How to Know What Is Good in Itself

And this can be told apart from the other things we have called indifferent in these ways: if a thing is good in itself, and not because of something else; if it is useful for its own sake, and not for the sake of something else; if it is unchangeably and at all times good, always keeps its character, and can never become something different; if its removal or ceasing cannot fail to do the greatest harm; and if its opposite is in the same way evil in its own nature, and can never be turned into anything good. These marks, by which the nature of things that are good in themselves can be recognized, cannot possibly be applied to fasting. It is not good in itself. It is not useful for its own sake, for it is wisely used to gain purity of heart and body, so that the goads of the flesh may be blunted and the soul may be calmed and reconciled to its Creator. It is not unchangeably and at all times good, since we are often not harmed when it is set aside, and indeed, if it is practiced unreasonably, it sometimes becomes harmful. Nor is what seems to be its opposite, that is, eating, evil in its own nature. It is naturally pleasant, and cannot be regarded as evil unless intemperance and luxury or some other faults follow from it; “for it is not what enters into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, that defiles a man.” And so a man belittles what is good in its own nature, and does not treat it properly or without sin, if he does it not for its own sake but for the sake of something else. For everything else should be done for its sake, but it should be sought for its own sake alone. [a]