PROPOSITION LXIII.

In ultimate analysis, the extrinsic cause of Formal or Universal Unity are the Prototypal Ideas in God and the Unity of the Divine Nature.

An artist has need of two things before he can commence upon his work, -- not to mention other prerequisites, which do not fall within the scope of the present inquiry. He must have an object, or objects, which may supply the material elements, and form the foundation, of his concept. He must, besides, have an idea of that which he intends to produce. Without both of these, the production of any work of art is impossible. A man who has been born blind could never become a landscape-painter; because the objects from which to form his design could never be present to him. A horse could never paint a landscape; because it is incapable of forming an idea, In the supreme Artificer these two requisites are found in infinite perfection. For His own infinite and infinitely perfect Essence is the one, adequate, Object of His Intelligence. That Nature, while It is infinitely one and simple, is likewise infinite reality. There is no reality, actually or possibly existing outside of God, which is not, (so far as it is pure reality), to be found in the Divine Nature after an inconceivably perfect manner. That Nature is, as has been just remarked, infinite reality. Therefore, though there may be existences outside of God, yet there can be no reality in them which has not its equivalent in Him; otherwise, by virtue of such reality, He would cease to be the Infinite, being limited by it. The Divine Intellect, then, contemplating Its Infinite Nature, conceives It as limitedly imitable outside Himself in an infinite order of degrees. These orders of possible creation It represents to Itself with an all-perfect distinctness, and thus, -- to speak after the manner of men, -- are formed those Prototypal Ideas in the Divine Wisdom, out of which God selects the whole plan of His creation. Hence it is, that all created things are, in their respective orders, partial imitations of the Divine Nature. Their very existence and individuation are an imitation, in the far distance, of the Divine Existence and Divine Individuality.

These Prototypal Ideas in God, are the patterns of each and every specific Nature; so that, whenever the Creator determines to create a certain number of individuals according to one specific Prototypal Idea, these must be alike and specifically one, because they are all produced after the same model. Hence, too, are derived the eternity and immutability of created Essences or Natures. They are in the creature itself, considered as existences, temporal and changing; but they are immutable and eternal in their Pattern. Hence, though Peter may die and change in many respects during his life; yet, so long as he exists, he must be a rational animal, because he is a man. Since, therefore, the created Nature, considered in the abstract, prescinds from all conditions of existence; it is immutable and eternal, because it is a simple, unconditioned reflex of the Divine Idea. Again; since these Prototypal Ideas are the Divine Concept of their primary Object which is indivisibly, infinitely, one and simple; they represent that oneness and simplicity as governing all the multiplicity of creative beings. As, therefore, created things are imitations of the Divine Nature, it is impossible that there should be complete isolation of Essence anywhere, throughout the whole Universe. There must be a certain fraternity of Natures, which becomes more apparent as creation mounts higher, and approaches nearer to God, In the Divine Prototypal Ideas, then, and in the Unity of the Divine Nature are to be found a sufficient reason and external cause of Formal or Universal Unity.

But here we are met by a grave difficulty. For, if individuals, according to the above declaration, are created according to a Prototypal Idea which is representative of the specific Nature of each, it would seem to follow that there is no Divine Preconception of the individual, as such; consequently, as its individuation is not included in the Divine design, it must be the result of hap-hazard. But, in this way, the Divine Wisdom becomes limited; which is impossible. It follows, then, that the Prototypal Idea should present the individual, not the specific, Nature. St. Thomas supplies the answer to this difficulty. 'In God,' he says, 'there exist Ideas of individuals, proper to themselves. Hence, the Divine Idea of Peter is different from the Idea of Martin; just as the Idea of a man is different from that of a horse. But, notwithstanding, the difference between a man and a horse is according to the Form, with which there is a perfectly corresponding Idea; whereas the distinction of individuals of one specific essence is according to the Matter, which has a' (corresponding) 'Idea, not perfectly. Wherefore, the distinction of Ideas answering to different Species is more perfect than that which corresponds with difference of individuals; yet, in such sort, that the imperfection is to be referred to the imitative entities, not to the Divine Essence which they imitate.'^{1} That is to say, that the Haecceity, or individual determination, of each Being is represented in the Divine Idea; but so, that the Prototype of the specific nature stands out, if one may say so, in the foreground, while the individual Difference subordinately completes the design. This contrast, however, between the two in perfectness of representation, is not traceable to the Divine Idea, Which is infinitely and most simply perfect; but to the nature of the object. For the Form, or Essence is perfectly intelligible; but those material, determinations, (which, at least metaphysically, constitute the Haecceity), because they are material and therefore furthest removed from the Divine Nature, are only imperfectly capable of intellectual representation.

