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"For God would never have created any, I do not say angel, but even man, whose future wickedness He foreknew, unless He had equally known to what uses in behalf of the good He could turn him, thus embellishing the course of the ages, as it were an exquisite poem set off with antithesis. For what are called antitheses are among the most elegant of the ornaments of speech."

--Augustine, The City of God, Book 11.18