46. THE PERFECT. ANALYSIS OF THE NOTION OF PERFECTION.—It is the realization of the end or object or purpose of a nature that perfects the latter, and so far formally constitutes the goodness of this nature. Now the notion of perfection is not exactly the same as the notion of goodness: although what is perfect is always good, what is good is not always perfect. The term “perfect” comes from the Latin _perficere_, _perfectum_, meaning fully made, thoroughly achieved, completed, finished. Strictly speaking, it is only finite being, potential being, capable of completion, that can be spoken of as _perfectible_, or, when fully actualized, _perfect_. But by universal usage the term has been extended to the reality of the Infinite Being: we speak of the latter as the Infinitely _Perfect_ Being, not meaning that this Being has been “perfected,” but that He is the purely Actual and Infinite Reality. Applied to any finite being, the term “perfect” means that this being has attained to the full actuality which we regard as its end, as the ideal of its natural capacity and tendency. The finite being is subject to change; it is not actualized all at once, but gradually; by the play of those active and passive powers which are rooted in its nature it is gradually actualized, and thus perfected, gaining more and more reality or being by the process. But what directs this process and determines the line of its tendency? The _good_ which is the _end_ of the being, the good towards which the being by its nature tends. This good, which is the term of the being’s natural tendency—which is, in other words, its end—is the fundamental principle(177) which perfects the nature of the being, is the source and explanation of the process whereby this nature is perfected: _bonum est perfectivum_: _the good is the perfecting principle of reality_. The end itself is “the good which perfects,” _bonum quod_; the “perfecting” itself is the formal cause of the goodness of the being that is perfected, _bonum quo_; the being itself which is perfected, and therefore ameliorated or increased in goodness, is the _bonum cui_. In proportion, therefore, to the degree in which a being actually possesses the perfection due to its nature it is “good”; in so far as it lacks this perfection, it is wanting in goodness, or is, as we shall see, ontologically “bad” or “evil”.