Prima Secundae
215. Summa I-II q.91 aa.3–4: Why we need human law and divine law (the four reasons, Psalm 18, and faith, hope and love in Mozart's last symphonies)
Class of 2015-04-09
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/215-summa-i-ii-q-91-aa-3-4-why-we-need-human-law-and-divine-law/

[0:00] Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Thank you, God. Thank you, guardian angels. Thank you, Thomas Aquinas. Deo gratias. God, our enlightenment. Guardian angels, strengthen the lights of our minds, order illumine our images, and arouse us to consider more correctly. Saint Thomas Aquinas, angelic doctor, pray for us. help us to understand all that you have written. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. So up to Article Three, I guess. Whether there is some human law, right?

[0:38] To third, one goes forward. Thus, it seems that there is not some human law, besides the what eternal law and the natural law that we've talked about so far.

[0:53] For the natural law is a partaking of the eternal law, as has been said. That's the theological definition of it, right? But through the eternal law, all things are most what ordered, huh? That's the superlative of order, right? As Augustine says in the book on free judgment.

[1:24] Therefore, the natural law suffices for ordering all what human things. Therefore, it's not necessary that there be some human law. Moreover, law has the aspect of a measure, huh? As has been said. But human reason is not the measure of things, huh? But rather the reverse, huh?

[2:02] So when reason says, "If I say you're sitting, right? Because you are sitting, right? It's true. It's measured by your sitting, right? You're not sitting because they say you're sitting, right? Not even because it's true. It's true because it is Yeah, yeah. Okay

[2:25] What's the famous thing there in the Laws there? You know where Socrates, the Athenian stranger, says you know he goes against the idea that man is the measure of all things, right? He says no, God is the measure of all things.

[2:43] Therefore, from human reason, no law is able to go forward. Moreover, a measure ought to be most certain, huh? As is said in the tenth book of the what metaphysics.

[3:00] But the dictate of human reason about things to be what done is uncertain, according to that of the ninth chapter of the book of wisdom, that the thoughts of mortals are timid, right? And uncertain are our providences, right? And therefore, from human reason, no law can what proceed, go forward, huh?

[3:34] But against this is what Augustine says in the book here on free judgment, on free will. He lays down two laws: one eternal, and the other temporal, which he says is human.

[3:51] Okay. Well, I answer, meaning Thomas now, not me. I answer. It should be said, huh? This has been said. Law is a certain dictate of the practical, right? Reason, huh? Now, a similar proceeding is found in practical reason and speculative reason.

[4:20] Now, what does this likeness? For both go forward from certain beginnings to certain what conclusions, right? Sometimes I call this knowledge of beginnings in the practical synderesis you find a strange word, right? Yeah. Natural understanding and the looking reason or speculative reason.

[4:51] So Aristotle calls it theoretical reason, and Thomas calls it speculative reason. Thomas calls it looking reason, but they all mean the same. What the word, yeah?

[5:06] So according to this, therefore it should be said that in looking reason, right, speculative reason, from beginnings that are not able to be demonstrated, right, but are naturally what known, like the whole is more than the part, huh? Are produced, huh? Conclusions of the diverse what sciences, huh? Diverse forms of reasoned-out knowledge, huh?

[5:42] The knowledge of which is not naturally placed in us, huh? But are found through the activity of what reason, huh? So also this is a likeness doubt between the two reasons, which differ by their end, huh? So also from the precepts of the natural law,

[6:11] as from certain what beginnings that are both common and indemonstrable, right? But you could add naturally known, as he says, right? It is necessary that human reason go forward to some things more what, in particular to be disposed or ordered, right, arranged. And these particular dispositions are that are found according to what human reason or by human reason are called what Human laws. human laws, observing the other conditions which pertain to the notion of the law, right, and the definition of law, as has been said above.

[6:54] Whence Tully or Cicero, right, says in his rhetoric, right, that the beginning of what is going forward from what Nature. nature, right? Then from some things in what, yeah, from the usefulness of reason are found, right, or we come to them. And then afterwards things what, both by proceeding from nature in some way, right, originally, but also proved by what custom. Then law is what. Sanctioned by fear.

[7:35] and religion, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So he quotes Tully, Cicero, sometimes, right? Doesn't always agree with Cicero, but Cicero's pretty good, some ways. What did they say to? Was it Jerome? Are you a Christian or a Ciceronian? Yeah, I think I think that was he was asked, "What are you?" And he said, "Christian." And our Lord said, "No, you're not. You're a Ciceronian." Yeah. The thing you had up there about Augustine there, the calendar, you know, the other day was it?

