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On Difference

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LXXIV. On Difference

1. God makes a distinction
between goodness and bonification
so that goodness may be the cause of <the> good.
 
2. God has differentiated loving
into the love of the lover and of the beloved
so that in love there should be no idleness.
 
3. Goodness and greatness could not constitute causes
were there to exist in them no <act of> differentiation
between bonifying and magnifying.
 
4. Without <the act of> differentiation,
bonifying and magnifying
could not enjoy great concordance.
 
5. By means of His <acts of> differentiation, God
has bestowed increase
upon His creation.
 
6. If God had not introduced a distinction
between the first and the second intentions,
unity would obtain between everything that exists.[1]
 
7. Were it possible to increase the concordance
between all things that can be differentiated,
contrariety could not exist at all.[2]
 
8. He who causes there to be present, in loving acts,
 a great union of virtues,
performs a virtuous separation.[3]
 
9. It is worthier for man to separate (i.e. distinguish)
good from evil, than to persist
in evil, from which no good can ensue.
 
10. Whoever seeks to bestow perfection upon evil
and imperfection upon good,
knows nothing about separation.
 

[1] For first and second intentions, cf. n. 1, Ch. XXXIII, § 1.

[2] Difference, Concordance and Contrariety constitute three principles forming the Green Triangle of Figure T from Ramon Llull’s Arts.

[3] Note that the act of separating or dividing is closely associated with the process of distinguishing or differentiating.