AND ITS SELF-CONSEKVATION. 211 



And first & formal cause is demanded. "Matter" is 

 impotent, a mere abstract identity. A complementary 

 formative principle is also necessary. In the first place, 

 too, this formative principle would seem to be something 

 quite external to the " matter;" in which case it applies 

 itself to the matter, gives it form, but still remains sepa- 

 rate from it. But form apart from matter is also a 

 substanceless abstraction. 



Thus, taken in isolation, it is evident that just as 

 material cause is a mere abstract, possible matter, so 

 formal cause is a mere abstract possibility of form. On 

 the other hand, in its concrete significance matter neces- 

 sarily presupposes form just as form presupposes matter. 

 Matter or substance can exist only so far as it takes on 

 form, only so far as it has specific character. Form is 

 possible only so far as it is the system through which mat- 

 ter gives evidence of its reality. 



But this is not all; for the very potentiality, alike of 

 matter or substance and of form or system, presupposes 

 also a potency through which that potentiality becomes 

 actuality. 



Thus an efficient cause or working, realizing energy is 

 necessarily implied in the conception either of material or 

 of formal cause. And here again we might suppose the 

 efficient cause to be independent of the other two. Yet 

 to be really efficient it must possess substantial reality. 

 Nor must it merely possess such reality; it must be that 

 reality. The working energy or efficient cause, then, is 

 itself already the essence or substance of things. Sepa- 

 rated from that substance it would be unreal and non- 

 efficient. Or, allowing it to possess reality and potency 

 apart from the material cause its very reality would prove 