[8:05] You know, the Augustine, you know, he studied under a very famous rhetorician, right? So you know, something to be said for rhetoric, right? Yeah. Mentors and Paul is interested

[8:20] in rhetoric, right? But rhetoric is kind of an offshoot of political philosophy and and logic a bit, huh? So. I remember when my my father's lawyer there, Gus Larson, would come, you know, to the board meetings and other company hearing. Boom, boom. Very orderly, you know. You can see something about the the lawyer, right? A certain certain perfection of his mind, right? Huh? You know. But I mean, Augustine was a teacher of rhetoric, wasn't he?

[8:51] You know, it gives him the style too. You know that is. Don't have you know, and Chrysostom was apparently one and they want him to succeed, right? This great teacher rhetoric, but he had other things to do. But, but nevertheless, he learned something from it, right? And he incisored some things, right? Thomas quotes Cicero sometimes.

[9:13] You know, Cicero talks about you know how he threw the dust on the juries My friend Warren Murray always taxed the lawyers, you know, for you know defending something they know is guilty, right? Yeah,

[9:42] they have some of the cases written in some of the. Okay. Now, what about this first objection? Though right, the natural laws of our taking of the eternal law, I need something beyond that, right? Well, it's because of the imperfection of our partaking of the divine law, right? What we know naturally is something very what, general, right? You have to descend down to the what, particulars, huh? To the first, therefore, it should be said that human reason is not able to partake ad plenum, right, huh?

[10:28] Fully, right, huh? The dictates of the divine what, reason, right? But in its way, that is to say, in our human way, right? And therefore imperfectly, right?

[10:43] And again, he goes back to likeness to looking reason, right? And therefore, just as on the side of what, looking reason, by the natural partaking of divine wisdom, there is in us a knowledge of certain common beginnings, not, however, of the what, private or particular, right? Knowledge of every truth, as it is found in divine what, wisdom, right?

[11:17] So it's the Pythagorean theorem, right? In the part of the natural. No, you have to go through a number of steps to get there, right? Yeah, just the beginning. Yeah. Even that, you know, straight lines intersected; these opposite angles are equal, right? You can come to that from things you know, but it's not naturally known, huh? Now Augustine sometimes speaks as if that natural understanding, you're seeing things in the divine what, mind, right?

[11:51] And people kind of sometimes know what Augustine is saying there, right? But you are partaking of the divine wisdom, right, in natural understanding, and that sense you're judging things by God's mind, not by what, your mind, right? Okay. But it's something that is what you're not seeing God in Himself, not the vision, right? But you're, you're you're partaking of the divine wisdom, nevertheless, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[12:20] Okay. And so make find a comparison there, and just as on the side of looking reason, through the natural partaking of the divine wisdom, there is in us a knowledge of some common beginnings, not, however, a proper knowledge, particular knowledge of every what or any truth, every truth, as it's in the divine wisdom or as contained in the divine wisdom. So also on the side of what practical reason.

[12:58] Naturally, man partakes of the divine what law, but according to certain common beginnings, not however, according to the particular directions of singulars which are contained in the eternal what law, and therefore it is necessary further that human reason proceeds to particular sanctions of the laws, right? So maybe in an actual law there might be what you shouldn't, you know, take innocent life and so on, right? Huh?

[13:33] But now this guy Ford or somebody invented the automobile, right? And this can take human life with the greatest of ease, right? And maybe you know you shouldn't drive it too fast, then maybe, huh? See, you got to kind of figure out how to make this

[13:54] driving cars around compatible with the law thou shalt not kill. And maybe you know we're going to have a different speed limit on the highway because people shouldn't be walking on the highway, but in the city we got to have a what?

[14:13] Yeah, because people do walk on the street and cross the street and so on, right? And so on, but you know what speed should it be, you know?

[14:25] What's the difference between a neighborhood and city street Yeah, when I go down Floral Street there, you know, it's the Floral Street School there, so school days twenty miles an hour. So I finally learned to slow down to twenty miles, not even go thirty miles, right? But maybe that's too fast. I don't know. But I mean, you know, it's not very in the natural law to say it, right?

[14:51] Thou shalt drive your car twenty miles an hour in school zone. On the school zone during school hours. Yeah, yeah. When the lights flash.