COROLLARY.

From what has been stated it will be seen, that Philosophy, in presenting to itself the essences of things as the exclusive object of its contemplation and research, is pursuing the only true path to wisdom. For the material and individual is only by accident, (as one may say), an object of the intellect at all. By the investigation of essences, the mind is ever arriving at fresh unity; till it reaches as near to the universal Unity as is possible to its finite and unaided powers. All things flow from Unity and are, therefore, interchained one with another by ceaseless affinities. To ascend upwards, through the multiplicity of an evolved creation, towards the Unity and the primal Cause of Unity, is to know. Science, therefore, properly so called, deals with universals, and with universals only. Facts are phenomenal truths. They are the husk and, in consequence, cannot be ignored; but Philosophy seeks the kernel. A materialistic Philosophy is a contradiction in terms.

SUMMARY.

There is to be found, in all existing things, a real and true Formal Unity, or Unity of Nature, which, nevertheless, is only conceptually distinguishable from their individual Unity; for the common Nature and the individual determination are, in them, really and undividedly one. The real foundation of this Formal Unity is the essence of the individual entity, -- which the intellect intues, as being its proper object. In the case of existing individuals belonging to one Species, the intellect can recognize the nature by the similarity, in each and all, of the essential notes. But this similarity is neither a necessary nor sufficient principle of Formal Unity; for there is found to be Formal Unity in cases where there is but one individual of the class; and similarity, of itself, is not Unity. This Formal Unity is the real foundation of Universal Unity, which itself is a pure creation of the human intellect; since all things that exist are individually one. Consequently, there is no such thing as a Universal, antecedently to all operation of the human intellect. This foundation of Universal Unity, which exists in Formal Unity, is said to consist in the aptitude of any created -- nature to exist in several Subjects; which aptitude cannot be found in the Nature as existing with its individual determinations, but only in so far forth as it is abstracted from such determinations.

It really consists in an indifference, or absence of repugnance, as regards individual multiplication. One and the same Nature is at once the object of the Specific, Differential, and Generic, concept; and the difference between these concepts arises from the fact that the intellect regards the same object in a different light. Such multiplication of the same specific Nature is rendered possible by reason of the limitation of created Being. In ultimate analysis, the extrinsic cause of the similarity of existing things with one another and of the graduation of such similarity, is to be traced to the Prototypal Ideas in God and to the Unity of the Divine Nature.

ARTICLE IV.

Distinction.

Many is opposed to one; and, as Unity is constituted by indivision, so multitude is constituted by division or distinction. A knowledge, therefore, of the various sorts of Distinction will be of great service towards acquiring a clearer understanding of the various sorts of Unity. The subject is an abstruse one, and beset with difficulties; it is one, nevertheless, that could not safely be omitted, not only because, without it, this Chapter on Unity would be incomplete, but, more particularly, because of its intimate and necessary connection with the science of Essences.

{1} 'Particularia habent proprias ideas in Deo; unde alia est ratio Petri et Martini in Deo, sicut alia ratio hominis et equi. Sed tamen diversitas hominis et equi est secundum formam, cui perfecte respondet idea; sed distinctio singularium unius speciei essentialis est secundum materiam, quae non perfecte habet ideam. Et ideo perfectior est distinctio rationum respondentium diversis speciebus quam diversis individuis; ita tamen, quod imperfectio referatur ad res imitantes, et non ad divinam essentiam quam imitantur.' In 1 Dist. xxxvi, Q. 2, a. 3, ad 3m.