All that Rhetoric training paid off for him.

My one lit prof may drive me crazy (I woke up in the middle of the night last week and realized I was thinking in my sleep about how poorly I did on her midterm), but that she had us read Augustine's Confessions partially redeems her. The arguments that he presents are breathtaking. Here, he asserts that evil is merely the absence of good:

“And it became clear to me that corruptible things are good: if they were supremely good they could not be corrupted, but also if they were not good at all they could not be corrupted: if they were supremely good they would be incorruptible, if they were in no way good there would be nothing in them that might corrupt. For corruption damages; and unless it diminished goodness, it would not damage. Thus either corruption does no damage, which is impossible or—and this is the certain proof of it—all things that are corrupted are deprived of some goodness. But if they were deprived of all goodness, they would be totally without being. For if they might still be and yet could no longer be corrupted, they would be better than in their first state, because they would abide henceforth incorruptibly. What could be more monstrous than to say that things could be made better by losing all their goodness? If they were deprived of all goodness, they would be altogether nothing: therefore as long as they are, they are good.”