[15:01] That's in the eternal law, yeah, somewhere. But we don't partake of it in that that distinctness, right? See, or some other guy invents a gun, right? And maybe you shouldn't be shooting your gun off in the city or something. There should be certain restrictions as to shooting your gun off. It, you know, told you about my neighbor. He used to on New Year's Eve, you know, he shoots gun off his hunting gun, right?

[15:26] You know, he used to come home, you know, with a with a with a a a lammer or not lammer, but a what do you call it? Yeah, something, you know, they shot up northern Minnesota there, you know. But we were always waiting. We used to go to bed. We didn't stay up, you know, for to celebrate on New Year's Eve. We just go to bed normal time.

[15:46] But you're waiting for the gun to go off and hope he's he's sober when it goes off. I don't remember if it's a law. I don't know. I we never never reported him, but. Yeah. Some areas I know in some residential areas they'll have laws that say don't fire arms. Yeah. So I I know I consciously probably violate the law when I shot a squirrel in our neighborhood or something like that.

[16:09] But trying to be safe And there's a wolf coming into some places around here, and attacking the man's kid and his wife, and he shot the thing, right? So I guess it was okay, but. Certain certain things. Yeah. Yeah. As long as it wasn't endangered. Yeah. As long as the wolf wasn't endangered. Well, you know, my my dad's got all these chickens, you know, but I don't think you have chickens in the main city because you don't think you can.

[16:36] You think you're allowed in the main city? Maybe some cities do, some cities. Or have a cow in your backyard eating grass I don't think so

[16:48] Zoning laws are zoning laws yeah. The second it should be said, huh? That human reason, by itself, is not the rule of things, right? But the beginnings that are naturally placed in it, huh? Are certain general rules and measures of all things which should be done by man, huh? Of which natural reason is the rule and the what? Measure. Although it is not the measure of those things which are by what?

[17:32] Nature. Nature. The measure of things to be done. I Suppose he means, huh? You guys be careful about that, I think, because I mean the the divine law is the measure of what things are by nature, right? And if we partake the divine law, then we have something of what a measure that is by according to nature, right? Huh? The things that are by nature, right? I sometimes say that the natural law is about things that are naturally known, but it's about things that are good or bad by nature, right?

[18:20] Huh? You know. So to kill innocents is by nature bad, right? Huh? To drive on the right side of the street, it's not by nature bad. Even to drive on the left side of the street is not by nature bad, right? But you should maybe, you know, have some agreement as to what you ought to do Yeah. At least with those who drive on your street. Yeah.

[18:49] It's kind of funny when you're walking and you and you know, how do you want to go to the right, you know, when when you you know when you when you're avoid hitting the person coming on the sidewalk in the opposite direction, right?

[19:02] Yeah. In the winter here, when you're coming down that that hill there to your place, you know, it's hardly any room there. You know, you can't really get over it. to the when there's a truck on the other side Yeah.

[19:16] Now the third one was talking about being a measure, right? And the measure ought to be most what? Certain, right? So they use this to measure things. No one just kind of high is going to kind of flatten out, right? Huh? It gets in the hot weather, right? Huh? So it's not a certain measure, right? You need something that's not going to get longer or shorter in the temperatures that we normally have, right?

[19:53] But you got to realize that measures are going to fit their what matter, right? To third, it should be said that practical reason is about things to be done, which are both singular and what contingent, right? And it's not about things that are necessary, as is looking reason.

[20:21] Aristotle says it's called reason, the looking faculty, right? Practical is kind of an extension of that. And therefore, human laws cannot have that what infallibility, and that have the conclusions of the demonstrative sciences, like those of geometry, right? The Pythagorean theorem and so on. The two angles of a triangle equal to right angles, huh? Marvelous theorem, Okay.

[20:50] Nor is it necessary that every measure be in every way infallible and what certain, but according as is possible in its what genus, huh?

[21:05] That's what we had a question come up once when we were revising our legislation, and we had it says something about the monastery that. You shouldn't, if you have to do something, take out a loan from the bank. You shouldn't take out a loan unless you're certain you can pay it back in reasonable time. Yeah. So we had a brother object at the time. He said, "Well, how can we be certain that?

