Where vice lives. Three nested theses about TERMvice (κακία), narrowing the field of its harm to a point. (1) "In general" (γενικῶς) vice "does no harm to the world" (οὐδὲν βλάπτει τὸν κόσμον): the cosmos absorbs even villainy as material (cf. 6.42 — the ruler of the Whole uses even the resisters). (2) "In particular," DOGMAone man's vice "harms not another" (οὐδὲν βλάπτει τὸν ἕτερον): another's κακία cannot corrupt my ruling part without my assent (5.25).

The harm — and the power over it. One address remains: vice is "harmful only to him to whom it is entrusted" (ᾧ ἐπιτέτραπται) — that is, to its own bearer. But at once comes the liberating rider: that same man is free DOGMA"to be rid of it, as soon as he first so wills" (ἀπηλλάχθαι, ὁπόταν πρῶτον θελήσῃ). Vice is not a fate: it holds only by one's own assent and is lifted by one's own decision — instantly, "the moment you will it." Hence the double conclusion: do not fear another's vice (it is not your harm) and do not despair of your own (it is in your power). The strict term by the word is κακία. The governing discipline is assent (vice is only in assent, and is undone by it), the sustaining one desire (not to tolerate in oneself what one is free to be rid of).