d gain the mastery it would completely annihilate the
conquered. Thus, to maintain the balance in the struggle between good
and evil is to represent them as engaged in a war without end and in
perpetual destruction, where the opponents are at the same time
conquerors and conquered. If good is the stronger, what is there to
prevent evil from being completely annihilated? But if that be the case,
the very utterance of which is impious, I ask myself how it is that
they themselves are not filled with horror to think that they have
imagined such abominable blasphemies.

It is equally impious to say that evil has its origin from God; because
the contrary can not proceed from its contrary. Life does not engender
death; darkness is not the origin of light; sickness is not the maker of
health. In the changes of conditions there are transitions from one
condition to the contrary; but in genesis each being proceeds from its
like and from its contrary. If, then, evil is neither uncreated nor
created by God, from whence comes its nature? Certainly, that evil
exists no one living in the world will deny. What shall we say, then?
Evil is not a living animated essence: it is the condition of the soul
opposed to virtue, developed in the careless on account of their falling
away from good.

Do not, then, go beyond yourself to seek for evil, and imagine that
there is an original nature of wickedness. Each of us--let us
acknowledge it--is the first author of his own vice.

Among the ordinary events of life, some come naturally, like old age and
sickness; others by chance, like unforeseen occurrences, of which the
origin is beyond ourselves, often sad, sometimes fortunate--as, for
instance, the discovery of a treasure when digging a well, or the
meeting of a mad dog when going to the market-place.

Others depend upon ourselves; such as ruling one's passions, or not
putting a bridle on one's pleasures; the mastery of anger, or resistance
against him who irritates us; truth-telling or lying, the maintenance of
a sweet and well-regulated disposition, or of a mood fierce and swollen
and exalted with pride. Here you are the master of your actions. Do not
look for the guiding cause beyond yourself, but recognize that evil,
rightly so called, has no other origin than our voluntary falls. If it
were involuntary, and did not depend upon ourselves, the laws would not
have so much terror for the guilty, and the tribunals would not be so
pitiless wh