Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

250 Scholastic Theory CHAP. ix.
not opposed to the evil of their punishment. The evil of
punishment, then,
is here accounted for and made to
agree with the Divine Power, because made to agree with
the Divine Will : but what account is given of the evil of
that sin which is the reason of punishment ? This evil is
passed over altogether. Yet it is a plain evil which takes
place in the universe, and we must either say that the will
of God is opposed to it or not; the former alternative
being apparently inconsistent with the Divine Power, the
latter with the Divine Goodness. The difficulty put off
at one stage thus meets us at another ; and an evil remains
which we cannot without impiety assert not to be opposed
to the Divine Will, and the existence of which therefore is
inconsistent apparently with the Divine Power.
II. To these verbal explanations, however, there suc
ceeded two which were attempts at real explanation. One
of these was the argument of variety, which was put in
two forms ; under the first of which, however,
it did not
satisfy its own employers, who used it with evident mis
givings, though they would not deprive themselves of its
aid altogether. Should there not
that the contrast may heighten the
be evil in the world,
good and set it off to
better advantage ? Would the good be appreciated as it
should be, and its real nature come to light, but for this
evil ? And in this way is not evil of the perfection of the
universe de perfections universi? The solution was a
but it was resisted, on the ground that the
tempting one ;
loss which evil caused was greater than the compensation
it gave for it inasmuch as it took ; away absolute good,
1 and only gave comparative. The solid justice of this
1
Illud sine quo universum me- tionale of the existence of evil with
lius esset non confert ad perfecti- approval: Dicendum quod ex ipsa
onem universi : sed si malum non bonitate Divina ratio sumi potest
esset universum melius esset, quia prsedestinationis aliquorum et repromalum
plus tollit uni quam addit bationis aliquorum. . . . Ad com-
alteri, quia ei cujus est tollit boni- pletionem enim universi requiruntur
tatem absolutam, alteri autem ad- diversi gradus rerum, quarum qusedit
bonitatem comparationis. In dam altumetqusedaminfiinum locum
Lomb. 1. 1. Dist. 46. Q. 1. A. 3. teneant in universo. Sum. Theol.
Yet Aquinas reverts to this ra- l ma Q. 23. A. 5.