Whether Virtue by Habituation Belongs to the Same Species As Infused
Virtue?
Objection 1: It would seem that infused virtue does not differ in
species from acquired virtue. Because acquired and infused virtues,
according to what has been said (A. 3), do not differ seemingly, save
in relation to the last end. Now human habits and acts are specified,
not by their last, but by their proximate end. Therefore the infused
moral or intellectual virtue does not differ from the acquired virtue.
Obj. 2: Further, habits are known by their acts. But the act of
infused and acquired temperance is the same, viz. to moderate desires
of touch. Therefore they do not differ in species.
Obj. 3: Further, acquired and infused virtue differ as that which is
wrought by God immediately, from that which is wrought by a creature.
But the man whom God made, is of the same species as a man begotten
naturally; and the eye which He gave to the man born blind, as one
produced by the power of generation. Therefore it seems that acquired
and infused virtue belong to the same species.
_On the contrary,_ Any change introduced into the difference
expressed in a definition involves a difference of species. But the
definition of infused virtue contains the words, "which God works in
us without us," as stated above (Q. 55, A. 4). Therefore acquired
virtue, to which these words cannot apply, is not of the same species
as infused virtue.
_I answer that,_ There is a twofold specific difference among habits.
The first, as stated above (Q. 54, A. 2; Q. 56, A. 2; Q. 60, A. 1),
is taken from the specific and formal aspects of their objects. Now
the object of every virtue is a good considered as in that virtue's
proper matter: thus the object of temperance is a good in respect of
the pleasures connected with the concupiscence of touch. The formal
aspect of this object is from reason which fixes the mean in these
concupiscences: while the material element is something on the part
of the concupiscences. Now it is evident that the mean that is
appointed in such like concupiscences according to the rule of human
reason, is seen under a different aspect from the mean which is fixed
according to Divine rule. For instance, in the consumption of food,
the mean fixed by human reason, is that food should not harm the
health of the body, nor hinder the use of reason: whereas, according
to the Divine rule, it behooves man to "chastise his body, and bring
it into subjection" (1 Cor. 9:27), by abstinence in food, drink and
the like. It is therefore evident that infused and acquired
temperance differ in species; and the same applies to the other
virtues.
The other specific difference among habits is taken from the things
to which they are directed: for a man's health and a horse's are not
of the same species, on account of the difference between the natures
to which their respective healths are directed. In the same sense,
the Philosopher says (Polit. iii, 3) that citizens have diverse
virtues according as they are well directed to diverse forms of
government. In the same way, too, those infused moral virtues,
whereby men behave well in respect of their being "fellow-citizens
with the saints, and of the household [Douay: 'domestics'] of God"
(Eph. 2:19), differ from the acquired virtues, whereby man behaves
well in respect of human affairs.
Reply Obj. 1: Infused and acquired virtue differ not only in relation
to the ultimate end, but also in relation to their proper objects, as
stated.
Reply Obj. 2: Both acquired and infused temperance moderate desires
for pleasures of touch, but for different reasons, as stated:
wherefore their respective acts are not identical.
Reply Obj. 3: God gave the man born blind an eye for the same act as
the act for which other eyes are formed naturally: consequently it
was of the same species. It would be the same if God wished to give a
man miraculously virtues, such as those that are acquired by acts.
But the case is not so in the question before us, as stated.
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