Differentiation means making a difference among capacities...

Differentiation means making a difference among capacities that are unequal and not subject to the same circumstances. It will be erroneous if we say that it would be better for everything in the world to be uniform and undifferentiated, for all the motion, activity and lively interchange we see in the world is made possible by differentiation. Man has various ways of perceiving and experiencing beauty, once there is a contrast between ugliness and beauty.

The attraction exerted by beauty is, in a sense, the reflection of ugliness and its power to repel. In the same way, if man were not tested and tried in life, piety and virtue would have no value, and there would be no reason to refine one's soul and nothing from which to restrain one's desires. Previous…