the state or quality of a thing that is perfect. Perfection is divided, according to Chauvinus, into physical, moral, and metaphysical. Physical or natural perfection is that by which 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, and adjustment. In this sense man is commonly said to be perfect when he has a sound mind in a sound body. Physical perfection is by the schools frequently termed ἀναγκαῖος, 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, beneficence, and self-restraint. 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 to whom it is attributed. 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 by which a thing has or is provided with every thing belonging to its nature. This is either absolute, where all imperfection is excluded, as in the Deity, or secundum quid, that is, in its own kind, or relative.