man, till corruption sets in, are generically the same. They are both human. Hence, under the substantial corpse-form the features, shape, dimensions, remain, together with the quantity. Yet, iii. They will not remain numerically the same; because they receive a new act under the new substantial form. But, jv. The difficulty is not yet satisfactorily solved; because, in the instances brought forward, qualities remain,—such as heat, flexibility, colour,—which are looked upon as specific properties of a living man. By way of answer it may be permitted to suggest an hypothesis. As in the generation of man, the embryo is first informed by vegetative and afterwards by animal life, previous to the union with the soul, at least in the judgment of the Angelic Doctor; may it not possibly be, that, on decapitation which renders the body unfit (if so be) to continue longer as the Material Cause of the soul or even of animal life, the vegetative form is educed out of the potentiality of the Matter, till, after an interval more or less protracted, the corpseform supervenes? Certainly, there are known facts that favour the hypothesis. For instance, the nails have been known to grow after death; and M. Claude Bernard is our authority for stating that sugar has been secreted in the liver subsequently to the same event. v. It is not universally the opinion of physicists, that the union of the soul and body is invariably dissolved at the moment of death, especially if the death should be a violent one. Some anatomists, among others Professor Soemmering, have maintained, that the individual consciousness, as well as the perceptibility of pain, remains in the head for some time after it has been separated from the body.' vi. One thing is certain, that, after some time these lingering accidents make way for those which are properties of the corpse-form, to wit, paleness, rigidity, icy coldness. vii. With especial reference to heat, (which offers, perhaps, the greatest difficulty), may it not be justly urged, by way of explanation, that, as the heat from a man's body will remain in a bed for some considerable time after the occupant has left it; so the heat, propagated through the body, may remain long after its efficient cause has ceased to act? viii. The phenomena, which are thus objected against the teaching of St. Thomas, offer difficulties hardly less formidable to the doctrine maintained by Suarez. For, even supposing that the quantity and qualitative accidents should inhere immediately in the Matter, Suarez does not deny that qualities dispose for the reception of the new form, or that they follow the

nature of the form. How is it, then, that the alleged accidents remain; since they indispose the Matter for the reception of the corpse-form and are foreign to its nature? ix. It seems hardly philosophical to reject a teaching, otherwise so well grounded in reason and experience, on the strength of certain facts whose relation to the question is uncertain and whose origin and cause are involved in no little obscurity.

PROPOSITION CLXVI.

Though the complete composite is the Material Cause of both quantity and qualities; yet quantity is with reason said to follow the Matter rather than the form, while quality is said to follow the form rather than the Matter.

This Proposition needs only a brief declaration. i. Quantity is said to follow the Matter rather than the form for three principal reasons. One is, that it is undistinguished in its entity and co-extensive with Matter; seeing that all material substance is quantified, and quantity includes no real difference of species. Another is, that it is purely passive and knows no other energies than those of the inhering qualitative forms; just as Primordial Matter is purely passive, and has no energy save that of its substantial form. Thirdly, quantity is the Subject of all qualitative, as Primordial Matter is the Subject of all substantive, forms. ii. Quality, on the other hand, is said to follow the form rather than the Matter, first of all, because it has a variety of species which inform and determine the quantity, or rather, quantified substance. Then, secondly, it is active and instrumental agent of the substantial form.

NOTE.

These and the like expressions of universal use in the School, so far from lending any confirmation to the opinion of Suarez, rather tell against it. For since the qualities immediately inhere in quantity, if quantity should be said to follow Matter, because the latter is its Material Cause; for a like reason qualities must also be said to follow the Matter, because,-as they immediately inhere in quantity, according to the hypothesis they would mediately inhere in Matter as their adequate Material Cause.

PROPOSITION CLXVII.

No Accident remains numerically the same in the generated, as in the corrupted substance; although they may remain specifically and sensibly the same, provided that their entity is connatural with the newly generated substance.

This Proposition needs no declaration; since it has already more than once been explained and virtually proved in previous Theses.

PROPOSITION CLXVIII.

In substantial transformations and generations, the quantity of the corrupted substance does not pass away, but receives a new actuation with the generation of the new composite. The same is true of connatural qualities.

This Proposition likewise needs no declaration; as its truth has been sufficiently manifested in past discussions.

PROPOSITION CLXIX.

The doctrine embodied in the preceding Propositions of this Section is confirmed by the authority of the Angelic Doctor.

The evidence in confirmation of the present Proposition shall be inaugurated by a remarkable passage in which St. Thomas (or whoever may be the author or compiler of the Opusculum here quoted) explains at great length the relation of accident to substance. The great obscurity of the text, (which reads rather like short notes dotted down for a lecture, or notes taken from the lecture by a pupil, than an elaborate essay), will plead in excuse for the accompaniment of a running commentary by way of explanation. Its author, then, has been engaged in showing, that quantity and the other accidents of material substance are said to follow Matter rather than form, because they are extraneous to the essence of bodily substance; and Matter is more remote from the perfect essence than form which determines the essence.

