Cf. Sum. Theol. 1a-2ae, q. 87, art. 3 (Aquinas Ethicus, I, 254). Interminable here may have two meanings. (1) It may mean final in the sense that the person punished shall never be brought to his last end; but whether he shall exist for ever under privation of it, is left an open question (notwithstanding B. II, Chap. LXXIX). (2) Or it may mean eternal connoting the existence of the soul for ever under privation of the last end. That punishment is interminable in the second sense, is a revealed truth of faith. But, revelation apart, it is questionable whether the a priori arguments of philosophers evince more than interminability in the sense of finality, as explained under the former head. See Ethics and Natural Law, pp. 164-166. The reader will consider how far the arguments of this chapter carry him beyond finality to positive eternal duration.

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