John i. 9.

Mali enim nulla natura est: sed amissio boni, mali nomen accepit.

Plutarch (De Plac. Phil. i. 3, and iv. 3) tells us that this opinion was held by Anaximenes of Miletus, the followers of Anaxagoras, and many of the Stoics. Diogenes the Cynic, as well as Diogenes of Apollonia, seems to have adopted the same opinion. See Zeller's Stoics, pp. 121 and 199.

"Ubi lux non est, tenebræ sunt, non quia aliquid sunt tenebræ, sed ipsa lucis absentia tenebræ dicuntur."—Aug. De Gen. contra Man. 7.

Wisdom vii. 22.

The strongly Platonic tinge of this language is perhaps best preserved in a bare literal translation.