wise tend to good. Therefore they are in no wise good.[38]

This problem admits of the following solution.[39] There are many things
which can be separated by a mental process, though they cannot be
separated in fact. No one, for instance, can actually separate a
triangle or other mathematical figure from the underlying matter; but
mentally one can consider a triangle and its properties apart from
matter. Let us, therefore, remove from our minds for a moment the
presence of the Prime Good, whose Being is admitted by the universal
consensus of learned and unlearned opinion and can be deduced from the
religious beliefs of savage races. The Prime Good having been thus for a
moment put aside, let us postulate as good all things that are, and let
us consider how they could possibly be good if they did not derive from
the Prime Good. This process leads me to perceive that their Goodness
and their existence are two different things. For let me suppose that
one and the same substance is good, white, heavy, and round. Then it
must be admitted that its substance, roundness, colour, and goodness are
all different things. For if each of these qualities were the same as
its substance, weight would be the same thing as colour or goodness, and
goodness would be the same as colour; which is contrary to nature. Their
Being then in that case would be one thing, their quality another, and
they would be good, but they would not have their absolute Being good.
Therefore if they really existed at all, they would not be from good nor
good, they would not be the same as good, but Being and Goodness would
be for them two different things. But if they were nothing else but good
substances, and were neither heavy, nor coloured, and possessed neither
spatial dimension nor quality, beyond that of goodness, they (or rather
it) would seem to be not things but the principle of things. For there
is one thing alone that is by nature good to the exclusion of every
other quality. But since they are not simple, they could not even exist
at all unless that which is the one sole Good willed them to be. They
are called good simply because their Being is derived from the Will of
the Good. For the Prime Good is essentially good in virtue of Being; the
secondary good is in its turn good because it derives from the good
whose absolute Being is good. But the absolute Being of all things
derives fro