Dist. 15, Art. 1, Q. 3
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/2/d/15/q/bon-sent-II-d15-a1-q3
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### Question III. *Whether the bodies of animals consist more of the passive elements than of the active.*

In the third place it is asked whether the bodies of animals consist more of the passive elements than of the active, or conversely. And that they consist more of the passive elements, it seems:

*For the first opinion.*

1. Through Scripture, which says that they were made of earth and water; this however is not said in such a way that any one of those elements is the whole matter of the sensible animals: therefore it is said by way of predominance.

2. Likewise, as the Philosopher holds, « animals consist of the same things from which they are nourished »; but animals are chiefly nourished by water and earth through food and drink: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, bodies are most of all constituted from those things in which they most rest, because rest is attended to according to appetite, and the intention of the appetite is according to the quantity of what predominates: if therefore all animals chiefly rest in water or in earth, it seems that they are most constituted from these.

4. Likewise, in the composition of the animal body the official members are made from the similar parts, and the similar parts from the humors; but in the humors the aqueous nature chiefly dominates, and in the solid members the terrestrial chiefly dominates: therefore if the elements do not come to the constitution of the animal body except through the humors and members, it seems that all animals are most constituted from these two elements.

*To the opposite it is argued thus.*

*For the second opinion.*

1. As the Philosopher holds, « life is chiefly through the hot and the moist »: therefore if all animals live, in them the hot and moist abound and predominate, therefore also that element in which these are principally present; but this element is active, namely air: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, as Augustine holds *On Genesis according to the Letter*, book III, and *On the Soul and Spirit*, light is that by means of which the body is united to the soul, and the soul rules the body: therefore if light is chiefly found in fire, it seems that in the body of every animal the nature of fire ought to predominate.

3. Likewise, the sensitive soul, just as it is the principle of sense, so it is the principle of *motion*: therefore the bodies of animals

ought to be fit not only for *sense*, but also for *motion*; but the heavy elements are least apt for *motion*, and these are the passive elements: therefore it seems that the bodies of animals consist more of the active than of the passive.

4. Likewise, to a noble perfection a noble perfectible ought to correspond; but the sensible soul is a perfection that is very noble: therefore the body for it ought to be constituted most of all from those elements which are nobler among the simple bodies; but these are the active elements, not the passive: therefore etc. *It is replied.* If you say to this, that the bodies of animals are constituted more from active than from passive elements according to the quantity of *power*, not of *mass*; it is objected against this, because motion follows the nature of what predominates according to quantity; but birds move upward: therefore it seems that in them according to quantity those elements predominate which are by nature carried upward. But these are active, and not passive, namely fire and air: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, flying creatures are for the adornment of the air; but adornment is properly and fittingly placed in that which is adorned, but no body is properly and fittingly ordered in the air, except that in which the active elements dominate: therefore if the bodies of birds are ordered there as adorning it, it seems that in them the active elements predominate. But if they are not properly placed there, because they do not rest there, but rather in the earth; it seems that flying creatures ought rather to be called for the adornment of the earth than of the air, which Scripture contradicts.

### Conclusion.

> In the bodies of animals the passive elements predominate as to the quantity of mass, but the active as to the quantity of power.

**I respond:** It must be said that since *the quantity and predominance are twofold*, quantity is twofold, namely of *mass* and of *power*, according to this the predominance of the elements can be attended to in two ways, namely as to mass and as to power. For if we speak of predominance as to *mass*, thus in the bodies of animals the passive elements predominate, and therefore *First conclusion.* they are said to be made most of all from these. But if we speak as to the quantity of *power*, since the complexioned body is by nature ruled by the soul through the active elements, thus the *active* elements predominate in them. *Second conclusion.*

*The reason from the end, threefold.* The reason for this, why the active and passive elements according to this twofold quantity of power and mass alternately predominate, is taken from the side of the *end*. For the end imposes necessity on those things which are toward the end; but the end of the complexioned body is the soul, inasmuch as it gives it *life* and *sense* and *motion*. — *Suitability for life.* But that body would not be fit for life, if the passive elements predominated in it as to quantity and power, because of their thickness and solidity, as are mineral bodies. Likewise neither would it be fit, if the active elements predominated in it as to power and quantity, because the passive elements would at once be consumed, nor would there be anything that could be vegetated by the soul. And so it had to be, that from a certain mutual predominance there should arise a certain mutual concord and proportion, from which that body would be apt for receiving life and the soul, which is as it were a certain *harmony*.