[21:29] I mean, there might be a stock market crash. And then what about? " and on and on and on. And I said, "well, there's a different kind of certitude. If we have a moral certitude it's sufficient. It's sufficient. Yeah. Yeah. And other things being, equal we'll be able to pay that back. " See, a statement from Goethe you know, in the conversation with Eckermann, right? And he speaks of Mozart and Shakespeare together, right?

[21:58] Huh? Everybody imitates them, but no one can equal them. So Mozart, in a sense, is the measure of what a musician should be, and Shakespeare is the measure of what a poet should be, right? And but you can't have the same kind of certainty with that kind of a measure, right? Can you? With the ruler, right? Huh? And we'll tell you how long the table is. You know, pretty exact thing, right?

[22:26] You know, I use Mozart to measure how good a musician you are. It's kind of it's a little hard to do, yeah. Yeah. But the virtuous man, as Aristotle says, is a measure of all, right? So admitting that there's a human law now, in addition, now we got how many laws? Three, yeah, yeah. Okay.

[23:04] Now, what the heck is this next article about now? To the fourth, one goes forward thus. And incidentally, Thomas is going to take up each of these in particular, these laws that are.

[23:19] To the fourth, one goes forward thus. It seems that it would not be necessary for there to be some divine law. Is it a divine law other than the eternal law,

[23:33] obviously? Because as has been said, the natural law is a certain partaking of the eternal law in us. But the eternal law is a divine law. As has been said. Therefore, it is not necessary that apart from the natural law, and the human laws derive from it, that there be now another law that is divine. That's just multiplying things. Yeah, yeah.

[24:04] This is the beginning of your argument, right? Moreover, in Ecclesiasticus chapter 15, verse 14, it said that God left man in the hand of his own what? Yeah. And they used the word hand there, the hand of his own counsel, right? Consilium is an act of reason, as was had above. Therefore, man is left to the governance of his own what? Reason. But the dictate of human reason is the human law.

[24:49] Therefore, it is not necessary that man be governed by another divine law, right? Moreover, human nature is more sufficient than that of the irrational creatures. But the irrational creatures do not have some divine law in addition to the natural inclination found in them, huh? Given to them. Therefore, much less does the rational creature, must he have a divine law apart from the what natural law?

[25:30] Okay. Thomas is going to solve this in a way, something like the way he solved whether theology is necessary, whether some wisdom beyond that of the philosophers' wisdom is necessary, huh?

[25:46] But against this is what David's, the David what seeks a law to be laid down by God, right? Huh? Saying, lay down the law for me, huh? Legem pone mihi. That's really interesting, huh? Lord, in the way of your what, justifications, huh?

[26:16] That's an interesting argument. Now I answer, meaning Thomas. Answer should be said that apart from the natural law and the human law, there is necessary for the direction of human life to have a what, divine law. Two is not enough. You need a third. That's a good example of this, huh? Two or three. Yeah, but three. The first number of all, you say all. See. And this on account of four reasons.

[27:00] Wow. Now we got to digest these four reasons, huh? First, because through law man is directed to his own acts in order to the last what, end. And if man were ordered only to an end, which would not exceed the what proportion of the natural faculty of man, it would not be necessary that man have something directing him on the side of reason above the natural law and the law humanly laid down, right?

[27:42] That's the law we talked about in Article Three, which is derived from the what natural law, right? But because man is ordered to an end, to the end of eternal beatitude, which excels the proportion of the natural what faculty or ability you might say of man, huh?

[28:11] As Shakespeare said, "For the faculty, we need to use the word faculty, capacity, capability, huh? Okay. That's something like the argument he used to say that we need theology, right? Because man is directed to an end that surpasses his natural what grasp, right? Huh? Okay. So, to the best of my knowledge, there, you know, when I first read the Nicomachean Ethics, he's going to talk about the purpose of life, right?

[28:42] That's it sounds interesting, right? But he didn't talk about the big division, that's for sure, Aristotle, you know. He talked about metaphysics at the end there, right? First philosophy, right? So he didn't know about this.

[29:03] So man is directed to an end that is not what natural, but is above the natural, right? Super means above, right? I was I was a little annoyed, you know, thinking of how we refer to to being and one and true and good and so on as the transcendentals, right? So what does that word transcendental really mean, right?

[29:36] And to transcend something means to step over it. Okay. So the transcendentals are the names that step over what? All categories I guess Yeah. Now you know the the ancient philosophers there, you know, in the Greek tradition after after Aristotle, they had great respect for the categories of Aristotle, that book, right? And for the book of Porphyry, the Isagoge to the Categories, right? Which is the Isagoge to more than just the categories, but it was written as an Isagoge for that purpose.

