Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans 23
23 Whence a Bad Measure, a Bad Form, a Bad Order May Sometimes Be Spoken of PL 42, 558
Therefore a bad measure, a bad form, a bad order, are either so called because they are less than they should be, or because they are not adapted to those things to which they should be adapted; so that they may be called bad as being alien and incongruous; as if any one should be said not to have done in a good measure because he has done less than he ought, or because he has done in such a thing as he ought not to have done, or more than was fitting, or not conveniently; so that the very fact of that being reprehended which is done in a bad measure, is justly reprehended for no other cause than that the measure is not there maintained. Likewise a form is called bad either in comparison with something more handsome or more beautiful, this form being less, that greater, not in size but in comeliness; or because it is out of harmony with the thing to which it is applied, so that it seems alien and unsuitable. As if a man should walk forth into a public place naked, which nakedness does not offend if seen in a bath. Likewise also order is called bad when order itself is maintained in an inferior degree. Hence not order, but rather disorder, is bad; since either the ordering is less than it should be, or not as it should be. Yet where there is any measure, any form, any order, there is some good and some nature; but where there is no measure, no form, no order, there is no good, no nature.
Unde interdum dicatur malus modus, mala species, malus ordo. Malus ergo modus, vel mala species, vel malus ordo, aut ideo dicuntur, quia minora sunt quam esse debuerunt, aut quia non his rebus accommodantur quibus accommodanda sunt; ut ideo dicantur mala, quia sunt aliena et incongrua: tanquam si dicatur aliquis non bono modo egisse, quia minus egit quam debuit, aut quia ita egit sicut in re tali non debuit, vel amplius quam oportebat, vel non convenienter: ut hoc ipsum quod reprehenditur, malo modo actum, non ob aliud juste reprehendatur, nisi quia non est ibi servatus modus. Item species mala vel in comparatione dicitur formosioris atque pulchrioris, quod ista sit minor species, illa major, non mole, sed decore; aut quia non congruit huic rei cui adhibita est, ut aliena et inconveniens videatur: tanquam si nudus homo in foro deambulet, quod non offendit si in balneo videatur. Similiter et ordo tunc malus dicitur, cum minus ipse ordo servatur: unde non ibi ordo, sed potius inordinatio mala est, cum aut minus ordinatum est quam debuit, aut non sicut debuit. Tamen ubi aliquis modus, aliqua species, aliquis ordo est, aliquod bonum et aliqua natura est: ubi autem nullus modus, nulla species, nullus ordo est, nullum bonum, nulla natura est.