instructs us by His Sacred Word--namely, the active and the
contemplative."

Those things are properly said to live which move or work from within
themselves. But what especially accords with the innermost nature of a
thing is that which is proper to it and towards which it is especially
inclined; consequently every living thing shows that it is living by
those very acts which are especially befitting it and towards which it
is especially inclined. Thus the life of plants is said to consist in
their growing and in their producing seed; the life of animals in their
feeling and moving; while that of man consists in his understanding and
in his acting according to reason.

Hence among men themselves each man's life appears to be that in which
he takes special pleasure, that with which he is particularly occupied,
that, in fine, in which each one wishes to live with a friend, as is
said in the _Ethics of Aristotle_.[292]

Since, then, some men are especially occupied with the contemplation of
the truth while others are especially-occupied with external things,
man's life may be conveniently divided into the active and the
contemplative.

* * * * *

Some, however, repudiate this division, thus:

1. The soul is by its essence the principle of life; thus the
Philosopher says[293]: "For living things, to live is to be." But the
same soul with its faculties is the principle both of action and of
contemplation. Hence it would seem that life cannot be suitably divided
into the active and the contemplative.

But the peculiar nature of every individual thing--that which
makes it actually be--is the principle of its own proper action;
consequently _to live_ is said to be the very _being_ of living
things, and this because living things--by the very fact that
they exist through such a nature--act in such a way.

2. Again, when one thing precedes another it is unfitting to divide the
former by differences which find place in the latter. But action and
contemplation, like speculation and practice, are distinctions in the
intellect, as is laid down by the Philosopher.[294] But we live before
we understand; for life is primarily in living things by their
vegetative soul, as also the Philosopher says.[295] Therefore life is
not fittingly divided according to contemplation and action.

But we do not say that life universally considered is divided
into the active and the c