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Objection 1: It would seem that the angel does not love himself both
with natural love and a love of choice. For, as was said (Article
2), natural love regards the end itself; while love of choice
regards the means to the end. But the same thing, with regard to the
same, cannot be both the end and a means to the end. Therefore
natural love and the love of choice cannot have the same object.
Objection 2: Further, as Dionysius observes (Div. Nom. iv):
"Love is a uniting and a binding power." But uniting and binding
imply various things brought together. Therefore the angel cannot love
himself.
Objection 3: Further, love is a kind of movement. But every
movement tends towards something else. Therefore it seems that an
angel cannot love himself with either natural or elective love.
On the contrary, The Philosopher says (Ethic. ix, 8): "Love
for others comes of love for oneself."
I answer that, Since the object of love is good, and good is to be
found both in substance and in accident, as is clear from Ethic. i,
6, a thing may be loved in two ways; first of all as a subsisting
good; and secondly as an accidental or inherent good. That is loved
as a subsisting good, which is so loved that we wish well to it. But
that which we wish unto another, is loved as an accidental or inherent
good: thus knowledge is loved, not that any good may come to it but
that it may be possessed. This kind of love has been called by the
name "concupiscence" while the first is called "friendship."
Now it is manifest that in things devoid of knowledge, everything
naturally seeks to procure what is good for itself; as fire seeks to
mount upwards. Consequently both angel and man naturally seek their
own good and perfection. This is to love self. Hence angel and man
naturally love self, in so far as by natural appetite each desires what
is good for self. On the other hand, each loves self with the love of
choice, in so far as from choice he wishes for something which will
benefit himself.
Reply to Objection 1: It is not under the same but under quite
different aspects that an angel or a man loves self with natural and
with elective love, as was observed above.
Reply to Objection 2: As to be one is better than to be united, so
there is more oneness in love which is directed to self than in love
which unites one to others. Dionysius used the terms "uniting" and
"binding" in order to show the derivation of love from self to things
outside self; as uniting is derived from unity.
Reply to Objection 3: As love is an action which remains within the
agent, so also is it a movement which abides within the lover, but
does not of necessity tend towards something else; yet it can be
reflected back upon the lover so that he loves himself; just as
knowledge is reflected back upon the knower, in such a way that he
knows himself.
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