summa-contra-gentiles

30 THE SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES
CHAPTER XX
THAT NO BODY CAN CREATE
Hence it is evident that no body can produce anything by
creation.
For no body acts unless it be moved : since agent and
patient must be together, as also maker and that which is
made :^ and those things are together which are in the same
place, as stated in 6 Phys.,^ and a body does not acquire a
place except by movement. But no body is moved except
in time. Wherefore whatever is done by the action of a
body is done successively whereas : creation, as we have
proved,^ is without succession. Therefore nothing can be
produced by way of creation by any body whatever.
Further. Every agent that acts through being moved, of
necessity moves that on which it acts, for the thing made
and the thing patient are consequent upon the disposition
of maker and agent, since every agent produces
its like.
Hence, if the agent, while varying in disposition, acts in
as much as it is
changed by movement, it follows that also
in the patient and the thing made there is a succession of
dispositions, which is
impossible without movement. Now
no body moves unless it be moved, as we have proved.
Therefore nothing results from the action of a body, except
by the movement or change of the thing made. But
creation is neither change nor movement, as proved above.*
Therefore no body can cause a thing by creating it.
Again. Since agent and effect must needs be like each
other, a thing cannot produce the whole substance of the
effect, unless it act by its entire substance thus the Philosopher
proves conversely (7 Metaph.),^ that if a form with-
;
out matter acts by its whole self, it cannot be the proximate
cause of generation wherein the form alone is
brought into
act. Now no body acts by its whole substance, although
the whole of it acts : for since every agent acts by the form
* Cf. below, Moreover ...
• iii. 2.
• Ch. xvii.
' D. 6, viii. 5, 6.
' Ch. xix.