the state or quality of a thing perfect.

Perfection is divided, according to Chauvinus, into physical, moral, and metaphysical.

Physical or natural perfection, is that whereby a thing has all its powers and faculties, and those too in full vigour; and all its parts both principal and secondary, and those in their due proportion, constitution, &c., in which sense man is said to be perfect when he has a sound mind in a sound body. This perfection is by the schools frequently termed suprema, because a thing is enabled thereby to perform all its operations.

Moral perfection is an eminent degree of virtue or moral goodness, to which men arrive by repeated acts of piety, benevolence, &c. This is usually subdivided into absolute or inherent, which is actually in him to whom we attribute it; and imputative, which exists in some other, and not in him it is attributed to.

Metaphysical, transcendental, or essential perfection, is the possession of all the essential attributes, or of all the parts necessary to the integrity of a substance; or it is that whereby a thing has or is provided of everything belonging to its nature. This is either absolute, where all imperfection is excluded, such is the perfection of God; or secundum quid, and in its kind.