But if this is so, they say, whence comes evil Basil, Hom. Deum non esse caus. mal.? For it is quite impossible that evil should originate from goodness. We answer then, that evil is nothing else than absence of goodness and a lapsing Text, παραδρομή. Variant, παρα. ροπή, cf. infra. from what is natural into what is unnatural: for nothing evil is natural. For all things, whatsoever God made, are very good Gen. i. 31., so far as they were made: if, therefore, they remain just as they were created, they are very good, but when they voluntarily depart from what is natural and turn to what is unnatural, they slip into evil.