Whether the Lights of Heaven Are Living Beings?
Objection 1: It would seem that the lights of heaven are living
beings. For the nobler a body is, the more nobly it should be adorned.
But a body less noble than the heaven, is adorned with living beings,
with fish, birds, and the beasts of the field. Therefore the lights of
heaven, as pertaining to its adornment, should be living beings also.
Obj. 2: Further, the nobler a body is, the nobler must be its form.
But the sun, moon, and stars are nobler bodies than plants or
animals, and must therefore have nobler forms. Now the noblest of all
forms is the soul, as being the first principle of life. Hence
Augustine (De Vera Relig. xxix) says: "Every living substance stands
higher in the order of nature than one that has not life." The lights
of heaven, therefore, are living beings.
Obj. 3: Further, a cause is nobler than its effect. But the sun,
moon, and stars are a cause of life, as is especially evidenced in
the case of animals generated from putrefaction, which receive life
from the power of the sun and stars. Much more, therefore, have the
heavenly bodies a living soul.
Obj. 4: Further, the movement of the heaven and the heavenly bodies
are natural (De Coel. i, text. 7, 8): and natural movement is from an
intrinsic principle. Now the principle of movement in the heavenly
bodies is a substance capable of apprehension, and is moved as the
desirer is moved by the object desired (Metaph. xii, text. 36).
Therefore, seemingly, the apprehending principle is intrinsic to the
heavenly bodies: and consequently they are living beings.
Obj. 5: Further, the first of movables is the heaven. Now, of all
things that are endowed with movement the first moves itself, as is
proved in _Phys._ viii, text. 34, because, what is such of itself
precedes that which is by another. But only beings that are living
move themselves, as is shown in the same book (text. 27). Therefore
the heavenly bodies are living beings.
_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. ii), "Let no one
esteem the heavens or the heavenly bodies to be living things, for
they have neither life nor sense."
_I answer that,_ Philosophers have differed on this question.
Anaxagoras, for instance, as Augustine mentions (De Civ. Dei xviii,
41), "was condemned by the Athenians for teaching that the sun was a
fiery mass of stone, and neither a god nor even a living being." On
the other hand, the Platonists held that the heavenly bodies have
life. Nor was there less diversity of opinion among the Doctors of the
Church. It was the belief of Origen (Peri Archon i) and Jerome that
these bodies were alive, and the latter seems to explain in that sense
the words (Eccles. 1:6), "The spirit goeth forward, surveying all
places round about." But Basil (Hom. iii, vi in Hexaem.) and Damascene
(De Fide Orth. ii) maintain that the heavenly bodies are inanimate.
Augustine leaves the matter in doubt, without committing himself to
either theory, though he goes so far as to say that if the heavenly
bodies are really living beings, their souls must be akin to the
angelic nature (Gen. ad lit. ii, 18; Enchiridion lviii).
In examining the truth of this question, where such diversity of
opinion exists, we shall do well to bear in mind that the union of
soul and body exists for the sake of the soul and not of the body;
for the form does not exist for the matter, but the matter for the
form. Now the nature and power of the soul are apprehended through
its operation, which is to a certain extent its end. Yet for some of
these operations, as sensation and nutrition, our body is a necessary
instrument. Hence it is clear that the sensitive and nutritive souls
must be united to a body in order to exercise their functions. There
are, however, operations of the soul, which are not exercised through
the medium of the body, though the body ministers, as it were, to
their production. The intellect, for example, makes use of the
phantasms derived from the bodily senses, and thus far is dependent
on the body, although capable of existing apart from it. It is not,
however, possible that the functions of nutrition, growth, and
generation, through which the nutritive soul operates, can be
exercised by the heavenly bodies, for such operations are
incompatible with a body naturally incorruptible. Equally impossible
is it that the functions of the sensitive soul can appertain to the
heavenly body, since all the senses depend on the sense of touch,
which perceives elemental qualities, and all the organs of the senses
require a certain proportion in the admixture of elements, whereas
the nature of the heavenly bodies is not elemental. It follows, then,
that of the operations of the soul the only ones left to be
attributed to the heavenly bodies are those of understanding and
moving; for appetite follows both sensitive and intellectual
perception, and is in proportion thereto. But the operations of the
intellect, which does not act through the body, do not need a body as
their instrument, except to supply phantasms through the senses.
