Man in Combination with the Principles

1. Man's own innate goodness is a reason for him to do specific good, and everything that man does as a member of the human species, he does either in a natural or in a moral way. Spiritual and corporeal goodness are joined in man by reason of his soul and body so that these dual reasons naturally give man reason to do good with his objectifying, understanding, loving and remembering; and to do good with his body by procreating, sensing and imagining so that good works proceed from both the body and the soul, as we see in the liberal and mechanical arts.

2. Man's own innate greatness, like his goodness, is of a dual nature and man does what he does greatly with greatness just as he does it well with goodness.

3. Man's own innate duration is a reason for his goodness, greatness etc. to last in a dual way, as said above in #1; moreover, man acts naturally through necessity and he acts morally at will.

4. Man's own innate power is, just like his goodness, dual in nature (as we said); and since man can exist and act through his power, it is clear than he can act in accordance with his species. Here, the intellect understands how man has specific freedom to act.

5. Man's own innate intellect is specific to each man, and with it, he understands things in a specific way; it does not descend from any other intellect that generates it, nor is it essentially identical to any other intellect. Otherwise, it would be engendered in man and then annihilated or corrupted after a man's death; it would be confined within time, locus, quantity, surface, division, succession and movement; and it would be disposed and configured in points and lines, which is impossible, because all these things are physical or corporeal in nature. Here, the intellect realizes how evil and false are the statements of those who think and assert that there is only one intellect shared by all men. From what we said, our intellect realizes that the human body's natural instinct is joined to the human intellect in the way we described in the paragraph on goodness. The intellect has a mode for rendering intelligible species in its own intelligible part by means of the sensitive and imaginative powers, and it builds science from these intelligible species.

6. Man's own innate will is a specific power with which he does specific lovable acts. However, this will does not descend from some general will, because if it did, its essence could be generated and corrupted just like the intellect’s could, as said above. Thus, human freedom would perish because the will would be necessarily compelled to act in accordance with its general principle, just as the body has appetites that higher causes compel it to have by necessity, such as its appetite for food when it feels hunger, for drink when it feels thirst, for warmth when it feels cold and so forth. Further, if all men shared one single will, all men would seek out the same objective, and the rational soul would die when a man dies so that there would be no afterlife and neither God's justice nor God's mercy would have any subject on which to act. This is impossible and an utterly absurd thing to say. Further, the body's appetite and the will are joined together, as we said about goodness, so that the will renders species from the sensitive and imaginative powers by willing just as the intellect does by understanding. We can say the same in its own way about memory, as it is a part of the soul.

7. Corporeal and spiritual virtues are joined in man; and because the spiritual virtue is above, it informs and perfects the lower virtue. Here, the intellect sees how moral virtues arise from spiritual virtue and corporeal virtue just as substance arises from form and matter. We will discuss the virtues in the ninth subject.

8. Man's truth is spiritual and corporeal, and because spiritual truth is higher, it perfects the lower truth. Hence, the intellect realizes that just as the senses truly sense things with sight, hearing etc. so does the soul truly attain the essences of things through remembering, understanding and loving. Otherwise, the soul would do more in things below with its lower virtues than in things above with its higher virtues, which is utterly absurd and contrary to intellectual reason. And the intellect greatly rejoices in realizing this.

9. In man, spiritual and corporeal glory are naturally joined in a natural conjunction of both spiritual and corporeal enjoyment. Hence, it follows that the soul enjoys acting in the body and the body enjoys being acted upon while man enjoys all of this. Here, the intellect sees how man finds enjoyment in moral dealings.

10. In man there is a conjunction of spiritual and corporeal differences, and this is why the intellect understands things in one way through hearing, in another way through seeing etc. and reciprocally, the body is acted upon in one way by the intellect, in another way by the will

and in another way by memory. By what we said, the intellect realizes how it builds science with its discourse, as the will builds a science of love and as memory builds a science of remembering.

11. The body and the soul enter into the composition of man when they join together in him while the soul remains in its own essence, as does the body. Here, the intellect realizes how the body and the soul convene in objectifying the same objects, as the body sees them, hears them etc. while the soul understands, remembers and loves them.

12. The human body is composed of four elements, whereas the soul is not made of opposites because it is incorruptible. In addition, because the soul and the body join in man, he is consequently subject to direct and natural oppositions in the body and indirect, accidental oppositions in the soul. Here, the intellect realizes that all sin is accidental. The soul and the body join together in man so that he is an efficient cause that moves form in matter toward an end, which he does by moving the soul in the body. Now the intellect knows how man is an efficient, material, formal and final cause.

13. In man, the soul and body join and this act signifies a conjunction that is a medium made of influences from the soul and the body. This medium consists of connatural and substantial understanding, willing and remembering, elementing, vegetating, sensing and imagining, without which there would be no substantial conjunction in man. In addition, man lives as long as this natural conjunction lasts in him, and he dies as soon as it dissolves. Here, the intellect knows how the soul and the body join and measure their acts with their own proportionate dispositions whereby the soul influences the body and the body sends its influence back to the soul while man exists as a subject and as the third number in the middle. Now the intellect understands how the root moisture and the nourishing moisture exist in man. The root moisture is made of primordial principles, points and lines that join with the soul. Nourishing moisture is its instrument - like the shuttle in a weaver's loom - as the movements of the elementative, vegetative, sensitive and imaginative powers induce points and lines. Their influence flows back and forth to keep the root moisture alive and growing with what it receives from outside and transmutes into its own species through the vegetative as the vegetative transmutes food into flesh, nerves and bones, and drink into blood, and food with drink into marrow, phlegm, choler, melancholy, brains, tears, saliva and sweat.

14. In man there is a natural conjunction of spiritual and corporeal ends for which man exists: he exists for a spiritual end by reason of his soul and for a corporeal end by reason of his body. In addition, moral ends arise and come forth from the soul and the body with which both find the enjoyment that is their repose.

15. The human soul is a major substantial image and the body is a lesser image than that of the soul. In the body, the imagination is a greater image than the sensitive power because it objectifies the sensitive power and contributes to its movement in a secondary way. In turn, the sensitive power is a greater image than the vegetative in which it is rooted and sustained; and the vegetative is a greater image than the elementative because it is founded on the elementative. Now the intellect realizes that there are greater and lesser accidental powers just as there are greater and lesser substantial powers.

16. In man the body and the soul are not equal, for the soul has higher principles and the body has lower ones; nonetheless they are joined so that the soul is entirely in the body and conversely, to make an equal composition and conjunction in man.

17. Man is a creature whom God brought forth from nothingness. As such, he is clothed with minority and he has to deal with minor things. As body and soul join in man, so does man move toward inferior mores with his soul and toward minor natural things with his body while he composes his morality by means of both body and soul. Here, the intellect sees how the soul is inclined toward sin, which is a thing so small that it has no essence, it is nothing

but a privative habit that deviates its subject from his intended purpose. Now the intellect knows what sin is, how it grows and what its origins are.