[30:23] Um, they referred to the Isagoge as the book of the five names, and the Categories is the book of the ten names. It's kind of interesting, right? That's obviously not telling you exactly what the books are about, but they were so common thinking, right? So in the Isagoge, you learn the names, genus, difference, species, property, accident, right? diaphora right? Okay. So on. Um, some be-becas. And in the what book of the Categories, you learn the ten names, substance, how much, how, and so on, quantity, quality, relations, so on.

[31:15] Well, the transcendentals they step over the ten names, right? In the book of the ten names. Why other names like say dog, cat, courage, temperance, they what? They come under one of these, right? Yeah. So. All other names seem to come under one of these ten, but there's these that step over them, right?

[31:56] But in so doing, become equivocal, but equivocal by reason, right? Well, it's kind of so. I'm going to call them now the the six stepovers instead of the six transcendentals, right? huh? Gotta be gotta be concrete, right? Huh?

[32:16] I saw another little interesting thing that just occurred to me. You know, um, you've you've read the Vatican II, huh? And I think it's in the premium, this magnificent premium to the

[32:40] one inscription, you know? The A variable? Yeah. Um, I think it's at the end of that premium. I think I think they're quoting is an Augustine. How that the whole world, by believing, might come to hope, and by hope might come to what love, right, charity.

[33:03] And so, just like in the catechetical instructions, we instruct faith first, and then hope, and then what charity, right? But what it's saying at the end there, the quote from from Augustine, and they use it again when they talk about Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob. Abraham begot what faith begot hope, and hope begot what? Charity. Yeah. I mean that's very profound, huh? You know, and that's that's one of the one of the two dogmatic constitutions of the Vatican II, right?

[33:41] So it's great authority. Um, what struck me was having to run across the text in Thomas. You know how the emotions are more known to us than the acts of the will, and emotions are divided into two kinds, huh? The concupiscible emotions, which concern what is pleasing or painful to the senses, right? So this is pleasing to my senses, so I like this, I love it, I want it, and I don't have it, and I rejoice when I have it, huh?

[34:20] But something else, I'm this, you know, like like like salmon, right? I I hate and I I avoid if I can, and if it's forced upon me at a meal, I I I'm sad and and which suffer much if I eat it.

[34:40] Um, but then the irascible ones are the ones that deal with some kind of difficulty, right? Huh. So hope and fear, hope and despair about some difficult good, right? Fear and what Boldness. boldness, some difficult evil, right? Difficult to overcome, and anger by a you know difficult one, right? That's already present. Um, well, the names of of the concupiscible and irascible emotions are carried over to the what to the will, right?

[35:23] So with the theological virtue of hope, hope is not a emotion of hope, right? But it's a what act of the will, right? But it's taken from what's irascible, then, right? Okay. Why charity is a kind of love, right? And love is taken from the concupiscible, right? Huh? Okay.

[35:46] Now it struck me, huh? That what does Thomas say about the emotions, right? Which partakes of reason more, the concupiscible or the irascible? Yeah, yeah. Why? Because it's a kind of this for that, right? So that's kind of you know closer in some ways to what reason, right? And now going back to to Osterlee there, right? And talking about how the music of Mozart and the Baroque, right?

[36:25] Let's take Mozart as the measure of this, right? Um, in Mozart's symphonic music, maybe the the highest thing is the last five symphonies, right? Which are symphonies what? Thirty nine,

[36:47] forty, forty one. What I did that thirty six. Yeah, there's no thirty seventh symphony. There's thirty six symphony and a thirty eight, but no thirty seventh. Okay. But they they kept the numbers anyway. So the five last symphonies are thirty six, thirty eight, right? Thirty nine, forty, and forty one, right? Okay. What is Mozart representing in these? Huh? Yeah. But also, Aristotle says in the end of the Politics, and he talks about music, right?

[37:30] He says that music represents not only the emotions but also the what virtues, right? Huh? Okay. Now I've talked about the symmetry of the last five symphonies, like the symmetry of the five. Yeah, the sun. And so the first symphony in thirty six in C major, right? The last one, forty first, is in what C major? And what do they represent? The thirty six and the forty first.