He now proceeds to explain, with greater metaphysical precision, what is meant by the phrase that quantity follows Matter. • How quantity follows Matter,' he writes, is to be gathered from the forms whose nature it is to inform Matter; seeing that Matter cannot be known, save by its analogy to forms; as it is said in the first Book of the Physics. In order, therefore, to a clear understanding of this question, you must know that certain general and certain special forms have a natural capacity of inhering in one and the same Matter,' not together, as two distinct substantial forms actuating the same Matter; but either as respectively capable of informing the potentiality of the Matter or, (and this is more germane to the argument of the Angelic Doctor), forasmuch as one is virtually included under the other, the more general in the more specific: And that it is of the nature of these special forms to effect in Matter whatever the general forms are naturally capable of effecting, and more besides; as Boetius says. Now, it is of the nature of a form,' precisely and exclusively as form or act, to effect nothing save that which belongs to act,' i. e. to make a thing actual. Wherefore, if there should be aught following the entity of Matter, as ordained to one form that is essentially distinct from another form; if it does not appertain to the actuation of Matter as Matter by the form as form, it is not effected save by means of some other determined form. To illustrate this point:-There is in Matter a potentiality for some general form, for instance, for the form of corporeity,' (bodyform), which gives to it the being of a body, as soon as you introduce the Matter that has been transmuted into it. A more perfect form does the same, (and something further); since this belongs to the act,' that is to say, to the actuation itself. An explanation of this rather obscure passage shall be given by the

1 Quomodo igitur quantitas sequatur materiam, considerandum est a parte formarum quae natae sunt materiam informare, cum materia non sit scibilis nisi per analogiam ad formas, ut dicitur 1 Phys. Ad hujus igitur evidentiam sciendum est, quod in una et eadem materia natae sunt inesse quaedam formae generales et quaedam speciales, quarum natura est in materia facere quidquid formae generales natae sunt facere, et adhuc amplius, ut dicit Boetius. Forma autem nihil est nata facere, nisi id quod ad actum pertinet. Et ideo si quid fuerit sequens esse materiae in ordine ad aliquam formam distinctam in essentia sua ab alia forma, si hoc non pertineat ad esse actu ipsius materiae per ipsam formam, non fit id nisi per aliam formam certam : ut puta, in materia est potentia ad formam aliquam generalem, sicut ad formam corporeitatis, quae dat esse corpus, cum introducta fuerit materia ad illam transmutata; hoc idem facit forma perfectior, et adhuc amplius; hoc enim ad actum pertinet. Quod

help of another quotation immediately to follow. The body-form is the most general, the universal, form of material substance. Acting purely as a form, it simply actuates Matter; so that body might truly be described as Matter actuated. Now, a more perfect and specific form can do as much as this, and more besides. For instance, the vegetative form actuates Matter, and makes it a body; just as every material form does. But it effects something more. It makes Matter to become a body informed with vegetative life; and this vegetative life is the specific essence which goes beyond mere actuation. Wherefore, if there is anything that accompanies the actuated Matter, not only as actuated, but as actuated according to such or such a particular essence; such an entity will be the result of the specific action of the specific form. To take an instance:-Assimilative force, or power, follows Matter as actuated by the specific form of vegetative life; so does quantity. But there is this notable difference between the two. The latter accompanies the actuation as such; for all actuated Matter is body, and there is no body without quantity. But assimilative power accompanies the actuated Matter, as actuated by the specific form of vegetative life. To resume:- But, so far as regards Matter, it' (that is to say, the actuation) will not be effected by each form indifferently. For, to be this particular entity does not enter into its mere actuation; neither does it belong to its mere being, but to its own special essence. For there is in Matter, as we have said, a potentiality receptive of the body-form; and that form makes it such when it informs it. The more perfect form does the same, as we have said. But the more perfect form, though it produces the same effect as the general form, nevertheless does not perfect the same potentiality which the more general form would do, if it were there. This is plain. For the Matter existing under the more perfect form, is in potentiality relatively to the general form. But this could

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not be the case, if its potentiality relatively to the general form

autem ad materiam refertur, non fiet ab utraque forma indifferenter: hoc enim esse actualitatis non est, nec ad esse pertinens, sed ad ipsam suam essentiam. In materia namque est potentia ad formam corporis, ut dictum est, et hoc facit in illa cum ei infuerit hoc etiam facit forma perfectior, ut dictum est. Sed forma perfectior, licet faciat idem quod facit forma generalis, non tamen eamdem perficit potentiam quam perficeret forma generalior, si inesset. Et hoc manifestum est: nam materia sub forma perfecta existens, est in potentia ad talem formam: quod non contingeret, si ejus potentia ad illam formam esset perfecta per aliam formam. Id igitur quod potest fieri