Moreover, the operations of the sensitive soul, as we have seen,
cannot be attributed to the heavenly bodies. Accordingly, the union
of a soul to a heavenly body cannot be for the purpose of the
operations of the intellect. It remains, then, only to consider
whether the movement of the heavenly bodies demands a soul as the
motive power, not that the soul, in order to move the heavenly body,
need be united to the latter as its form; but by contact of power, as
a mover is united to that which he moves. Wherefore Aristotle (Phys.
viii, text. 42, 43), after showing that the first mover is made up of
two parts, the moving and the moved, goes on to show the nature of
the union between these two parts. This, he says, is effected by
contact which is mutual if both are bodies; on the part of one only,
if one is a body and the other not. The Platonists explain the union
of soul and body in the same way, as a contact of a moving power with
the object moved, and since Plato holds the heavenly bodies to be
living beings, this means nothing else but that substances of
spiritual nature are united to them, and act as their moving power. A
proof that the heavenly bodies are moved by the direct influence and
contact of some spiritual substance, and not, like bodies of specific
gravity, by nature, lies in the fact that whereas nature moves to one
fixed end which having attained, it rests; this does not appear in
the movement of heavenly bodies. Hence it follows that they are moved
by some intellectual substances. Augustine appears to be of the same
opinion when he expresses his belief that all corporeal things are
ruled by God through the spirit of life (De Trin. iii, 4).
From what has been said, then, it is clear that the heavenly bodies
are not living beings in the same sense as plants and animals, and
that if they are called so, it can only be equivocally. It will also
be seen that the difference of opinion between those who affirm, and
those who deny, that these bodies have life, is not a difference of
things but of words.
Reply Obj. 1: Certain things belong to the adornment of the universe
by reason of their proper movement; and in this way the heavenly
luminaries agree with others that conduce to that adornment, for they
are moved by a living substance.
Reply Obj. 2: One being may be nobler than another absolutely, but
not in a particular respect. While, then, it is not conceded that the
souls of heavenly bodies are nobler than the souls of animals
absolutely it must be conceded that they are superior to them with
regard to their respective forms, since their form perfects their
matter entirely, which is not in potentiality to other forms; whereas
a soul does not do this. Also as regards movement the power that
moves the heavenly bodies is of a nobler kind.
Reply Obj. 3: Since the heavenly body is a mover moved, it is of the
nature of an instrument, which acts in virtue of the agent: and
therefore since this agent is a living substance the heavenly body
can impart life in virtue of that agent.
Reply Obj. 4: The movements of the heavenly bodies are natural, not
on account of their active principle, but on account of their passive
principle; that is to say, from a certain natural aptitude for being
moved by an intelligent power.
Reply Obj. 5: The heaven is said to move itself in as far as it is
compounded of mover and moved; not by the union of the mover, as the
form, with the moved, as the matter, but by contact with the motive
power, as we have said. So far, then, the principle that moves it may
be called intrinsic, and consequently its movement natural with
respect to that active principle; just as we say that voluntary
movement is natural to the animal as animal (Phys. viii, text. 27).
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QUESTION 71
ON THE WORK OF THE FIFTH DAY
(In One Article)
We must next consider the work of the fifth day.
Objection 1: It would seem that this work is not fittingly described.
For the waters produce that which the power of water suffices to
produce. But the power of water does not suffice for the production
of every kind of fishes and birds since we find that many of them are
generated from seed. Therefore the words, "Let the waters bring forth
the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the
earth," do not fittingly describe this work.
Obj. 2: Further, fishes and birds are not produced from water only,
but earth seems to predominate over water in their composition, as is
shown by the fact that their bodies tend naturally to the earth and
rest upon it. It is not, then, fittingly said that fishes and birds
are produced from water.
Obj. 3: Further, fishes move in the waters, and birds in the air. If,
then, fishes are produced from the waters, birds ought to be produced
from the air, and not from the waters.
Obj. 4: Further, not all fishes creep through the waters, for some,
as seals, have feet and walk on land. Therefore the production of
fishes is not sufficiently described by the words, "Let the waters
bring forth the creeping creature having life."
Obj. 5: Further, land animals are more perfect than birds and fishes
which appears from the fact that they have more distinct limbs, and
generation of a higher order. For they bring forth living beings,
whereas birds and fishes bring forth eggs. But the more perfect has
precedence in the order of nature. Therefore fishes and birds ought
not to have been produced on the fifth day, before land animals.
_On the contrary,_ Suffices the authority of Scripture.
_I answer that,_ As said above, (Q. 70, A. 1), the order of the work
of adornment corresponds to the order of the work of distinction.
