As the One is infinite, all things which are possible will come into being within it. The plentitude of the One is such that its creation cannot stop until such time as it has created all that can conceivably be, even that which is far removed from its original forms and designs. Plotinus suggests that the Intellect is among the first fruits of the One, but that the world of physical matter is among its last and most incomplete and corrupted. In as much as the physical is the farthest removed from the One, it is worse than the One. This means that if a man were to incline himself towards the physical instead of towards the transcendent intellectual/spiritual self, then this inclination would be mistaken -- it would, in Plotinus" words, be called Evil. (He would add, if such a thing could exist., for as will be discussed later, Plotinus is rather skeptical about Evil"s independent life) So Plotinus may be found saying that inasmuch as matter is a mere shadow in relationship with the form of the divine, and a mere layer of existence which is the least among many co-existing levels of life, that matter and the physical is the "the very essence of Evil.".

             It is worth noting here that Plotinus is a pantheist. Own would be very far astray indeed to suggest that he looks out at the exterior world and considers it, as some gnostics would, to be the work of an evil demon, or even to be inherently flawed--as Christian suggested. Rather, Plutinus imagined that nature was itself in tune with the forms. Each thing was birthed from the Source, which fills all things with soul. In this manner the sun and stars themselves, though they may be physical bodies, are also gods. In this manner mankind, though flesh, is part of the divine. Nature as such is not precisely Evil, as it to partakes in the divine. It is, however, incomplete. The act of valuing the incomplete over the complete is the original act of evil.