So a judge, who condemns a criminal to death, not from hatred or anger but from love of the public well—being, is guided solely by reason.
PROP. LXIV. The knowledge of evil is an inadequate knowledge.
Proof.—The knowledge of evil (IV. viii.) is pain, in so far as we are conscious thereof. Now pain is the transition to a lesser perfection (Def. of the Emotions, iii.) and therefore cannot be understood through man's nature (III. vi., and vii.); therefore it is a passive state (III. Def. ii.) which (III. iii.) depends on inadequate ideas; consequently the knowledge thereof (II. xxix.), namely, the knowledge of evil, is inadequate. Q.E.D.
Corollary.—Hence it follows that, if the human mind possessed only adequate ideas, it would form no conception of evil.
PROP. LXV. Under the guidance of reason we should pursue the greater of two goods and the lesser of two evils.
Proof.—A good which prevents our enjoyment of a greater good is in reality an evil; for we apply the terms good and bad to things,