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The Fourth Treatise - CHAPTER XXI
That we may have more perfect knowledge of Human Goodness, as it is
the original cause in us of all good that can be called Nobility, it
is requisite to explain clearly in this especial chapter how this
Goodness descends into us.
In the first place, it comes by the Natural way, and then by the
Theological way, that is to say, the Divine and Spiritual. In the
first place, it is to be known that man is composed of Soul and body;
but that Goodness or Nobility is of the Soul, as has been said, and is
after the manner of seed from the Divine Virtue. By different
philosophers it has been differently argued concerning the difference
in our Souls; for Avicenna and Algazel were of opinion that Souls of
themselves and from their beginning were Noble or Base. Plato and some
others were of opinion that they proceeded by the stars, and were
Noble more or less according to the nobility of the star. Pythagoras
was of opinion that all were of one nobility, not only human Souls,
but with human Souls those of the brute animals and of the trees and
the forms of minerals; and he said that all the difference in the
bodies is form. If each one were to defend his opinion, it might be
that Truth would be seen to be in all. But since on the surface they
seem somewhat distant from the Truth, one must not proceed according
to those opinions, but according to the opinion of Aristotle and of
the Peripatetics. And therefore I say that when the human seed falls
into its receptacle, that is, into the matrix, it bears with it the
virtue or power of the generative Soul, and the virtue or power of
Heaven, and the virtue or power of the aliments united or bound
together, that is the involution or complex nature of the seed. It
matures and prepares the material for the formative power or virtue
which the generating Soul bestows; and the formative power or virtue
prepares the organs for the celestial virtue or power, which produces,
from the power of the seed, the Soul in life; which, as soon as
produced, receives from the power of the Mover of the Heaven the
passive intellect or mind, which potentially brings together in itself
all the universal forms according as they are in its producer, and so
much the less in proportion as it is farther removed from the first
Intelligence.
Let no one marvel if I speak what seems difficult to understand; for
to myself it seems a miracle how it is possible even to arrive at a
conclusion concerning it, and to perceive it with the intellect. It is
not a thing to reveal in language, especially the language of the
Vulgar Tongue; wherefore I will say, even as did the Apostle: "Oh,
great is the depth of the riches of Wisdom of God: how incomprehensible
are Thy judgments, and Thy ways past finding out!" And since the
complex nature of the seed may be better and less good, and the
disposition of the receiver of the seed may be better and less good,
and the disposition of the dominant Heaven to this effect may be good
and better and best, which varies in the constellations, which are
continually transformed; it befalls that from the human seed and from
these virtues or powers the Soul is produced more or less pure; and
according to its purity there descends into it the virtue or power of
the possible or passive intellect, as it is called, and as it has been
spoken of. And if it happen that through the purity of the receptive
Soul the intellectual power is indeed separate and absolute, free from
all corporeal shadow, the Divine Goodness multiplies in it, as in a
thing sufficient to receive that good gift; and then it multiplies in
the Soul of this intelligent being, according as it can receive it;
and this is that seed of Happiness of which we speak at present. And
this is in harmony with the opinion of Tullius in that book on Old Age
when, speaking personally of Cato, he says: "For this reason a
celestial spirit descended into us from the highest habitation, having
come into a place which is adverse to the Divine Nature and to
Eternity." And in such a Soul as this there is its own individual
power, and the intellectual power, and the Divine power; that is to
say, that influence which has been mentioned. Therefore it is written
in the book On Causes: "Each Noble Soul has three operations, that is
to say, the animal, the intellectual, and the Divine." And there are
some men who hold such opinions that they say, if all the preceding
powers were to unite in the production of a Soul in their best
disposition, arrangement, order, that into that Soul would descend so
much of the Deity that it would be as it were another God Incarnate;
and this is almost all that it is possible to say concerning the
Natural way.
By the Theological way it is possible to say that, when the Supreme
Deity, that is, God, sees His creature prepared to receive His good
gift, so freely He imparts it to His creature in proportion as it is
prepared or qualified to receive it. And because these gifts proceed
from ineffable Love, and the Divine Love is appropriate to the Holy
Spirit, therefore it is that they are called the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, which, even as the Prophet Isaiah distinguishes them, are
seven, namely, Wisdom, Intelligence, Counsel, Courage, Knowledge,
Pity, and the Fear of God. O, good green blades, and good and
wonderful the seed!
And O, admirable and benign Sower of the seed, who dost only wait for
human nature to prepare the ground for Thee wherein to sow! O, blessed
are those who till the land to fit it to receive such seed!
Here it is to be known that the first noble shoot which germinates
from this seed that it may be fruitful, is the desire or appetite of
the mind, which in Greek is called "hormen;" and if this is not well
cultivated and held upright by good habits, the seed is of little
worth, and it would be better if it had not been sown.
And therefore St. Augustine urges, and Aristotle also in the second
book of Ethics, that man should accustom himself to do good, and to
bridle in his passions, in order that this shoot which has been
mentioned may grow strong through good habits, and be confirmed in its
uprightness, so that it may fructify, and from its fruit may issue the
sweetness of Human Happiness. _
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