*Likewise for sense.* Likewise for sense it would not be suitable, unless the nature of the passive element predominated as to mass, because touch is the first among all the senses of the animal, in which sense earth predominates; and so, if earth did not predominate in the body, it would not be suitable for touch: therefore neither for any *sense*. Likewise it is necessary, for it to be suitable for sense, that *fire* should predominate in it as to power or heat. For heat and spirits are the instruments of the sensitive power, and this is what Augustine says, *On Genesis according to the Letter*, book III: « Touch, which is the fifth among the senses, agrees more with the terrestrial element; hence through the whole body of the living thing, which is most of all of earth, things touched are perceived ». And after: « The soul, which has the power of sensing, since it is not corporeal, by means of a more subtle body stirs up the vigor of sensing; for it initiates motion in all the senses through the subtlety of fire ». And thus from this it is plain that for the body to be suitable for *sense*, it is necessary that there be a mutual predominance of the active and passive elements.

*Likewise for motion.* Likewise for it to be suitable for *motion*, it is necessary that the *active* elements predominate virtually, through which the soul's motive power may reach to the members; it is also necessary that the passive predominate as to the quantity of mass, from which the solid members suitable for moving may be constituted. And this is what Augustine says in book III *On Genesis according to the Letter*: « Fire penetrates all things, that it may produce mo-

tion in them ». And after: « But therefore through the privation of heat, when the body grows excessively cold, sense is dulled, because motion grows sluggish, which is in the body from heat ». Thus therefore on account of motion it is necessary that there be a mutual predominance of the active and passive elements in the body of the animal, so that the members may be mobile, in such a way that they have vigor and agility from air and fire, but have *solidity* from the predominance of water and earth as to quantity.

Water therefore and earth in all animals predominate according to the quantity of *mass*. For just as some artisan, by mixing earth with water, makes mud and from it composes a statue; so, while the watery liquid is mixed with earth, humor is formed; and while it is coagulated by nature, the organic body comes to be. — *Twofold commixture.* But this commixture can be understood in two ways: either thus, that earth is mixed with pre-existing flowing water; or conversely, that earth is first as it were dry, and water is mixed in for the continuation of its parts. *Twofold mode of producing.* And in these two ways the bodies of animals were produced, and therefore some are said to be made from *the waters*, some from *the earth*. This however is not said because those which were made from the waters have more of water as to *substance*, than of earth — since every body of a living thing for its constitution receives more of earth as to *substance*, both on account of this, that it is what gives solidity and stability to the others, and also because it has little of species and much of matter — but what was said, that some were made from water, this is because in them more than in others the aqueous nature dominates. But I say this not as to the predominance of active or passive quality, but as to a certain conformity of nature, by which those things which were produced from the waters delight more to be in the waters.

*Corollary.* And since the aqueous humor is in a twofold differentiation, namely in the manner of *flowing humor* and in the manner of *exhaling vapor*; therefore water is the principle of a twofold kind of animals, namely of *swimming* and of *flying* creatures: of swimming creatures according to the nature of humor, and therefore those remained in the waters; of flying creatures according to vapor, and therefore, since that vapor is mixed with air and is borne upward, flying creatures are raised up into the air and can ascend so far as they find the air thickened with moist exhalations. And this is what Augustine says in book III *On Genesis according to the Letter*: « This lower air, which receives the moist exhalations of sea and earth and is thickened in a certain way to sustain birds, receives animals only from the waters. For what is moist in it, this carries the bodies of *fed creatures*, which use wings in flying, as *fishes* swim with certain fins of theirs; hence knowingly the Spirit of God says that flying things were produced *from the waters*. For the nature of the waters has obtained a twofold place, the *lower* namely in the gliding wave, the *higher* in the steady breeze, the former assigned to *swimming* things, the latter to *flying* things; just as we see also two senses given to animals suited to this element, smell for exploring vapors, taste for exploring liquids ».

From the foregoing therefore the response to the question proposed is plain; the response to the objections is also plain, because in the bodies of animals the *passive* elements predominate as to the quantity of *mass*, as the reasons brought forth for the first part show; nevertheless the *active* also predominate as to the quantity of *power*, as the four reasons brought against show.

*To the reply in 5 for the second opinion.* 4. To that which is objected in the fifth place, that in flying creatures air predominates as to quantity, because air moves upward; it must be said that when it is said, that motion follows the nature of what predominates, this is true of *natural* motion, which is owed to a body by reason of its weight; it is *not* true of *animal* motion, which is from the power *of the soul itself*. But the bodies of birds, left to their own nature, never ascend into the air, but descend to the earth; that they do ascend, this is by the power of the soul, with the wings and the interior spirits and the vapors raised into the air assisting them.

5. To that which is objected, that birds adorn the air; it must be said that they are not said to adorn the air because they rest more there than on earth — for this is false: on earth they rest and from it they receive nourishment — but the reason for this is that the act of birds is motion chiefly in flight; and because they exercise that in the air, therefore they are said to decorate and adorn the air; for they exercise their principal act there.

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