rebutted.
Many argue in this way. If all things follow from a
necessity of the absolutely perfect nature of God, why are there
so many imperfections in nature? such, for instance, as things
corrupt to the point of putridity, loathsome deformity,
confusion, evil, sin, &c. But these reasoners are, as I have
said, easily confuted, for the perfection of things is to be
reckoned only from their own nature and power ; things are not
more or less perfect, according as they delight or offend human
senses, or according as they are serviceable or repugnant to
mankind. To those who ask why God did not so create all men,
that they should be governed only by reason, I give no answer but
this : because matter was not lacking to him for the creation of
every degree of perfection from highest to lowest ; or, more
strictly, because the laws of his nature are so vast, as to
suffice for the production of everything conceivable by an
infinite intelligence, as I have shown in Prop. xvi.
Such are the misconceptions I have undertaken to note ; if
there are any more of the same sort, everyone may easily
dissipate them for himself with the aid of a little reflection.




Part II.
ON THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE MIND


PREFACE