rry him to a point beyond which no further advance
was possible, so must thou needs account him strong in power who so
attains the end of his desires that nothing further to be desired lies
beyond. Whence follows the obvious conclusion that they who are wicked
are seen likewise to be wholly destitute of strength. For why do they
forsake virtue and follow vice? Is it from ignorance of what is good?
Well, what is more weak and feeble than the blindness of ignorance? Do
they know what they ought to follow, but lust drives them aside out of
the way? If it be so, they are still frail by reason of their
incontinence, for they cannot fight against vice. Or do they knowingly
and wilfully forsake the good and turn aside to vice? Why, at this rate,
they not only cease to have power, but cease to be at all. For they who
forsake the common end of all things that are, they likewise also cease
to be at all. Now, to some it may seem strange that we should assert
that the bad, who form the greater part of mankind, do not exist. But
the fact is so. I do not, indeed, deny that they who are bad are bad,
but that they _are_ in an unqualified and absolute sense I deny. Just as
we call a corpse a dead man, but cannot call it simply "man," so I would
allow the vicious to be bad, but that they _are_ in an absolute sense I
cannot allow. That only _is_ which maintains its place and keeps its
nature; whatever falls away from this forsakes the existence which is
essential to its nature. "But," thou wilt say, "the bad have an
ability." Nor do I wish to deny it; only this ability of theirs comes
not from strength, but from impotence. For their ability is to do evil,
which would have had no efficacy at all if they could have continued in
the performance of good. So this ability of theirs proves them still
more plainly to have no power. For if, as we concluded just now, evil is
nothing, 'tis clear that the wicked can effect nothing, since they are
only able to do evil.'

''Tis evident.'

'And that thou mayst understand what is the precise force of this power,
we determined, did we not, awhile back, that nothing has more power than
supreme good?'

'We did,' said I.

'But that same highest good cannot do evil?'

'Certainly not.'

'Is there anyone, then, who thinks that men are able to do all things?'

'None but a madman.'

'Yet they are able to do evil?'

'Ay; would they could not!'

'Since, then, he who can do only good is omnipotent, whil