Will we therefore have to admit that activity, which is activity only
because it is a quality, is something substantially different from
quality? In animated beings, especially in those capable of choice
because they incline towards this or that thing, activity has a really
substantial nature. What is the nature of the action exercised by the
inanimate powers that we call qualities? Is it participation in their
qualities by whatever approaches them? Further, if the power which
acts on something else simultaneously experiences (or "suffers"),
how can it still remain active? For the greater thing, which by
itself is three feet in size, is great or small only by the relation
established between it, and something else (smaller). It might indeed
be objected that the greater thing and the smaller thing become such
only by participation in greatness or smallness. Likewise, what is both
"active" and "passive" becomes such in participating in "activity" and
"passivity."
ARE THE SENSE-WORLD AND THE INTELLIGIBLE SEPARATE, OR CLASSIFIABLE
TOGETHER?
Can the qualities seen in the sense-world, and those that exist in
the intelligible world, be classified together in one kind? This
question demands an answer from those[270] who claim that there are
also qualities in the intelligible world. Should it also be asked
of those who do not admit of the existence on high of kinds, but
who limit themselves to attributing some habit to Intelligence? It
is evident that Wisdom exists in Intelligence; if this Wisdom be
homonymous (similar in name only) with the wisdom which we know here
below, it is not reckoned among sense-things; if, on the contrary it be
synonymous (similar in nature also) with the wisdom which we know here
below, quality would be found in intelligible entities, as well as in
sense-things (which is false); unless indeed it be recognized that all
intelligible things are essences, and that thought belongs among them.
Besides, this question applies also to the other categories. In
respect to each of them it might be asked whether the sensible and
the intelligible form two different kinds, or belong to a single
classification.