action and has no actual existence. Rather, one side must necessarily predominate, as has likewise been said concerning equally balanced evidence.

Accordingly, when benefit predominates in a matter and it is commanded, love predominates in it, although the harm it contains is hated. Yet that harm is intended: it is intended but hated. A matter in which benefit predominates is loved, yet it is intended to be left undone despite being loved. It is loved in itself, but because it is inseparable from something hated, leaving it undone must be intended on account of that hated concomitant. This means hating the necessary concomitant and rejecting that which entails it.

In short, what is decisively intended is one of two things: either doing the act or leaving it undone. The former is what is commanded, and the latter is what is forbidden. Nevertheless, what is done may contain something hated that is tolerated, while what is left undone may contain something loved that is forgone. This is a useful principle.

This concerns a single act. As for a single person who does both a good deed and a bad deed, although the two can be separated, he either does both or leaves both undone, because his love for one necessarily entails his love for the other, and his hatred of one necessarily entails his hatred of the other. Thus, he is to be commanded only to do the good of the two acts and forbidden only from the bad, even if this entails leaving the good deed undone. In such a case, he should not be commanded to do the good deed whose benefit is outweighed, for that would amount to commanding the bad deed; nor should he be forbidden