be guilty of murder. Therefore, for the same
reason, in good actions, the will is good in proportion to the good
intended.

_On the contrary,_ The intention can be good, while the will is evil.
Therefore, for the same reason, the intention can be better, and the
will less good.

_I answer that,_ In regard to both the act, and the intention of the
end, we may consider a twofold quantity: one, on the part of the
object, by reason of a man willing or doing a good that is greater;
the other, taken from the intensity of the act, according as a man
wills or acts intensely; and this is more on the part of the agent.

If then we speak of these respective quantities from the point of
view of the object, it is evident that the quantity in the act does
not depend on the quantity in the intention. With regard to the
external act this may happen in two ways. First, through the object
that is ordained to the intended end not being proportionate to that
end; for instance, if a man were to give ten pounds, he could not
realize his intention, if he intended to buy a thing worth a hundred
pounds. Secondly, on account of the obstacles that may supervene in
regard to the exterior action, which obstacles we are unable to
remove: for instance, a man intends to go to Rome, and encounters
obstacles, which prevent him from going. On the other hand, with
regard to the interior act of the will, this happens in only one way:
because the interior acts of the will are in our power, whereas the
external actions are not. But the will can will an object that is not
proportionate to the intended end: and thus the will that tends to
that object considered absolutely, is not so good as the intention.
Yet because the intention also belongs, in a way, to the act of the
will, inasmuch, to wit, as it is the reason thereof; it comes to pass
that the quantity of goodness in the intention redounds upon the act
of the will; that is to say, in so far as the will wills some great
good for an end, although that by which it wills to gain so great a
good, is not proportionate to that good.

But if we consider the quantity in the intention and in the act,
according to their respective intensity, then the intensity of the
intention redounds upon the interior act and the exterior act of the
will: since the intention stands in relation to them as a kind of
form, as is clear from what has been said above (Q. 12, A. 4; Q. 18,
A. 6). And yet considered materially, while