[38:05] Well, hint is that the the forty first is now known as the Jupiter Symphony, right? But they represent magnanimity, right? Which is a virtue that does great things in all the virtues. Huh? But magnanimity is about what hope. Okay. And then the thirty eight and the forty symphony are about what? Courage, right? Which is also the irascible, right? Okay. But thirty eight is more the aspect of the irascible, which is to approach the difficult, right?

[38:43] huh? The evil, to fight it, huh? And then fortyth is more the patience to suffer, you know, the thing that you cannot completely control, and so on, right? And then the third ninth is E flat major, right? Which is not as not the concupiscible key like the Mozart the G major is and so on, but B flat and so on. But it's more it's you know more cheerful and so on, right?

[39:12] Huh? You know it's the relaxation, the great man, right? But you can see the the emphasis in Mozart there in the last symphonies is upon the irascible, right? And this partakes more reason, right? And this is what Oskie says that they do, right? He said excellence, right?

[39:32] Well, if Abraham begets Isaac and Isaac begets Jacob, right? Isaac is closer to Abraham, right? So if faith begets hope and hope begets what love, then hope is closer to faith, right? And therefore closer to reason, right?

[39:52] Maybe there's a little connection there, right? Because hope is is like the irascible, which partakes more reason, right? Huh? Say. And and love being like the concupiscible, right? Is further from reason, right? Huh?

[40:10] And and hope goes more to what? I mean, love goes more to the thing itself, itself, right? Not further away from reason, huh? So maybe there's some connection there, right? In the fact that faith is rise to love, right? Through what hope, right? Because the irascible takes your reason more than the concupiscible, not you know. There's some analogy there between the the distinction there, right? In the emotions.

[40:38] What if there's something to that? What do you think? Because it really is striking when you stop and think, you know, what it says, you know. And they're quoting Augusta, aren't they They're like? Hope, I mean, faith begets hope, and hope begets love, and it's also in this explanation of the of my friend Matthews there, Gospel, right? Huh? Abraham begat Isaac, right? Isaac begat Jacob, you know.

[41:02] They go through all the names; they all they all got some name, to have the virtues and so on. But I remember the first three at least. Belief begot hope, and hope begot love. But? Why why didn't belief beget love immediately? See?

[41:21] See, did Abraham beget beget Jacob, huh? Well, in a remote way, he did, right? I I told you this guy worked with the back of the story, saw me with all my grandchildren one day, you know, in church there, you know. I I mean, one of them, you know, the whole tube being filled up. He says, you know, you're responsible for this. He says. He was a nice guy.

[41:44] He died just a few months ago. You know, went to his funeral, but but he's a nice guy, but. So since Abraham is responsible, right, he's going to have all these offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and so on, sands of the sea. I wonder if there's something to that, you know. I mean, because that's that's authoritative, huh? That hope is is in some way closer to what?

[42:10] Yeah, to faith. Yeah, and and maybe something to do with that. Strikes me, you know. Don't see any guys around to check it out with them, but we've always joked about it. See, his first reaction is always to kind of reject whatever you say, but you really got to you really got to you know you know establish it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I told you when I was when I was writing my thesis there, you know, and I something that bothered me, you know, in my philosophical thinking, you know, since I was in college, and it became essential to my thesis, you know, and finally I was reading something in Thomas, and I was following, a course, of Monsignor and I put. the. Two together, I had it,

[42:52] you know. I I I better check it. This after, you know, five years, you know, of not being able to solve it, so I come down. I start, you know, approaching the early way. He said, "I know where you're going." He said, "Monsignor, you know." I said, "Well, down there, can I can I go there anyway?"

[43:11] But that's very interesting. It seems to me, you know. See, almost its five last symphonies can help you to understand the the order there, right? You know, looking before and after, as Shakespeare would say, right? These men have the measures, huh?

[43:30] Okay, let's go back to this wonderful text here. What's the first reason? Huh? Because we're directed to an end, right? That is above our natural what capacity to know, right? So,

[43:45] but because man is ordered to the end of eternal beatitude, which exceeds the proportion of his of the natural human faculty, right? Huh? Therefore, it's necessary, right? Huh?

[44:01] That above the both the natural law and the human law, that one man be directed to his what by a law divinely what given, huh? Okay. I see. That's something like the reason he gives for why we need theology, right? Huh? And Nicomachean Ethics is not enough, right, to direct us to our last end, right? If you're having a last end, it's in the our natural ability, right?

[44:29] Huh? Yeah. Even this nitwit or dimwit here, you know, knows a little bit of first philosophy, right? Huh? So I can reach that that goal, right? Huh? Okay.

