must be acknowledged that there is an infinite number of globes, as great as and greater than ours, which have as much right as[135] it to hold rational inhabitants, though it follows not at all that they are human.  It is only one planet, that is to say one of the six principal satellites of our sun; and as all fixed stars are suns also, we see how small a thing our earth is in relation to visible things, since it is only an appendix of one amongst them.  It may be that all suns are peopled only by blessed creatures, and nothing constrains us to think that many are damned, for few instances or few samples suffice to show the advantage which good extracts from evil.  Moreover, since there is no reason for the belief that there are stars everywhere, is it not possible that there may be a great space beyond the region of the stars?  Whether it be the Empyrean Heaven, or not, this immense space encircling all this region may in any case be filled with happiness and glory.  It can be imagined as like the Ocean, whither flow the rivers of all blessed creatures, when they shall have reached their perfection in the system of the stars.  What will become of the consideration of our globe and its inhabitants?  Will it not be something incomparably less than a physical point, since our earth is as a point in comparison with the distance of some fixed stars?  Thus since the proportion of that part of the universe which we know is almost lost in nothingness compared with that which is unknown, and which we yet have cause to assume, and since all the evils that may be raised in objection before us are in this near nothingness, haply it may be that all evils are almost nothingness in comparison with the good things which are in the universe.

20.  But it is necessary also to meet the more speculative and metaphysical difficulties which have been mentioned, and which concern the cause of evil.  The question is asked first of all, whence does evil come? Si Deus est, unde malum?  Si non est, unde bonum? The ancients attributed the cause of evil to matter, which they believed uncreate and independent of God:  but we, who derive all being from God, where shall we find the source of evil?  The answer is, that it must be sought in the ideal nature of the creature, in so far as this nature is contained in the eternal verities which are in the understanding of God, independently of his will.  For we must consider that there is an original imperfection in the creature before sin, because the creature is limited in its essence; whence ensues that it cannot know all, and that it can deceive itself and commit other errors.  Plato said in Timaeus that the world originated in [136] Understanding united to Necessity.  Others have united God and Nature.  This can be given a reasonable meaning.  God will be the Understanding; and the Necessity, that is, the essential nature of things, will be the object of the understanding, in so far as this object consists in the eternal verities.  But this object is inward and abides in the divine understanding.  And therein is found not only the primitive form of good, but also the origin of evil:  the Region of the Eternal Verities must be substituted for matter when we are concerned with seeking out the source of things.