240 



created matter ; otherwise a Providence, older than God, must 

 have provided for the possibility of His expressing His 

 thoughts in material forms, or a happy accident must have 



played the role of Providence Evil is the turning away 



of the creature from the fulness of true being to emptiness 

 and nothingness, hence a privation. The cause of evil is neither 

 God nor matter, but that free act of turning away from God, 

 which God did not command, but only did not prevent/' 



Augustine (born A.D. 354, died 430) says *: — '^ The cause 

 of evil is to be found in the will, which turns aside from the 



higher to the lower The evil will works that which is 



evil, but is not itself moved by any positive cause ; it has no 

 causa efficiens, but only a causa dejiciens. Evil is not a sub- 

 stance or nature (essence), but a marring of nature (the 

 essence) and of the good, a ' defect,' a ' privation,' or ' loss of 

 good.' An absolute good is possible, but absolute evil is 

 impossible [against the Manichsean doctrine] . Evil does not 

 disturb the order and beauty of the universe ; it cannot 

 wholly withdraw itself from subjection to the laws of God ; 

 it does not remain unpunished, and the punishment of it is 

 good, inasmuch as thereby justice is executed. As a painting 

 with dark colours rightly distributed is beautiful, so also is 

 the sum of things beautiful for him who has power to view 

 them all at one glance, notwithstanding the presence of 

 sin, although, when considered separately, their beauty is 

 marred by the deformity of sin." 



Eckhart (born after 1250) was a Dominican monk, who was 

 one of many examples of the extreme boldness of speculation 

 which prevailed under the guise of ecclesiastical forms in the 

 Middle Ages. His remarks on the subject of evil are inter- 

 esting, " The relation of evil," — says Dr. Adolf Lasson, in 

 the interesting sketch of German mysticism which he has 

 contributed to Ueberweg's book,t — "to the absolute pro- 

 cess is not clearly explained by Eckhart. It was impossible 

 that this should be otherwise, since Eckhart conceded to 

 evil only the character of privation. As denoting a neces- 

 sary stadium in the return of the soul into God, evil is 

 sometimes represented by Eckhart as a part of the Divine 

 plan of the universe — as a calamity decreed by God. All 

 things, sin included, work together for good for those that 



* Ueberweg, ut supra, p. 343. 



t Ueberweg, Hist. Phil, vol. i. p. 481. It is, perhaps, well to repecat 

 here the caution already given that the writer of the paper does not accept 

 unconditionally, or ask others so to accept, the views of Eckhart. The 

 mere fact that"he was brought before a tribunal of the Inquisition at Cologne 

 in 1327, and that twenty-eight of his doctrines were condemned by a Papal 



