Now, to some it may seem strange that we should assert that the bad, who form the greater part of mankind, do not exist.

But the fact is so.

I do not, indeed, deny that they who are bad are bad, but that they _are_ in an unqualified and absolute sense I deny.

Just as we call a corpse a dead man, but cannot call it simply "man," so I would allow the vicious to be bad, but that they _are_ in an absolute sense I cannot allow.

That only _is_ which maintains its place and keeps its nature; whatever falls away from this forsakes the existence which is essential to its nature.