Of God and His Creatures
Of the Subordination of Men one to another
SINCE man is endowed with understanding and sense and bodily power,
these faculties are arranged in order in him by the disposition of
divine providence according to the plan of the order that obtains in
the universe, bodily power being put under that of sense and intellect
as carrying out their command, and the sentient faculty itself under
the faculty of intellect. And similar is the order between man and man.
Men pre-eminent in understanding naturally take the command; while men
poor in understanding, but of great bodily strength, seem by nature
designate for servants, as Aristotle says in his Politics,* with whom Solomon is of one mind, saying:
The fool shall serve the wise (Prov. xi, 29). But as in the
works of one man disorder is born of intellect following sense, so in
the commonwealth the like disorder ensues where the ruler holds his
place, not by pre-eminence of understanding, but by usurpation of
bodily strength, or is brought into power by some burst of passion. Nor
is Solomon silent upon this disorder: There is an evil that I have
seen under the sun, a fool set in high estate (Eccles x, 5, 6). But
even such an anomaly does not carry with it the entire perversion of
the natural order: for the dominion of fools is weak, unless
strengthened by the counsel of the wise. Hence it is said: A wise
man is strong, and a knowing man stout and valiant: because war is
managed by due ordering, and there shall be safety where there are many
counsels (Prov. xxiv, 5, 6). And because he who gives counsel rules
him who takes it, and becomes in a manner his master, it is said: A
wise servant shall be master over foolish sons (Prov. xvii, 2).
3.78 : That Intelligent Creatures are the Medium through which other Creatures are governed by God
3.88 : That other Subsistent Intelligences cannot be direct Causes of our Elections and Volitions