UNDERSTAND IT AND FIT YOURSELF TO
IT.
13. Those who complain of the nature of the world do not know what they
are doing, nor the extent of their audacity. Many men are ignorant of
the close concatenation which unites the entities of the first, second,
and third ranks,[366] and which descends even to those of the lowest
degree. Instead of blaming what is subordinate to first principles,
we should gently submit to the laws of the universe, rise to first
principles, not undergo those tragic terrors,[367] inspired in certain
people by the spheres of the world which exert on us nothing but a
beneficent influence.[368] What is so terrible in them? Why should they
be feared by these men foreign to philosophy and all sound learning?
Though celestial spheres do have fiery bodies, they should not inspire
us with any fear, because they are perfectly harmonious with the
universe and with the earth. We must besides consider the souls of
the stars to which those (Gnostics) consider themselves so superior,
while their bodies, which surpass ours so much in size and beauty,
efficaciously concur in the production of things that are conformed to
the order of nature[369]; for such things could not be born if first
principles alone existed. Finally the stars complete the universe, and
are important members thereof. If even man holds a great superiority
over animals, there must be a far greater superiority in those stars
which exist as ornaments to the universe, and to establish order
therein, and not to exert thereover a tyrannical influence.[370] The
events that are said to flow from the stars are rather signs thereof
than causes.[371] Besides, the events that really do flow from the
stars differ among each other by circumstances. It is not therefore
possible that the same things should happen to all men, separated as
they are by their times of birth, the places of their residence, and
the dispositions of their souls. It is just as unreasonable to expect
that all would be good, nor, because of the impossibility of this, to
go and complain on the grounds that all sense-objects should be similar
to intelligible objects. Moreover,[372] evil is nothing but what is
less complete in respect to wisdom, and less good, in a decreasing
gradation. For instance, nature (that is, the power of growth and
generation) should not be called evil because she is not sensation; nor
sensation be called evil, because it is not reason. Otherwise, we might
be led to think that there was evil in the intelligible world. Indeed,
the Soul is inferior to Intelligence, and Intelligence is inferior to
the One.