r with regard to sound,
namely, hearing. But it is accidental to a passive quality, for
instance, to something colored, to be a musician or a grammarian,
great or small, a man or a stone. Therefore by reason of such
differences the powers of the soul are not distinct.

Reply Obj. 1: Act, though subsequent in existence to power, is,
nevertheless, prior to it in intention and logically; as the end is
with regard to the agent. And the object, although extrinsic, is,
nevertheless, the principle or end of the action; and those
conditions which are intrinsic to a thing, are proportionate to its
principle and end.

Reply Obj. 2: If any power were to have one of two contraries as such
for its object, the other contrary would belong to another power. But
the power of the soul does not regard the nature of the contrary as
such, but rather the common aspect of both contraries; as sight does
not regard white as such, but as color. This is because of two
contraries one, in a manner, includes the idea of the other, since
they are to one another as perfect and imperfect.

Reply Obj. 3: Nothing prevents things which coincide in subject, from
being considered under different aspects; therefore they can belong
to various powers of the soul.

Reply Obj. 4: The higher power of itself regards a more universal
formality of the object than the lower power; because the higher a
power is, to a greater number of things does it extend. Therefore
many things are combined in the one formality of the object, which
the higher power considers of itself; while they differ in the
formalities regarded by the lower powers of themselves. Thus it is
that various objects belong to various lower powers; which objects,
however, are subject to one higher power.
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FOURTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 77, Art. 4]

Whether Among the Powers of the Soul There Is Order?

Objection 1: It would seem that there is no order among the powers of
the soul. For in those things which come under one division, there is
no before and after, but all are naturally simultaneous. But the
powers of the soul are contradistinguished from one another. Therefore
there is no order among them.

Obj. 2: Further, the powers of the soul are referred to their objects
and to the soul itself. On the part of the soul, there is not order
among them, because the soul is one. In like manner the objects are
various and dissimilar, as color and sound. Therefore there is no
order am