Therefore the will is a more noble and perfect power than
the intellect.

Obj. 3: Further, habits are proportioned to their powers, as
perfections to what they make perfect. But the habit which perfects
the will--namely, charity--is more noble than the habits which
perfect the intellect: for it is written (1 Cor. 13:2): "If I should
know all mysteries, and if I should have all faith, and have not
charity, I am nothing." Therefore the will is a higher power than
the intellect.

_On the contrary,_ The Philosopher holds the intellect to be the
higher power than the intellect.

_I answer that,_ The superiority of one thing over another can be
considered in two ways: "absolutely" and "relatively." Now a thing is
considered to be such absolutely which is considered such in itself:
but relatively as it is such with regard to something else. If
therefore the intellect and will be considered with regard to
themselves, then the intellect is the higher power. And this is clear
if we compare their respective objects to one another. For the object
of the intellect is more simple and more absolute than the object of
the will; since the object of the intellect is the very idea of
appetible good; and the appetible good, the idea of which is in the
intellect, is the object of the will. Now the more simple and the
more abstract a thing is, the nobler and higher it is in itself; and
therefore the object of the intellect is higher than the object of
the will. Therefore, since the proper nature of a power is in its
order to its object, it follows that the intellect in itself and
absolutely is higher and nobler than the will. But relatively and by
comparison with something else, we find that the will is sometimes
higher than the intellect, from the fact that the object of the will
occurs in something higher than that in which occurs the object of
the intellect. Thus, for instance, I might say that hearing is
relatively nobler than sight, inasmuch as something in which there is
sound is nobler than something in which there is color, though color
is nobler and simpler than sound. For as we have said above (Q. 16,
A. 1; Q. 27, A. 4), the action of the intellect consists in
this--that the idea of the thing understood is in the one who
understands; while the act of the will consists in this--that the
will is inclined to the thing itself as existing in itself. And
therefore the Philosopher says in _Metaph._ vi (Did. v, 2) that "good
and evil,