Note 29 — PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. (continued 3)

Theodicée, or justification of the ways of God in the world. The word originated with Leibnitz, who, in his “Essai de Theodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal,” published in 1710, maintained that the existence of moral evil has its origin in the free will of the creature, while metaphysical evil is nothing but the limitation which is involved in the essence of finite beings, and that out of this both physical and moral evil naturally flow. But these finite beings are designed to attain to the utmost felicity they are capable of enjoying, which each, as a part, contributes to the perfection of the whole, which, of the many worlds that were possible, is the very best. On this account it has been called the theory of Optimism.—Trans.