The possibility of proving the existence of one omnipotent and all-beneficent God, and the impossibility of refuting the positive dogmas, save the harmony of faith and reason, which Bayle had denied. The conclusion of the _New Essays_ and the opening of the _Theodicy_ are devoted to this theme. The second part gives, also against Bayle, the justification of God in view of the evil in the world. _Si Deus est, unde malum_? Optimism has to reckon with the facts of experience, and to show that this world, in spite of its undeniable imperfections, is still the best world. God could certainly have brought into actuality a world in which there would have been less imperfection than in ours, but it would at the same time have contained fewer perfections. No world whatever can exist entirely free from evil, entirely without limitation--whoever forbids God to create imperfect beings forbids him to create a world at all. Certain evils--in general terms, the evil of finitude--are entirely inseparable from the concept of created beings; imperfection attaches to every created thing as such. Other evils God has permitted because it was only through them that certain higher goods, which ought not to be renounced, could be brought to pass. Think of the lofty feelings, noble resolves, and great deeds which war occasions, think of national enthusiasm, readiness for sacrifice, and defiance of death--all these would be given over, if war should be taken out of the world on account of the suffering which it also brings in its train.