Article VII

THE seventh question is: Is a spiritual substance united to an ethereal body?

And it would seem that it is. 1 For Augustine says in III Super Genesi ad Litteram [X, 14] and in IV De Civitate Dei [VIII, 16; XV, 23] that demons have ethereal bodies. But demons are spiritual substances. Therefore a spiritual substance is united to an ethereal body.

2 Furthermore, Augustine says in his book De Divinatione Daemonum [III, 7, PL XL, 584] that demons are beyond the human senses because of the subtility of an ethereal body. Now this would not be the case, unless they were naturally united to an ethereal body. Therefore spiritual substances are united to an ethereal body.

3 Furthermore, the mean does not differ widely from the extremes. But in the region of heavenly bodies life is found, according to those who assert that the heavenly bodies are animate; and in the region of earth life is found in animals and in plants. Therefore in the middle region also, that of the air, life is found. Nor can this have reference to bird life, because birds are raised above the earth a little distance in the air, and it would not seem fitting that all the other air space should remain devoid of life. One must then assert, as it seems, that some ethereal living beings exist in it, from which it follows that some spiritual substances are united to an ethereal body.

4 Furthermore, a body that is more noble has a more noble form. But air is a more noble body than earth, inasmuch as it is more formal and more fine. If then a spiritual substance such as the soul is united to an earthly body, namely, a human body, for all the greater reason would it be united to an ethereal body.

5 Furthermore, in the case of things which agree more closely, union is easier. But "air" seems to agree more with "soul" than does a mixed body, such as man's body is; because, as Augustine says in Super Genesi ad Litteram [VII, 15 and 19], the soul manages the body through air. Therefore the soul is naturally more apt to be united to an ethereal body than even to a mixed body.

6 Furthermore, it is said in the book De Substantia Orbis [of Averroes, II]: "Circular movement is characteristic of the soul," and this for the reason that the soul, so far as it is itself concerned, is disposed to do its moving in all directions without any difference. But this also seems to be characteristic of the air, because it is light in combination with light objects and heavy in combination with heavy objects. Therefore the soul would seem most of all to be united to air.

But on the other hand, the soul is the act of an organic body. But an ethereal body cannot be organic because, since it cannot be bounded by a boundary of its own but only by the boundary of something else, it cannot have any shape. Therefore a spiritual substance, which the soul is, cannot be united to an ethereal body.

ANSWER. It must be said that it is impossible for a spiritual substance to be united to an ethereal body. This can be clearly shown in three ways. In the first place, because among all other bodies the simple bodies of elements are the more imperfect, since they are like matter in relation to all other bodies. And hence it is not consistent with the scheme of things for some simple elementary body to be united to a spiritual substance as a form. The second reason is that air is a body, which is homogeneous as a whole and in all its parts. Hence if some spiritual substance is united to any one part of the air, for the same reason it will also be united to the whole air, and likewise to every other element, which seems absurd. The third reason is that a spiritual substance is found to be united to a given body in two ways: in one way, in order to furnish movement to a body, as, for instance, it was said that spiritual substances are united to the heavenly bodies; in another way, in order that a spiritual substance may be helped by a body as regards its own proper activity, which is understanding, as a human soul, for instance, is united to a body in order that it may acquire a store of knowledge through the bodily senses. But a spiritual substance cannot be united to the air; not by reason of movement, because air has a certain connatural movement which is a consequence of its natural form, nor is there to be found any movement in the whole air or in any part thereof which cannot be referred back to some bodily cause; and hence from its movement it does not appear that a spiritual substance is united to it. Nor yet is a spiritual substance united to an ethereal body for the perfection of intellectual activity: for a simple body cannot be an instrument of sense, as is proven in De Anima [III, 12, 434b 10]. Hence the only remaining alternative is that spiritual substance is in no way united to a body.

As to the first argument, therefore, it must be said that wherever Augustine says that demons have ethereal bodies, he does not say so as an assertion of his own belief, but according to the opinion of others. And hence he himself says in XII De Civitate Dei [X, 1]: "Even demons have a kind of body of their own, as learned men have thought, of that thick and humid air . . . But if anyone should assert that demons have no bodies, there is no need either to work out a laborious investigation of this matter or to quarrel about it in contentious argument."

And through this the solution to the second is clear.

As to the third, it must be said that the place for the mixing of the elements is in the lower region, namely, that around the earth. Now mixed bodies, the closer they come to an equal mixture, the farther do they recede from the extremes of contraries; and thus they acquire a kind of likeness to the heavenly bodies, which are without contrariety. And so it is clear that life is more able to exist in the highest and in the lowest region than in the middle one; especially when, in the case of those lower ones, the body is all the more prepared for life the nearer it comes to an equality of constituency.

As to the fourth, it must be said that the body "air" is more noble than the body "earth." But a body of equal constituency is more noble than both, because it is more distant from contrariety; and this kind of body only is found to be united to a spiritual substance. In it, nevertheless, the lower element must be materially more abundant in order to constitute equality, on account of the excess of active power in the other elements.

As to the fifth, it must be said that a soul is said to manage its own body through air so far as movement is concerned, because air is more susceptible to movement than are other dense bodies.

As to the sixth, it must be said that air is not indifferent to every movement, but in combination with certain bodies it is light, in combination with others it is heavy; and hence from this we cannot conclude that air is perfectible through a soul.