Hence, as among the three days assigned to the work of distinction,
the middle, or second, day is devoted to the work of distinction of
water, which is the intermediate body, so in the three days of the
work of adornment, the middle day, which is the fifth, is assigned to
the adornment of the intermediate body, by the production of birds
and fishes. As, then, Moses makes mention of the lights and the light
on the fourth day, to show that the fourth day corresponds to the
first day on which he had said that the light was made, so on this
fifth day he mentions the waters and the firmament of heaven to show
that the fifth day corresponds to the second. It must, however, be
observed that Augustine differs from other writers in his opinion
about the production of fishes and birds, as he differs about the
production of plants. For while others say that fishes and birds were
produced on the fifth day actually, he holds that the nature of the
waters produced them on that day potentially.
Reply Obj. 1: It was laid down by Avicenna that animals of all kinds
can be generated by various minglings of the elements, and naturally,
without any kind of seed. This, however, seems repugnant to the fact
that nature produces its effects by determinate means, and
consequently, those things that are naturally generated from seed
cannot be generated naturally in any other way. It ought, then,
rather to be said that in the natural generation of all animals that
are generated from seed, the active principle lies in the formative
power of the seed, but that in the case of animals generated from
putrefaction, the formative power of is the influence of the heavenly
bodies. The material principle, however, in the generation of either
kind of animals, is either some element, or something compounded of
the elements. But at the first beginning of the world the active
principle was the Word of God, which produced animals from material
elements, either in act, as some holy writers say, or virtually, as
Augustine teaches. Not as though the power possessed by water or
earth of producing all animals resides in the earth and the water
themselves, as Avicenna held, but in the power originally given to
the elements of producing them from elemental matter by the power of
seed or the influence of the stars.
Reply Obj. 2: The bodies of birds and fishes may be considered from
two points of view. If considered in themselves, it will be evident
that the earthly element must predominate, since the element that is
least active, namely, the earth, must be the most abundant in
quantity in order that the mingling may be duly tempered in the body
of the animal. But if considered as by nature constituted to move
with certain specific motions, thus they have some special affinity
with the bodies in which they move; and hence the words in which
their generation is described.
Reply Obj. 3: The air, as not being so apparent to the senses, is not
enumerated by itself, but with other things: partly with the water,
because the lower region of the air is thickened by watery
exhalations; partly with the heaven as to the higher region. But
birds move in the lower part of the air, and so are said to fly
"beneath the firmament," even if the firmament be taken to mean the
region of clouds. Hence the production of birds is ascribed to the
water.
Reply Obj. 4: Nature passes from one extreme to another through the
medium; and therefore there are creatures of intermediate type
between the animals of the air and those of the water, having
something in common with both; and they are reckoned as belonging to
that class to which they are most allied, through the characters
possessed in common with that class, rather than with the other. But
in order to include among fishes all such intermediate forms as have
special characters like to theirs, the words, "Let the waters bring
forth the creeping creature having life," are followed by these: "God
created great whales," etc.
Reply Obj. 5: The order in which the production of these animals is
given has reference to the order of those bodies which they are set
to adorn, rather than to the superiority of the animals themselves.
Moreover, in generation also the more perfect is reached through the
less perfect.
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QUESTION 72
ON THE WORK OF THE SIXTH DAY
(In One Article)
We must now consider the work of the sixth day.
Objection 1: It would seem that this work is not fittingly described.
For as birds and fishes have a living soul, so also have land animals.
But these animals are not themselves living souls. Therefore the
words, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature," should rather
have been, "Let the earth bring forth the living four-footed
creatures."
Obj. 2: Further, a genus ought not to be opposed to its species. But
beasts and cattle are quadrupeds. Therefore quadrupeds ought not to
be enumerated as a class with beasts and cattle.
Obj. 3: Further, as animals belong to a determinate genus and
species, so also does man. But in the making of man nothing is said
of his genus and species, and therefore nothing ought to have been
said about them in the production of other animals, whereas it is
said "according to its genus" and "in its species."
Obj. 4: Further, land animals are more like man, whom God is recorded
to have blessed, than are birds and fishes. But as birds and fishes
are said to be blessed, this should have been said, with much more
reason, of the other animals as well.
Obj. 5: Further, certain animals are generated from putrefaction,
which is a kind of corruption. But corruption is repugnant to the
first founding of the world. Therefore such animals should not have
been produced at that time.
Obj. 6: Further, certain animals are poisonous, and injurious to man.
But there ought to have been nothing injurious to man before man
sinned. Therefore such animals ought not to have been made by God at
all, since He is the Author of good; or at least not until man had
sinned.
