342 THOMASAQUINAS
Reply Obj.4. The human soul, by reason of its perfection, is not a form merged in
matter, or entirely embraced by matter. Therefore there is nothing to prevent one of its
powers not being the act of the body, although the soul is essentially the form of the body.
Reply Obj.5. The soul communicates that being in which it subsists to the corpo-
real matter, out of which, combined with the intellectual soul, there results unity of
being so that the being of the whole composite is also the being of the soul. This is not
the case with other nonsubsistent forms. For this reason the human soul retains its own
being after the dissolution of the body, though this is not so with other forms.
Reply Obj.6. To be united to the body pertains to the soul by reason of itself, as it
pertains to a light body by reason of itself to be raised up. And as a light body remains
light when removed from its proper place, retaining meanwhile an aptitude and an incli-
nation for its proper place, so the human soul retains its proper being when separated
from the body, having an aptitude and a natural inclination to be united to the body.
FIRSTPART OF THESECONDPART(I–II)
TREATISE ONHUMANACTS
QUESTION 2: OF THOSE THINGS
IN WHICH MAN ’S HAPPINESS CONSISTS
Eighth ArticleWHETHERANYCREATEDGOODCONSTITUTESMAN’SHAPPINESS?We Proceed Thus to the Eighth Article:—Objection1. It would seem that some created good constitutes man’s happiness.
For Dionysius says (Div. Nom.vii) that Divine wisdom unites the ends of first things
to the beginnings of second things,from which we may gather that the summit of a
lower nature touches the base of the higher nature. But man’s highest good is happi-
ness. Since then the angel is above man in the order of nature, as stated in the First
Part (Q. 111, A. 1), it seems that man’s happiness consists in man somehow reaching
the angel.
Obj.2. Further, the last end of each thing is that which, in relation to it, is perfect:
hence the part is for the whole, as for its end. But the universe of creatures which is
called the macrocosm, is compared to man who is called the microcosm (Phys.viii. 2),
as perfect to imperfect. Therefore man’s happiness consists in the whole universe of
creatures.