Augustine: Earlier Writings
ON FREE WILL I95 which is capable of being corrupted. If it finds that, it can then bring about the corruption by means of its own vice. The stronger cannot be corrupted by the weaker unless it is wil Hng to be corrupted. If it is wil Hng, the corruption starts with its own vice and not with the vice of the other. Similarly an equal cannot be corrupted by its equal unless it is willing. A vitiated nature, attacking one that is free from vice, is not its equal, but is weaker by reason of its own vice. If the stronger corrupts the weaker, then either it is by the vice of both of them, there being base desire in both; or it is by the vice of the stronger, if its nature is so outstanding that even when vitiated it excels that of the weaker which it corrupts. How could one rightly blame the fruits of the earth because men do not make a good use of them, but, being themselves corrupt by their own fault, corrupt these fruits by abusing them in the interests of luxury? For it would be madness to doubt that man's nature, even when vitiated, is more powerful and more excellent than that of any of the fruits of the earth, even if they are without fault.
40. It may happen that a more powerful nature corrupts a less powerful one with no fault on either side, if by fault we mean that which is worthy of blame. Who would venture to blame a frugal man who sought from the fruits of the earth no more than his natural nourishment? Or who would blame these fruits for being corrupted through use as food? Correct usage does not speak of that as corruption, for the accepted meaning of corruption, generally speaking, makes it a synonym for vice. It is easy to find examples of a stronger nature corrupting a weaker one even without using it to supply its own needs. In the order of justice, for example, guilt is punished. This is the rule to which the apostle refers when he says: "If anyone corrupts the Temple of God, him will God corrupt" (I Cor. 3:17). Or, again, in the order of mutable things, one thing gives place to another according to the most fitting laws imposed upon the universe, regulating the strength of every part. If the brightness of the sun destroys anyone's eyes because they are too weak to endure the light, the sun cannot be thought to do so in order to supply any need of its own; nor does it do so through any fault of its own. Nor are the eyes to be blamed, for they obeyed their possessor when they were opened in face of the light, or they were destroyed through being too weak to bear the light. Of all kinds of corruption, that only is rightly to be blamed which is vicious. Other kinds are not even to be called by that name, or, at any rate, cannot be properly blamed