Shaft. A friend. Seem.

Rights. Has this quality always been in matter, or has it received the beginning of being?

Shaft. A friend. I assert that this quality was inherent in matter without beginning.

Rights. But do you not say that God has made a certain change in the attributes?

Shaft. A friend. I say this.

Rights. For better or for worse?

Shaft. A friend. It seems to me that it must be said that it is for the best.

Rights. Thus, if evil is a quality of matter, and God has changed its qualities for the better, then it is necessary to ask: whence comes the evil? The qualities did not remain what they were by nature; but if these qualities were not evil by nature before, but only by God's change of qualities, substances, became as you say, then God will be the author of evil, changing qualities that were not evil before into evil; Or do you think that God did not change the evil qualities for the better, but only the rest, which were indifferent, were changed by God for the welfare of the world?

Shaft. A friend. I've been thinking so for a long time.

Rights. Why then do you say that He left the evil qualities as they were? Could He destroy them, or could He not, though He willed? If you say that you could, but did not will, then He Himself is the author of them; because He could have done so that there would be no evil, and yet He allowed it to remain as it was, and especially when He began to arrange matter. If He had no intention whatsoever concerning matter, He would not have been responsible for what He had allowed to remain; but since He arranges a certain part of the substance, and leaves a certain part to Himself, although He could have changed it for the better, it seems to me that He, having left a part of the substance evil, is the author of evil. In this way He has arranged to the detriment of one part; or rather, by means of this, it seems to me, He allowed injustice in relation to that part of the substance which He arranged, since it began to receive influence from evil. For before it was constituted it had no sense of evil, but now every part of matter feels evil. Let us take the example of man: before this living creature was created, he did not feel evil; but since man is created from God in His likeness, he also receives a sense of approaching evil. In this way, that which according to your words came from God for the good of matter, turns out to have come more to its harm. "But if you say that God did not cease evil because He could not destroy it, then you will say that God is impotent; and infirmity is either from natural weakness, or from the fact that the enslaved is struck by fear of someone higher. But when you dare to say that God is weak by nature, it seems to me that you are endangering salvation itself; and if from the defeat of the fear of the highest, then evil will be higher than God, as overcoming the desires of His will, which seems to me absurd to say about God; otherwise, why is it better not to be God to that which you say can overcome God, if we call God that which has power over everything? "However, I want to ask you briefly about the substance itself; Tell me, is it a simple substance or a complex one? For the diversity of what exists leads me to investigate this subject. If matter was simple and monotonous, and the world is complex and consists of various essences and mixtures, then it cannot be said that it originated from matter, because the complex cannot be composed of one without quality; complex indicates the confusion of several simple ones. If, on the contrary, you call a substance complex, then of course you will say that it is composed of several simple substances; and if it is composed of simple substances, then there were once simple ones in themselves, from the addition of which matter originated, from which it turns out to be created. For if matter is complex, and the complex is composed of simple things, then there was once a time when matter did not exist, and yet there was never a time when there were no uncreated traces. matter is not something uncreated; otherwise it would follow that there are many uncreated. If there was an uncreated God, and there were simple uncreated ones from which matter was formed, then there will be not only two uncreated ones. I will not investigate what these primes are, a substance or a form? For from this too many absurd conclusions could be drawn. But do you think that nothing that exists is contrary to itself?

Shaft. It seems.

Rights. But is water the opposite of fire?

Shaft. It seems to me the opposite.

Rights. In the same way, darkness is the light, and the cold is warm, and the dry is also moist?