_On the contrary,_ Suffices the authority of Scripture.
_I answer that,_ As on the fifth day the intermediate body, namely, the
water, is adorned, and thus that day corresponds to the second day; so
the sixth day, on which the lowest body, or the earth, is adorned by
the production of land animals, corresponds to the third day. Hence
the earth is mentioned in both places. And here again Augustine says
(Gen. ad lit. v) that the production was potential, and other holy
writers that it was actual.
Reply Obj. 1: The different grades of life which are found in
different living creatures can be discovered from the various ways in
which Scripture speaks of them, as Basil says (Hom. viii in Hexaem.).
The life of plants, for instance, is very imperfect and difficult to
discern, and hence, in speaking of their production, nothing is said
of their life, but only their generation is mentioned, since only in
generation is a vital act observed in them. For the powers of
nutrition and growth are subordinate to the generative life, as will
be shown later on (Q. 78, A. 2). But amongst animals, those that
live on land are, generally speaking, more perfect than birds and
fishes, not because the fish is devoid of memory, as Basil upholds
(Hom. viii in Hexaem.) and Augustine rejects (Gen. ad lit. iii), but
because their limbs are more distinct and their generation of a higher
order, (yet some imperfect animals, such as bees and ants, are more
intelligent in certain ways). Scripture, therefore, does not call
fishes "living creatures," but "creeping creatures having life";
whereas it does call land animals "living creatures" on account of
their more perfect life, and seems to imply that fishes are merely
bodies having in them something of a soul, whilst land animals, from
the higher perfection of their life, are, as it were, living souls
with bodies subject to them. But the life of man, as being the most
perfect grade, is not said to be produced, like the life of other
animals, by earth or water, but immediately by God.
Reply Obj. 2: By "cattle," domestic animals are signified, which in
any way are of service to man: but by "beasts," wild animals such as
bears and lions are designated. By "creeping things" those animals
are meant which either have no feet and cannot rise from the earth,
as serpents, or those whose feet are too short to lift them far from
the ground, as the lizard and tortoise. But since certain animals, as
deer and goats, seem to fall under none of these classes, the word
"quadrupeds" is added. Or perhaps the word "quadruped" is used first
as being the genus, to which the others are added as species, for
even some reptiles, such as lizards and tortoises, are four-footed.
Reply Obj. 3: In other animals, and in plants, mention is made of
genus and species, to denote the generation of like from like. But it
was unnecessary to do so in the case of man, as what had already been
said of other creatures might be understood of him. Again, animals
and plants may be said to be produced according to their kinds, to
signify their remoteness from the Divine image and likeness, whereas
man is said to be made "to the image and likeness of God."
Reply Obj. 4: The blessing of God gives power to multiply by
generation, and, having been mentioned in the preceding account of
the making of birds and fishes, could be understood of the beasts of
the earth, without requiring to be repeated. The blessing, however,
is repeated in the case of man, since in him generation of children
has a special relation to the number of the elect [*Cf. Augustine,
Gen. ad lit. iii, 12], and to prevent anyone from saying that there
was any sin whatever in the act of begetting children. As to plants,
since they experience neither desire of propagation, nor sensation
in generating, they are deemed unworthy of a formal blessing.
Reply Obj. 5: Since the generation of one thing is the corruption of
another, it was not incompatible with the first formation of things,
that from the corruption of the less perfect the more perfect should
be generated. Hence animals generated from the corruption of
inanimate things, or of plants, may have been generated then. But
those generated from corruption of animals could not have been
produced then otherwise than potentially.
Reply Obj. 6: In the words of Augustine (Super. Gen. contr. Manich.
i): "If an unskilled person enters the workshop of an artificer he
sees in it many appliances of which he does not understand the use,
and which, if he is a foolish fellow, he considers unnecessary.
Moreover, should he carelessly fall into the fire, or wound himself
with a sharp-edged tool, he is under the impression that many of the
things there are hurtful; whereas the craftsman, knowing their use,
laughs at his folly. And thus some people presume to find fault with
many things in this world, through not seeing the reasons for their
existence. For though not required for the furnishing of our house,
these things are necessary for the perfection of the universe." And,
since man before he sinned would have used the things of this world
conformably to the order designed, poisonous animals would not have
injured him.
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QUESTION 73
ON THE THINGS THAT BELONG TO THE SEVENTH DAY
(In Three Articles)
We must next consider the things that belong to the seventh day.
Under this head there are three points of inquiry:
(1) About the completion of the works;
(2) About the resting of God;
(3) About the blessing and sanctifying of this day.
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