 The presence of various evils in the world is problematic for anyone who claims that this world was created by a God who has infinite power, knowledge and goodness. However, the problem is particularly acute for an occasionalist such as Malebranche who holds that God is the only true cause of effects in nature. Malebranche offers a theodicy that addresses the problem of evil by emphasizing that in the “order of nature” God acts for the most part through His general will. In Nature et grâce, he starts by admitting that God could have acted by particular volitions to prevent natural evils such as malformed offspring (a fitting example given his own malformed spine), and thus could have produced a more perfect world than He actually did create. In correspondence with Leibniz, Malebranche emphasizes this point in distinguishing his theodicy from Leibniz’s (see Schmaltz 2010). However, Malebranche also claims that God could have created a more perfect world only by departing from simple laws, thereby sacrificing the simplicity and uniformity of action that is a supreme mark of His wisdom. God produces the natural evils that follow from simple laws not because He wills those particular effects, but because He wills a world that best reflects His wisdom by possessing the most effects governed by the fewest laws.