Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

254 Scholastic Theory CHAP. ix.
evil was inordination to the end, a
thing in the universe ;
defect of action. 1 The evil proper to the nature of fire was
cold; the evil proper to the nature of water was drought.
Thus while, in the collision of different natures in the uni
verse, the defect of one was the growth of another, the evil to
each nature was the defect of that nature. 2
Everything,
so far as it was, was good omne ens in quantum hujusmodi
bonum; and evil was no-thing non-ens, and no
of the universe. 3
part
And that which was true of evil in general, was true in
particular of moral evil. The act of sin was defined as an
act contrary to the end for which the moral creature is
designed, or, as is expressed in modern language, to the
constitution of man actus inordinatus ; which consisted,
however, of two separate and distinct parts. The act
actus peccati was simply the material, bodily or mental,
employed in the sin, whether outward motion, or inward
passion, feeling, desire ; and this was real substance and
part of the universe of God. A man who committed, for
example, an act of intemperance or anger, sinned with and
by the natural sensation of hunger or thirst, or the natural
passion or resentment, as the internal material of his sin ;
he sinned with the motion of his mouth by which he eat
or drank, or with a motion of his arm by which he struck
a blow, as its external material. All these motions, then,
considered simply as such, whether within or without, were
1 Causam formalem nullam absentia boni. l ma Q. 48. A. t.
2
habet, sed est :
magis privatio formes Corruptio aeris et aquae est ex
et similiter nee causam finalem, sed perfectione ignis. ... Si sit de-
magis est privatio ordinis adfinem. fectus in effectu proprio ignis, puta
Sum. Theol. I* Q. 49. A. 1. quod deficiat a calefaciendo, hoc est
Malum quod in defectu actionis propter defectum actionis, sed hoc
consistit, semper causatur ex defectu ipsum quod est esse deficiens accidit
agentis. A. 2. bono cui per se competit agere.
Cum omnis natura appetat suum l ma Q. 49. A. 1.
esse et 3 suam profectionem, necesse Nihil potest esse per suam
est dicere quod et perfectio cujus- essentiam malum. l ma Q. 49. A. 3.
cunque naturae rationem habeat Malum non est pars universi quia
bonitatis. Unde non potest esse neque habet naturam substantiae
quod malum significet quoddam neque accidentis, sed privationis
esse, aut quandam formam, seu tantum. In Lorn. 1. 1. Dist. 46. Q.
naturam. Kelinquitur ergo quod 1. A. 3.
nomine mali significetur qusedam