Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/127

infinite distinction between him and his creature; so that every creature, by the very fact of its existence, testifies that he is but a creature, and that God is his creator.

God being the creator of all things created, all creation is good by a relative goodness. Man is good as man, the angel as angel, and the tree as tree. Even the angel who gleams with lurid light in the abyss, and the very abyss from which proceeds this ghastly splendor, are things good and excellent. The prince of darkness is in himself good, because, in becoming what he is, he has not ceased to be an angel, and God created the angelical nature excellent above all things created; and the abyss is in itself good, because it is ordained for an end sovereignly good.

And, though all things created are good and excellent, Catholicism affirms the existence of evil, and the great and fearful ravage committed by it in the world. The question consists in establishing what is evil; and, on the other hand, whence it comes; and finally, in what way even its dissonance contributes to the general harmony.

Evil has its origin in the use which man made of the faculty of choice, which, as we have said, constitutes the imperfection of human liberty. This faculty was confined within certain limits imposed by the very nature of things. As all things were good, this faculty could not consist in choosing between things good, which necessarily existed, and things evil, which had no existence; it consisted only in embracing or renouncing good, in affirming or denying it. When the human mind, in the exercise of this power; withdrew itself from the divine mind, it was thus separated from truth, and ceased to