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We hold, therefore, that free-will comes on the scene at the same
moment as reason, and that change and alteration are congenital to all
that is produced. For all that is produced is also subject to change.
For those things must be subject to change whose production has its
origin in change. And change consists in being brought into being out
of nothing, and in transforming a substratum of matter into something
different. Inanimate things, then, and things without reason undergo
the aforementioned bodily changes, while the changes of things endowed
with reason depend on choice. For reason consists of a speculative and
a practical part. The speculative part is the contemplation of the
nature of things, and the practical consists in deliberation and
defines the true reason for what is to be done. The speculative side
is called mind or wisdom, and the practical side is called reason or
prudence. Every one, then, who deliberates does so in the belief
that the choice of what is to be done lies in his hands, that he may
choose what seems best as the result of his deliberation, and having
chosen may act upon it. And if this is so, free-will must
necessarily be very closely related to reason. For either man is an
irrational being, or, if he is rational, he is master of his acts and
endowed with free-will. Hence also creatures without reason do not
enjoy free-will: for nature leads them rather than they nature, and
so they do not oppose the natural appetite, but as soon as their
appetite longs after anything they rush headlong after it. But man,
being rational, leads nature rather than nature him, and so when he
desires aught he has the power to curb his appetite or to indulge it as
he pleases. Hence also creatures devoid of reason are the subjects
neither of praise nor blame, while man is the subject of both praise
and blame.
Note also that the angels, being rational, are endowed with
free-will, and, inasmuch as they are created, are liable to change.
This in fact is made plain by the devil who, although made good by the
Creator, became of his own free-will the inventor of evil, and by
the powers who revolted with him, that is the demons, and by the other
troops of angels who abode in goodness.
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