result of all operation, of all action and interaction among things, is _actualization_ of the potential, amelioration, development, growth in perfection and goodness by gradual realization of ends. If by accident any of these powers is wanting, or acts amiss by failing to contribute its due perfection to the nature, there is in the being a proportionate want of goodness—it is so far bad, evil. But, even so, the nature of the thing preserves its fundamental orientation towards its end, towards the perfection natural to it, and struggles as it were against the evil—tries to make good the deficiency. A cancer in the stomach is never good _for the stomach_, or _for the living subject_ of which the stomach is an organ. For the living being the cancer is an evil, a _failure_ of one of the organs to discharge its functions normally, _an absence of a good_, _viz._ the healthy functioning of an organ. But the cancerous growth, considered in itself and for itself, biologically and chemically, has its own nature, purpose, tendencies, laws; nor can we deny that its development according to these laws is “good” for its specific nature,(184) _bonum sibi_. It may be asked how can the _first_ or _essential_ perfection of an existing substance, which is nothing else than the actual existence of the nature itself, be conceived as “good” for this nature? It is so inasmuch as the actual existence of the substance is the first stage in the process by which the nature tends towards its end; an existing nature desires and tends towards the conservation of its own being;(185) hence the saying, “Self-preservation is the first law of nature”; and hence, too, the scholastic aphorism, “_Melius est esse quam non esse_”. The argument just outlined tends to show that every nature of which we can have direct experience, or in other words every finite, contingent nature, is _bonum sibi_, formally and intrinsically good for itself. It is, of course, equally applicable to the Uncreated, Necessary Being Himself. The Infinite Actuality of the Divine Nature is essentially the term and end of the Divine Love. Therefore every actual being has intrinsic, formal goodness, whereby it is _bonum sibi_, _i.e._ its actuality is, in regard to its nature, really an object of tendency, desire, appetite, a something that really suits and perfects this nature. Thus understood, the thesis formulates no mere tautology. It makes a real assertion about real being; nor can the truth of this assertion be proved otherwise than by an argument based, as ours is, on the recognition of purpose, of final causality, of adaptation of means to ends, in the actual universe of our experience.