Yes, he replied.
[E] Would you agree with me in thinking that the corrupting and destroying element is the evil, and the saving and improving element the good?
Yes.
Everything has a good and an evil, and if not destroyed by its own evil, will not be destroyed by that of another. And you admit that every thing has a good and also an evil; [609]as ophthalmia is the evil of the eyes and disease of the whole body; as mildew is of corn, and rot of timber, or rust of copper and iron: in everything, or in almost everything, there is an inherent evil and disease?
Yes, he said.
And anything which is infected by any of these evils is made evil, and at last wholly dissolves and dies?
True.
The vice and evil which is inherent in each is the destruction 325 of each; and if this does not destroy them there is nothing else that will; [B]for good certainly will not destroy them, nor again, that which is neither good nor evil.
Certainly not.
If, then, we find any nature which having this inherent corruption cannot be dissolved or destroyed, we may be certain that of such a nature there is no destruction?