pears from what has been already said (A. 4), the
more perfect form virtually contains whatever belongs to the inferior
forms; therefore while remaining one and the same, it perfects matter
according to the various degrees of perfection. For the same
essential form makes man an actual being, a body, a living being, an
animal, and a man. Now it is clear that to every genus follow its own
proper accidents. Therefore as matter is apprehended as perfected in
its existence, before it is understood as corporeal, and so on; so
those accidents which belong to existence are understood to exist
before corporeity; and thus dispositions are understood in matter
before the form, not as regards all its effects, but as regards the
subsequent effect.

Reply Obj. 2: Dimensions of quantity are accidents consequent to the
corporeity which belongs to the whole matter. Wherefore matter, once
understood as corporeal and measurable, can be understood as distinct
in its various parts, and as receptive of different forms according
to the further degrees of perfection. For although it is essentially
the same form which gives matter the various degrees of perfection,
as we have said (ad 1), yet it is considered as different when
brought under the observation of reason.

Reply Obj. 3: A spiritual substance which is united to a body as
its motor only, is united thereto by power or virtue. But the
intellectual soul is united by its very being to the body as a
form; and yet it guides and moves the body by its power and virtue.
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SEVENTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 76, Art. 7]

Whether the Soul Is United to the Animal Body by Means of a Body?

Objection 1: It seems that the soul is united to the animal body by
means of a body. For Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. vii, 19), that "the
soul administers the body by light," that is, by fire, "and by air,
which is most akin to a spirit." But fire and air are bodies.
Therefore the soul is united to the human body by means of a body.

Obj. 2: Further, a link between two things seems to be that thing
the removal of which involves the cessation of their union. But when
breathing ceases, the soul is separated from the body. Therefore the
breath, which is a subtle body, is the means of union between soul
and body.

Obj. 3: Further, things which are very distant from one another, are
not united except by something between them. But the intellectual
soul is very distant from the body, both because it