Therefore, evil is not a first principle. So, the more this intended good (which apart from the agent’s intention results in evil) is multiplied, the more is the potency to the contrary good diminished. Therefore the root and source of moral wrongdoing is to be sought in the act of the will. Hence, he had to develop his teaching on the virtues, which handdivided into the moral and the intellectual virtues. [14] Furthermore, created things are subject to divine providence inasmuch as they are ordered by it to their ultimate end, which is divine goodness. For some of them, substance is their form and their act: this is so for the creature to whom, because of what it is essentially, it is appropriate to be, and to be good. [2] That every agent acts for an end has been made clear from the fact that every agent tends toward something definite. [9] Secondly, let us consider it in regard to the reasons for the things that have been made: the intellect cannot know all of these unless it comprehend the divine goodness. [6] Hence it is said: “God made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his own counsel”; and again: “Before man is life and death, good and evil, that which he shall choose shall be given him” (Sirach 15:14, 18). This is also in agreement with the things that have been said about evil. But, through the aforesaid pleasures, man is kept away from a close approach to God, for this approach is effected through contemplation, and the aforementioned pleasures are the chief impediment to contemplation, since they plunge man very deep into sensible things, consequently distracting him from intelligible objects. Now, handshows in Book X [7: 1177a 18], that the ultimate felicity of man lies in speculation. Therefore, the action of the will seems to be nobler than the action of the intellect. Therefore, it is as a result of divine power that a thing gives being. Another way is to see the cause in the effect itself, according as the likeness of the cause is reflected in the effect; thus a man may be seen in a mirror, by virtue of his likeness. But that is what the ultimate end is, in the sense of happiness. THAT EVIL IS NOT AN ESSENCE [2] Again, we showed above that divine operation does not exclude the operations of secondary causes. Chapter 2. But to dispose matter is not a proper action for it, since this is done by alteration, for which accidental forms are sufficient. That the Truths the Human Reason Is Not Able to Investigate Are Fittingly Proposed to Men for Belief, Chapter 6. [6] Now, this statement that the divine substance is seen by the created intellect, yet not comprehended, does not mean that part of it is seen and part not seen, because the divine substance is entirely simple. Of course, if it be present in a potential way in the potency, one knows potentially; but if it be there actually, one knows actually; and if it be there in an intermediate fashion, one knows habitually. In fact, some attribute this opinion to Aristotle, even though it cannot be gathered from his own words. And so, if they are moved in the same way as heavy and light bodies, they must be moved directly by their generating agent, and accidentally by the agent which removes an impediment to motion. Of course, fortune occupies an important place in the attainment of riches, Therefore, human felicity is not founded on riches. For instance, how great a good health is, is best known by the sick; and they also crave it more than do the healthy. Take, for example, a man who directs his intention to the enjoyment of the sweetness of wine: if intoxication is the result of drinking the wine, this is neither fortuitous nor a matter of chance. For, the more a person understands, the more is the desire to understand increased in him, and this is natural to man, unless, perchance, there be someone who understands all things. [3] Again, that which is in potency to either of two contraries is not advanced to actuality under one of them unless through some cause, for no potency makes itself be in act. So, they are called “the powers of the heavens” where it is said: “the powers of the heavens shall be moved” (Luke 21:26). Therefore, their desire does not come to rest in the aforesaid knowledge of God., Therefore, divine knowledge is the ultimate end of man. So, the agent intellect is related to the objects of speculative understanding as form is to matter. But every application of power to operation is originally and primarily made by God. Now, the very fact of being is a good, and so all things desire to be. But intellectual creatures participate more than others in it, because an ability to establish order which is done by cognitive power, and an ability to execute it which is clone by operative power, are both -required for providence, and rational creatures share in both types of power, while the rest of creatures have operative powers only. Therefore, since some intellectual substances are nearer the first principle, namely God, as was shown in Book Two [95], they will be capable of ruling others. For, although simple forms are not movers, they are nonetheless the principles of motions, since natural motions are resultant from them, as are all other natural properties. Therefore, no created intellect may comprehend it. [11] Again, every created thing attains its ultimate perfection through its proper operation, for the ultimate end and the perfection of a thing must be either its operation or the term or product of its operation.
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