 An alternative is to say that a specific evil has its origin in moral actions and intentions. Applied to our case, it is common to think that the man’s agency—the choice to beat his vulnerable steed—is the origin of the cruelty and the pain. If there is metaphysical evil here, then it too might have a moral origin: on some religious pictures, for instance, the corrupted human nature that leads to disease, cruelty, and enmity between him and other creatures is a result of free choice on the part of his primordial ancestors. (If there is agency in any non-human creatures—animals or angelic—then it would also fit here.)