1 Objection 1: It seems that the soul is united to the animal body by means of a body. For Augustine says Gen. ad lit. vii, 19), that the soul administers the body by light, that is, by fire, and by air, which is most akin to a spirit. But fire and air are bodies. Therefore the soul is united to the human body by means of a body.
1 Ad septimum sic proceditur. Videtur quod anima uniatur corpori animalis mediante aliquo corpore. Dicit enim Augustinus, VII super Gen. ad Litt., quod anima per lucem, idest ignem, et aerem, quae sunt similiora spiritui, corpus administrat. Ignis autem et aer sunt corpora. Ergo anima unitur corpori humano mediante aliquo corpore.
2 Objection 2: Further, a link between two things seems to be that thing the removal of which involves the cessation of their union. But when breathing ceases, the soul is separated from the body. Therefore the breath, which is a subtle body, is the means of union between soul and body.
2 Praeterea, id quo subtracto solvitur unio aliquorum unitorum, videtur esse medium inter ea. Sed deficiente spiritu, anima a corpore separatur. Ergo spiritus, qui est quoddam corpus subtile, medium est in unione corporis et animae.
3 Objection 3: Further, things which are very distant from one another, are not united except by something between them. But the intellectual soul is very distant from the body, both because it is incorporeal, and because it is incorruptible. Therefore it seems to be united to the body by means of an incorruptible body, and such would be some heavenly light, which would harmonize the elements, and unite them together.
3 Praeterea, ea quae sunt multum distantia, non uniuntur nisi per medium. Sed anima intellectiva distat a corpore et quia est incorporea, et quia est incorruptibilis. Ergo videtur quod uniatur ei mediante aliquo quod sit corpus incorruptibile. Et hoc videtur esse aliqua lux caelestis, quae conciliat elementa et redigit in unum.
4 On the contrary, The Philosopher says De Anima ii, 1): We need not ask if the soul and body are one, as neither do we ask if wax and its shape are one. But the shape is united to the wax without a body intervening. Therefore also the soul is thus united to the body.
4 Sed contra est quod philosophus dicit, in II de anima, quod non oportet quaerere si unum est anima et corpus, sicut neque ceram et figuram. Sed figura unitur cerae nullo corpore mediante. Ergo et anima corpori.
5 I answer that, If the soul, according to the Platonists, were united to the body merely as a motor, it would be right to say that some other bodies must intervene between the soul and body of man, or any animal whatever; for a motor naturally moves what is distant from it by means of something nearer. If, however, the soul is united to the body as its form, as we have said Article 1), it is impossible for it to be united by means of another body.
The reason of this is that a thing is one, according as it is a being. Now the form, through itself, makes a thing to be actual since it is itself essentially an act; nor does it give existence by means of something else. Wherefore the unity of a thing composed of matter and form, is by virtue of the form itself, which by reason of its very nature is united to matter as its act. Nor is there any other cause of union except the agent, which causes matter to be in act, as the Philosopher says, Metaph.
viii Did. vii, 6). From this it is clear how false are the opinions of those who maintained the existence of some mediate bodies between the soul and body of man. Of these certain Platonists said that the intellectual soul has an incorruptible body naturally united to it, from which it is never separated, and by means of which it is united to the corruptible body of man. Others said that the soul is united to the body by means of a corporeal spirit.
Others said it is united to the body by means of light, which, they say, is a body and of the nature of the fifth essence; so that the vegetative soul would be united to the body by means of the light of the sidereal heaven; the sensible soul, by means of the light of the crystal heaven; and the intellectual soul by means of the light of the empyrean heaven. Now all this is fictious and ridiculous: for light is not a body; and the fifth essence does not enter materially into the composition of a mixed body since it is unchangeable), but only virtually: and lastly, because the soul is immediately united to the body as the form to matter.
5 Respondeo dicendum quod si anima, secundum Platonicos, corpori uniretur solum ut motor, conveniens esset dicere quod inter animam hominis, vel cuiuscumque animalis, et corpus aliqua alia corpora media intervenirent, convenit enim motori aliquid distans per media magis propinqua movere. Si vero anima unitur corpori ut forma, sicut iam dictum est, impossibile est quod uniatur ei aliquo corpore mediante. Cuius ratio est, quia sic dicitur aliquid unum, quomodo et ens. Forma autem per seipsam facit rem esse in actu, cum per essentiam suam sit actus; nec dat esse per aliquod medium.
Unde unitas rei compositae ex materia et forma est per ipsam formam, quae secundum seipsam unitur materiae ut actus eius. Nec est aliquid aliud uniens nisi agens, quod facit materiam esse in actu, ut dicitur in VIII Metaphys. Unde patet esse falsas opiniones eorum qui posuerunt aliqua corpora esse media inter animam et corpus hominis. Quorum quidam Platonici dixerunt quod anima intellectiva habet corpus incorruptibile sibi naturaliter unitum, a quo nunquam separatur, et eo mediante unitur corpori hominis corruptibili. Quidam vero dixerunt quod unitur corpori mediante spiritu corporeo.
Alii vero dixerunt quod unitur corpori mediante luce, quam dicunt esse corpus, et de natura quintae essentiae, ita quod anima vegetabilis unitur corpori mediante luce caeli siderei; anima vero sensibilis, mediante luce caeli crystallini; anima vero intellectualis, mediante luce caeli Empyrei. Quod fictitium et derisibile apparet, tum quia lux non est corpus; tum quia quinta essentia non venit materialiter in compositionem corporis mixti, cum sit inalterabilis, sed virtualiter tantum; tum etiam quia anima immediate corpori unitur ut forma materiae.
6 Reply to Objection 1: Augustine speaks there of the soul as it moves the body; whence he uses the word administration. It is true that it moves the grosser parts of the body by the more subtle parts. And the first instrument of the motive power is a kind of spirit, as the Philosopher says in De causa motus animalium De mot. animal. x).
6 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod Augustinus loquitur de anima inquantum movet corpus, unde utitur verbo administrationis. Et verum est quod partes grossiores corporis per subtiliores movet. Et primum instrumentum virtutis motivae est spiritus, ut dicit philosophus in libro de causa motus animalium.
7 Reply to Objection 2: The union of soul and body ceases at the cessation of breath, not because this is the means of union, but because of the removal of that disposition by which the body is disposed for such a union. Nevertheless the breath is a means of moving, as the first instrument of motion.
7 Ad secundum dicendum quod, subtracto spiritu, deficit unio animae ad corpus, non quia sit medium; sed quia tollitur dispositio per quam corpus est dispositum ad talem unionem. Est tamen spiritus medium in movendo, sicut primum instrumentum motus.
8 Reply to Objection 3: The soul is indeed very distant from the body, if we consider the condition of each separately: so that if each had a separate existence, many means of connection would have to intervene. But inasmuch as the soul is the form of the body, it has not an existence apart from the existence of the body, but by its own existence is united to the body immediately. This is the case with every form which, if considered as an act, is very distant from matter, which is a being only in potentiality.
8 Ad tertium dicendum quod anima distat quidem a corpore plurimum, si utriusque conditiones seorsum considerentur, unde si utrumque ipsorum separatim esse haberet, oporteret quod multa media intervenirent. Sed inquantum anima est forma corporis, non habet esse seorsum ab esse corporis; sed per suum esse corpori unitur immediate. Sic enim et quaelibet forma, si consideretur ut actus, habet magnam distantiam a materia, quae est ens in potentia tantum.