PROPOSITION CVI.

Relative Evil is properly a Good.

THIS PROPOSITION is proved by two arguments.

I. That is properly speaking good, which is good in its own essential nature. But a merely relative Evil is good in its own essential nature. Therefore, it is properly a Good. The Minor may be best confirmed by illustrations. For instance, the sharpness and temper of a sword is a Good to the nature of the sword; but it becomes an Evil in respect of the decapitated person, upon whom it has been tried. So, the poisonous fang of a Cobra-de-Capello is a Good and perfection to the serpent itself; but it is a formidable evil to the animal that it seizes. The upper jaw of the swordfish is in itself a natural perfection; but it becomes an Evil to the sailors whose boat it pierces. Again, the electricity in thunderclouds is a natural pcrfection in itself; but it becomes an Evil to those whom it deprives of life.

II. If the Proposition were not true, it must follow that there would be nothing but Evil. For there is not an entity which is not repugnant to some other; according to the old proverb, 'What is one man's meat is another man's poison.' It has been said that milk, injected into the blood, becomes fatal to life; therefore, milk could no longer be considered as a Good. Bathing is noxious to apoplectic persons and to such as are afflicted with heart disease; consequently, it would be a simple Evil. Restitution of unjust gains is in one way an Evil to the restorer, since he loses by the transaction; therefore, it is evil in itself. Even God Himself becomes an Evil to the finally impenitent. The truth of the Thesis, therefore, follows from the absurdity of its converse.

NOTE.

It may not be inopportune to remark, in connection with this subject, that, while the intrinsic Goodness of every entity is philosophically certain; our judgment as to relative Evil may easily err, and is often the result of human ignorance. There are, for instance, insects which seem to be a universal nuisance, and gave occasion to the old Manichean difficulty narrated by St. Augustine. Few people would be found not to include in this Category the common cockroach. Yet it is a favourite repast of the hedgehog; and Doctor Bogomolow of St. Petersburg has found by experience, that this repulsive kitchen pest (the Blatta orientalis) is a valuable remedy for Bright's disease and dropsical affections; and he has succeeded in extracting from it a crystalline substance, to which he has given the name of Antihydropin. Take another instance. The Aphis, or plant-louse, is a special enemy to the garden, and to rose trees in particular. Yet this insect has a secretion which is so prized by the ant, that the latter makes use of the Aphis as its cow, to the apparent satisfaction of the wetnurse. These and similar instances tend to confirm the philosophical conclusion, that there is nothing whatsoever in the universe, which is not to some entity or other a real Good, and does not, consequently, contribute to the universal order.