The Work Of Evil

Discipulus: Sed cum omnibus quaestionibus meis satisfeceris, illud adhuc exspecto aperiri quid sit quod horremus audito nomine mali; et quid faciat opera, quae injustitia, quae malum est, videter facere, ut in raptore, in libidinoso cum malum nihil sit. Magister: Breviter tibi respondeo. Malum, quod est justitia, semper nihil est, malum vero, quod est incommoditas, aliquando sine dubio est nihil, ut caecitas; aliquando est aliquid, ut tristia et dolor. Et hanc incommoditatem, quae est aliquid, semper odio habmeus. Cum itaque audimus nomen mali; non malum quod nihil est, timemus; sed malum quod aliquid est, quod absentiam boni sequitur. Nam injustitiam et caecitatem, quae malum et nihil est, sequuntur multa incommoda, quae malum et aliquid sunt: et haec sunt quae horremus audito nomine mali. Cum autem dicimus quia injustia facit rapinam, aut caecitas facit hominem cadere in foveam, nequaquam intelligendum est quod injustitia aut caecitas faciant aliquid; sed quod si justitia esset in voluntate, et visus in ocula, nec rapine fieret, nec casus in foveam. Tale est, cum dicimus: Absentia gubernaculi impellit navm in scopulos, aut absentia freni facit equum discurre: quod non est aliud quam si gubernaculum adesset navi et frenum equo, nec venti navem impellerent , nec equus discurret. Sicut namque gubernaculo navis, et freno regitur equus; sic justitia gubernatur voluntas homini, et visu pedes. Sanctus Anselmus Cantuariensis, De Casu Diaboli, Caput XXVI Source: Migne PL 158.358b-359a

Pupil: But though you have satisfactorily answered all my questions, I still wait to be enlightened as to what it is that we dread when we hear the name of evil, and what causes the works which injustice, itself an evil, seems to cause, as in the case of robbery or of lust. Teacher: I shall answer you briefly. The evil which is injustice is always nothing, but the evil which is disadvantage is without doubt sometimes nothing, like blindness, but is sometimes something, like sadness and pain. And this disadvantage, which is something, we hate. Therefore, when we hear the name of evil, we do not fear the evil which is nothing but the evil which is something, that which follows from the absence of good. For example, injustice and blindness, which are evils and nothing, are followed by many disadvantages which are evils and something, and it is these latter which we dread when we hear the name of evil. For when we say that injustice causes robbery or that blindness causes a man to fall into a pit, it should not be understood that injustice and blindness cause something, but that if justice were in the will and sight in the eye, then neither the robbery nor the fall into the pit would happen. Such is the case when we say, 'The absence of a rudder drives the ship onto the rocks,' or 'The absence of a bridle makes the horse run wild.' Here we mean only that if the ship had a rudder or the horse a bridle, then the winds would not drive the ship,nor would the horse run wild. For just as a ship is directed by a rudder and a horse by reins, so a man's will is directed by justice and his feet by sight. Saint Anselm of Canterbury, On The Fall Of The Devil, Chap 26