42 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



of matter unendowed with motion and, of 

 course, not self-existent. The introduction of 

 motion sets time going, and St Thomas shows 

 by reason that motion cannot be eternal. 



According to Christian Revelation the 

 material universe was not created from 

 eternity let us note in passing that here we 

 have an excellent example of the two kinds of 

 truths over the acceptance of which so much 

 confusion, as we have already pointed out, has 

 Matter arisen, fatter is eminently plastic, and has 

 been called "a storehouse of potentiality," 

 but its plasticity has its limits : "a thread of 

 wool will not make a saw," as Aristotle pointed 

 out. But its^plasticity^has to be put into 

 Form operation by the secondjactor, namely, Form. 

 This is the determining factor, and is the con- 

 stitutive cause of everything; the principle of 

 its intelligibility; the source of its activities; 

 the seat of its direction. 



Or we may put it in another way : 

 It is the Principle of 



Being for it determines primary matter. 

 Action for it is The foundation of the 



body's activities. 

 Finality for it~cbntrols its properties. 



This TTylnmnrpViiPtlipnry ^^hT^ngsn^nth the 



inorganic and the organic worlds, and as re- 

 gards the former, with which we are only 



