continuous, the change is a part, as a unit is
a part of number: hence the succession of the various places, even
without the mid-space, constitutes such movement.
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THIRD ARTICLE [I, Q. 53, Art. 3]
Whether the Movement of an Angel Is Instantaneous?
Objection 1: It would seem that an angel's movement is instantaneous.
For the greater the power of the mover, and the less the moved resist
the mover, the more rapid is the movement. But the power of an angel
moving himself exceeds beyond all proportion the power which moves a
body. Now the proportion of velocities is reckoned according to the
lessening of the time. But between one length of time and any other
length of time there is proportion. If therefore a body is moved in
time, an angel is moved in an instant.
Obj. 2: Further, the angel's movement is simpler than any bodily
change. But some bodily change is effected in an instant, such as
illumination; both because the subject is not illuminated
successively, as it gets hot successively; and because a ray does not
reach sooner what is near than what is remote. Much more therefore is
the angel's movement instantaneous.
Obj. 3: Further, if an angel be moved from place to place in time, it
is manifest that in the last instant of such time he is in the term
_whereto_: but in the whole of the preceding time, he is either in
the place immediately preceding, which is taken as the term
_wherefrom_; or else he is partly in the one, and partly in the
other, it follows that he is divisible; which is impossible.
Therefore during the whole of the preceding time he is in the term
_wherefrom._ Therefore he rests there: since to be at rest is to be
in the same place now and previously, as was said (A. 2). Therefore
it follows that he is not moved except in the last instant of time.
_On the contrary,_ In every change there is a before and after. Now
the before and after of movement is reckoned by time. Consequently
every movement, even of an angel, is in time, since there is a before
and after in it.
_I answer that,_ Some have maintained that the local movement of an
angel is instantaneous. They said that when an angel is moved from
place to place, during the whole of the preceding time he is in the
term _wherefrom_; but in the last instant of such time he is in the
term _whereto._ Nor is there any need for a medium between the terms,
just as there is no medium between time and the limit of time. Bu
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