For were there no such perfection, it is utterly inconceivable how that so-called _im_perfection should come into existence.

Nature does not make a beginning with things mutilated and imperfect; she starts with what is whole and perfect, and falls away later to these feeble and inferior productions.

So if there is, as we showed before, a happiness of a frail and imperfect kind, it cannot be doubted but there is also a happiness substantial and perfect.' 'Most true is thy conclusion, and most sure,' said I.
'Next to consider where the dwelling-place of this happiness may be.

The common belief of all mankind agrees that God, the supreme of all things, is good.

For since nothing can be imagined better than God, how can we doubt Him to be good than whom there is nothing better?
Now, reason shows God to be good in such wise as to prove that in Him is perfect good.