Whether an Angel Can Change the Human Senses?
Objection 1: It seems that an angel cannot change the human senses.
For the sensitive operation is a vital operation. But such an
operation does not come from an extrinsic principle. Therefore the
sensitive operation cannot be caused by an angel.
Obj. 2: Further, the sensitive operation is nobler than the
nutritive. But the angel cannot change the nutritive power, nor other
natural forms. Therefore neither can he change the sensitive power.
Obj. 3: Further, the senses are naturally moved by the sensible
objects. But an angel cannot change the order of nature (Q. 110, A.
4). Therefore an angel cannot change the senses; but these are
changed always by the sensible object.
_On the contrary,_ The angels who overturned Sodom, "struck the
people of Sodom with blindness or _aorasia_, so that they could not
find the door" (Gen. 19:11). [*It is worth noting that these are the
only two passages in the Greek version where the word _aorasia_
appears. It expresses, in fact, the effect produced on the people of
Sodom--namely, dazzling (French version, "eblouissement"), which the
Latin "caecitas" (blindness) does not necessarily imply.] The same is
recorded of the Syrians whom Eliseus led into Samaria (4 Kings 6:18).
_I answer that,_ The senses may be changed in a twofold manner; from
without, as when affected by the sensible object: and from within,
for we see that the senses are changed when the spirits and humors
are disturbed; as for example, a sick man's tongue, charged with
choleric humor, tastes everything as bitter, and the like with the
other senses. Now an angel, by his natural power, can work a change
in the senses both ways. For an angel can offer the senses a sensible
object from without, formed by nature or by the angel himself, as
when he assumes a body, as we have said above (Q. 51, A. 2). Likewise
he can move the spirits and humors from within, as above remarked,
whereby the senses are changed in various ways.
Reply Obj. 1: The principle of the sensitive operation cannot be
without the interior principle which is the sensitive power; but this
interior principle can be moved in many ways by the exterior
principle, as above explained.
Reply Obj. 2: By the interior movement of the spirits and humors an
angel can do something towards changing the act of the nutritive
power, and also of the appetitive and sensitive power, and of any
other power using a corporeal organ.
Reply Obj. 3: An angel can do nothing outside the entire order of
creatures; but he can outside some particular order of nature, since
he is not subject to that order; thus in some special way an angel
can work a change in the senses outside the common mode of nature.
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