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Objection 1: It would seem that the sensitive soul is not
transmitted with the semen, but created by God. For every perfect
substance, not composed of matter and form, that begins to exist,
acquires existence not by generation, but by creation: for nothing is
generated save from matter. But the sensitive soul is a perfect
substance, otherwise it could not move the body; and since it is the
form of a body, it is not composed of matter and form. Therefore it
begins to exist not by generation but by creation.
Objection 2: Further, in living things the principle of generation
is the generating power; which, since it is one of the powers of the
vegetative soul, is of a lower order than the sensitive soul. Now
nothing acts beyond its species. Therefore the sensitive soul cannot
be caused by the animal's generating power.
Objection 3: Further, the generator begets its like: so that the
form of the generator must be actually in the cause of generation. But
neither the sensitive soul itself nor any part thereof is actually in
the semen, for no part of the sensitive soul is elsewhere than in some
part of the body; while in the semen there is not even a particle of
the body, because there is not a particle of the body which is not made
from the semen and by the power thereof. Therefore the sensitive soul
is not produced through the semen.
Objection 4: Further, if there be in the semen any principle
productive of the sensitive soul, this principle either remains after
the animal is begotten, or it does not remain. Now it cannot remain.
For either it would be identified with the sensitive soul of the
begotten animal; which is impossible, for thus there would be identity
between begetter and begotten, maker and made: or it would be distinct
therefrom; and again this is impossible, for it has been proved above
(Question 76, Article 4) that in one animal there is but one
formal principle, which is the soul. If on the other hand the
aforesaid principle does not remain, this again seems to be
impossible: for thus an agent would act to its own destruction, which
cannot be. Therefore the sensitive soul cannot be generated from the
semen.
On the contrary, The power in the semen is to the animal seminally
generated, as the power in the elements of the world is to animals
produced from these elements---for instance by putrefaction. But in
the latter animals the soul is produced by the elemental power,
according to Gn. 1:20: "Let the waters bring forth the creeping
creatures having life." Therefore also the souls of animals seminally
generated are produced by the seminal power.
I answer that, Some have held that the sensitive souls of animals are
created by God (Question 65, Article 4). This opinion would
hold if the sensitive soul were subsistent, having being and operation
of itself. For thus, as having being and operation of itself, to be
made would needs be proper to it. And since a simple and subsistent
thing cannot be made except by creation, it would follow that the
sensitive soul would arrive at existence by creation.
But this principle is false---namely, that being and operation are
proper to the sensitive soul, as has been made clear above (Question
75, Article 3): for it would not cease to exist when the body
perishes. Since, therefore, it is not a subsistent form, its
relation to existence is that of the corporeal forms, to which
existence does not belong as proper to them, but which are said to
exist forasmuch as the subsistent composites exist through them.
Wherefore to be made is proper to composites. And since the generator
is like the generated, it follows of necessity that both the sensitive
soul, and all other like forms are naturally brought into existence by
certain corporeal agents that reduce the matter from potentiality to
act, through some corporeal power of which they are possessed.
Now the more powerful an agent, the greater scope its action has: for
instance, the hotter a body, the greater the distance to which its
heat carries. Therefore bodies not endowed with life, which are the
lowest in the order of nature, generate their like, not through some
medium, but by themselves; thus fire by itself generates fire. But
living bodies, as being more powerful, act so as to generate their
like, both without and with a medium. Without a medium---in the
work of nutrition, in which flesh generates flesh: with a
medium---in the act of generation, because the semen of the animal
or plant derives a certain active force from the soul of the generator,
just as the instrument derives a certain motive power from the principal
agent. And as it matters not whether we say that something is moved by
the instrument or by the principal agent, so neither does it matter
whether we say that the soul of the generated is caused by the soul of
the generator, or by some seminal power derived therefrom.
Reply to Objection 1: The sensitive soul is not a perfect
self-subsistent substance. We have said enough (Question 25,
Article 3) on this point, nor need we repeat it here.
Reply to Objection 2: The generating power begets not only by its
own virtue but by that of the whole soul, of which it is a power.
Therefore the generating power of a plant generates a plant, and that
of an animal begets an animal. For the more perfect the soul is, to
so much a more perfect effect is its generating power ordained.
Reply to Objection 3: This active force which is in the semen, and
which is derived from the soul of the generator, is, as it were, a
certain movement of this soul itself: nor is it the soul or a part of
the soul, save virtually; thus the form of a bed is not in the saw or
the axe, but a certain movement towards that form. Consequently there
is no need for this active force to have an actual organ; but it is
based on the (vital) spirit in the semen which is frothy, as is
attested by its whiteness. In which spirit, moreover, there is a
certain heat derived from the power of the heavenly bodies, by virtue
of which the inferior bodies also act towards the production of the
species as stated above (Question 115, Article 3, ad 2).
And since in this (vital) spirit the power of the soul is concurrent
with the power of a heavenly body, it has been said that "man and the
sun generate man." Moreover, elemental heat is employed
instrumentally by the soul's power, as also by the nutritive power,
as stated (De Anima ii, 4).
Reply to Objection 4: In perfect animals, generated by coition,
the active force is in the semen of the male, as the Philosopher says
(De Gener. Animal. ii, 3); but the foetal matter is provided
by the female. In this matter, the vegetative soul exists from the
very beginning, not as to the second act, but as to the first act, as
the sensitive soul is in one who sleeps. But as soon as it begins to
attract nourishment, then it already operates in act. This matter
therefore is transmuted by the power which is in the semen of the male,
until it is actually informed by the sensitive soul; not as though the
force itself which was in the semen becomes the sensitive soul; for
thus, indeed, the generator and generated would be identical;
moreover, this would be more like nourishment and growth than
generation, as the Philosopher says. And after the sensitive soul,
by the power of the active principle in the semen, has been produced in
one of the principal parts of the thing generated, then it is that the
sensitive soul of the offspring begins to work towards the perfection of
its own body, by nourishment and growth. As to the active power which
was in the semen, it ceases to exist, when the semen is dissolved and
the (vital) spirit thereof vanishes. Nor is there anything
unreasonable in this, because this force is not the principal but the
instrumental agent; and the movement of an instrument ceases when once
the effect has been produced.
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