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38 ST. AUGUSTINE that it cannot be charged to any wise man. But God far excells every wise man. Much less, therefore, is God responsible for man's perversity, for God's will is far more excellent than the wise man's. Now the phrase is responsible for means "wills." Therefore it is a moral failing of the will which is responsible for human perversity. If this moral failing is not at all the result of God's will, as reason teaches, then we must look for its source. 4. WHA T IS THE CA USE OF HUMAN PER VERSITY? The cause of man's perversity is either man himself, or something else, or nothing. If [it is] nothing, there is no cause. However, if the sentence the cause is nothing is understood to mean "man is made from nothing or from those things drawn from nothing," on the contrary the cause will be found to be man himself, because the stuff of which he is made is nothing. If there is some other cause than this, is it God or any other man? Or is the cause something which is neither God nor man? It certainly is not God, for God is the cause of good. If therefore man is the cause, he is such either by force or by persuasion. But certainly he is not such by force, lest he be more powerful than God. For indeed God has so excellently fashioned man that, should he will to retain this excellence, no one could forcefully hinder him. But if we concede that man's perversity is due to the persuasion of another man, we will again have to inquire into the cause of perversity, and this time the perversity of the persuader (since it is impossible for one responsible for such things not to be evil). There remains an I-know-not-what which is neither God nor man; but nevertheless this, whatever it is, either compels or persuades. If it compels, we repeat the above answer. But if it, whatever it is, persuades, then, since persuasion does not compel against one's will, the cause of a man's corruption is referred back to the will of the same man, whether he be corrupted by the persuasion of someone else or of no one. ...

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