self. But if it be further asked, why God so constituted man that evil was possible to him under any circumstances whatever—we must refer the inquirer to a previous chapter, where the question is discussed at large.[1] Suffice it here, to say in general terms, that man, otherwise constituted, would not have been, man, but rather like the inferior animals,—which, indeed, cannot violate the order of their natures, but which, nevertheless, in that inability to change, are incapable of rising as well as of falling, and are utterly prevented from making, as man can, perpetual advances towards perfection.[2]
- ↑ See Part II., Chapter I., Section II.
- ↑ From the remark, above made, that the manner in which evil came into existence bears a general analogy to that in which darkness is produced,—we would by no means be understood to imply that therefore evil is the mere absence of good, as darkness is the absence of light. That would be carrying the analogy too far. Evil is not the mere absence of goodness, but it is the opposite of goodness,—the perversion of goodness. As explained in a previous chapter, evil is mental life perverted: evil is the stream of life,—which flows from God good and pure into man's mind,—perverted or changed from its original nature by being received into a diseased mental organism. The life so flowing in from God is essential love—that is, love of others (for love is the mind's life); but by being received into perverted or distorted mental receptacles, it becomes changed into self-love—also into the various disordered inclinations proceeding from self-love, as corrupt lusts and passions, the fire of anger, hate, revenge. This is precisely represented in nature, by the heat of the sun,—which is in itself good and useful, and, as it were, the life of vegetation,—being turned into what is deadly and poisonous, when it falls into plants of a certain nature. Each plant turns that solar fire into an instrument for producing its own fruits, whether useful or noxious: so the murderer strikes a death-blow by means of the same power, as that with which the