[44:47] So as as Thomas Aquinas says, Aristotle sees the end of man as the contemplation of God by natural by first philosophy, right? And that's within the capacity, you know. We can know something about God, right? What he's not, anyway, right? Yeah. But that's not our last end. That's we're directed to.

[45:19] Secondly, because on account of the incertitude of what human judgment, right? Huh? Especially, huh? Principui, right? Where principui means what? Chiefly, yeah. Especially, yeah, yeah. Thomas says Plato and Aristotle, the philosophi principui. Okay.

[45:47] Because, an account of the incertitude of human judgment, especially his judgment about contingent things, right, in particulars, it happens that what about human acts, diverse are the judgments of diverse people. What's simply true, right? Huh?

[46:10] That therefore man, without any doubt, would be able to know what he should be done, right, and what should be avoided, right, is necessary, and that he be what directed in his own acts through a law given by God, right? About whom it is what stands that it cannot be what mistaken, right? I told you it was out in California. There,

[46:43] someone was impressed with my mind, you know. So she wanted me to come and speak to this meeting of the the what they call the Association of University Women, right? So I said, well, there must be educated women, so I guess I have to give them a fairly solid thing in something ethics, right? Huh? So I gave this talk. Anyway, afterwards, I was talking to the ladies, you know, and one of these says, "it wasn't just nothing that the church tells you to do."

[47:09] I said, "Yeah, that's enough." Yeah. This is Thomas is talking about here, right? Huh? No, she gives this reason second because, in a way, man can, to some extent, judge these things, right? Huh? The first argument, in some sense, is stronger, right? Huh? But the second shows what a reason too, right? We need this, right? Okay. The same thing we see in theology, right? Can we know that God exists?

[47:34] Yeah, but maybe most men aren't able to understand the proofs for the existence of God, right? Or can we know that the human soul is immortal by natural reason? Yes, and yes, we can, but most men cannot what follow the arguments, right? Huh? So we need, you know, to be instructed by the faith, you know, for the most part, in these matters. Okay.

[47:59] Now you talk to Trinity, though. Then you have something you can't know, right? Even Aristotle didn't know this, right? Huh? Even though he talks about using the number three, you know, to praise God, right? You know, but that's because the perfection of three, right? Apply perfect things, not because he he he he figured out. Yeah, that Thomas says that. That's one of the objections you know. when Thomas says, you know, can we know by natural reason?

[48:22] They say, well, Aristotle talks about three. You know, we use three to prove, you know. Third, because about those things, man can what? Able to make a law Yeah. About which is able to what judge, right? Huh? But the judgment of man cannot be about interior what motions, which are what hid, right? But only about exterior acts, which what appear.

[49:06] And nevertheless, for the perfection of virtue is required that man be rectified, right, in both acts, right? And therefore, human law cannot what? Yeah, it's the idea inhibit, right? And to order sufficiently interior acts, um, he cannot.

[49:44] This cannot be, yeah. And it's necessary that for this the divine law come about this, right? Okay. And they found this guy. The the you read about the trial, you know the they found this guy who. the Boston the Boston bomber guy. Yeah, yeah, with the with the computer. But now the question is, they're going to put him in jail forever, or give him the death sentence?

[50:13] And of course, they they're trying to the defense lawyers are trying to say, you know, well, he's under the influence of his older brother, you know, and that sort of stuff, you know, and all this sort of stuff. But you don't really know what's going on inside people's minds, you know, huh? You don't really know what seems very well.

[50:31] And because here, here you think of of Christ, you know, in the Sermon on the Mount, right? You know where he says, "You look at the woman with, you know, you know, lust in your thing. You're already committing adultery in a sense with her, right? Huh? Even though you don't go to the exterior act, right? Huh?

[50:48] Okay. So that's you can't order those things sufficiently, right? Okay. That's kind of a subtle reason, right? Huh? Thomas is quite full here. The reasons he gives, huh?

[51:14] But he orders them too. Fourth, because Augustine says in the first book of the of the free judgment, the human law is not able to what punish or prohibit all things which come about badly, huh? Because when it takes away all evils, it also would follow that would take away what many good things, right? Huh? And would impede the usefulness of the what common good,

[51:58] which is necessary for human life. Whence that nothing evil would what be not prohibited or not punished, remain not prohibited and not punished. It was necessary that there be a what divine law through which omnia peccata are prohibited, right? Okay. And you see this then they say in the sermon of Mount, don't you?

[52:34] Now, so he sees this in his knowledge of the of the Psalms, right? Huh? Now I was just recently at a funeral there. Mrs Schmitz died. Yeah. You know she was. Her husband had founded the Trivium school and so on, right? Many other things, but, but anyway,

[52:57] one guy was saying, you know, I'm really getting taken up with the Psalms now, you know, and so I said, "I'd tell you a little about Thomas's distinction of the Psalms here." But here he goes. I think these guys, when they knew all the Psalms by heart, they could go through all 150 of them, I guess. In these four causes they touched upon in Psalm 18, well, now that's news news to me, huh?

[53:22] Where it is said, the law of the Lord is immaculate, huh? Well, you know, we speak of Mary's being immaculate, huh? Now the law of the Lord is said to be immaculate, huh? That is permitting no ugliness of sin, huh?

[53:45] Okay, now that's the what? That's the that's the fourth argument, isn't it? Huh? I mean, of course, that's the fourth argument. Converting animats, huh? Converting the souls, not just the exterior behavior, right? Because not only the exterior acts, but also it directs the interior ones, huh? And that's the what? Third argument, isn't it?

[54:11] Um, the testimony of the Lord is faithful, right? On account of the certitude of truth and the certitude of the rectitude of it, huh? Well, that's the second argument, right?

[54:28] And bestowing wisdom upon the what little ones, huh? Insofar as it orders man to a supernatural and divine end, right? And that's the first one, right? So it's just the it's an ascending order, right? Huh? One little verse. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's marvelous, huh? Amazing man, Thomas. Must have had a good memory too, you know.

[55:09] The English version says Psalm 1818. Yeah, the Latin is 18. Yeah, that's the only one in that book. Okay. It's marvelous. Okay. Now, to the first, therefore, it should be said that through the natural law, the eternal law is partaken of according to the proportion of the capacity of human nature, right?

[55:58] But it's necessary that, in a higher way, man be directed to the last supernatural end, right? And therefore, there is added above this the law given divinely, through which the eternal law is again partaken of, but in a what? Higher way, right? Huh What does he mean when he says instead of saying it's partake, the eternal law is partaken according to human capacities? He uses the word proportion.

[56:29] Why is there any particular reason Why use the word proportion? Why why he was proportion What's proportion to the capacity of what man's mind, right? Huh?

[56:41] Fits the little mind of ours. Okay. Once you remember Augustine trying to get the Trinity into his mind, and how I got to get the ocean into this little hole—the little boy there is trying to, you know, giving me a lesson there. Augustine says you can't get your the ocean into your little hole. And the boy says, "Neither can you get the Trinity, the Trinity into your little mind.

[57:13] " Then he disappeared, right? The little boy. He was an angel taking out of a little body, little boy. That's what Hopkins when he spoke about the Blessed Virgin compared to the air we breathe. Yeah. He speaks of infinity dwindled to infancy, and his light sifted to suit our sight. That's what she does. Leaves his light sifted to suit our sight like the atmosphere on the earth softens and it sort of tempers the light of the sun, which burns to a crystal.

[57:46] atmosphere Beautiful comparison He hasn't read that at all. Have you read that poem before? The Blessed Virgin compared to the air we breathe. No, no. Okay. Go see Aristotle. You know, in the in the proemium to Metaphysics, wisdom, there he says that

[58:18] wisdom is a divine possession, right? Huh? Not a human possession, right? So, if you could partake of the divine wisdom, right? Huh? That would be a higher wisdom, right, than our wisdom, right? That we get by reasoning out things, huh?

[58:47] To a second, it should be said that consul is a certain inquiry, right? Investigation. Whence it is necessary that it go forward from some beginnings. Nor does it suffice that it goes forward from beginnings naturally placed in us, which are the precepts of natural law, on account of the what things foretold in the body of the article, right? But is necessary that there be added above these certain other beginnings, to wit, the what.

[59:21] Divine law, yeah. He spoke with authority, I guess, this man, right, on the mountain, huh? Didn't he speak with authority? Like the scribes and the.

[59:35] No. Now, objection about how come we have these things for irrational creatures? Well, they are not ordered to a higher end than is the end which is proportioned to their natural what power, and therefore the argument is not similar.

[1:00:03] In case you take a little break here now. huh?