movements, the mechanics of which he has been rather curiously setting forth. The phrase he
370 The Literal Meaning of Genesis sockets ofthejoints to provide the thrust without which movement cannot begin; and it will discover that those parts that are being moved through local space are only moved by those which are stationary in place. A finger, you see, is not moved unless the hand is stationary, so that from its joint the finger may be moved as from a motionless pivot. In the same way when the whole hand is moved from the elbow joint, the elbow from the shoulder joint, the shoulder from the shoulder blade, the pivots of course remaining stationary to give thrust to the movement, the part being moved goes through a certain local space.
Likewise the foot has its joint in the ankle, which stays still for the foot to be moved; so too the shank's pivot is in the knee, the whole leg's in the hip. And there is no movement of any part of the body at all which the will can move that does not start from some pivot in a joint which a nod from the will first holds steady, so that the part to be moved can be started off with a thrust from the one that is not moving through local space. Finally, when you are walking, you cannot lift a foot unless the other one is firmly on the ground, carrying the whole weight of the body, until the one which is moving from the place it is being lifted from comes to rest in the place it is being lifted to, its pivotal joint remaining motionless throughout.
42. So now then, the will does not move any part of the body by local move ment without starting it from that part's pivotaljoint which it does not move; and yet both parts of the body, the one that is being moved and the one that remains stationary for the other to be moved, have their bodily quantities, occupying local space. How much more, then, does the soul, at whose beck and call, as it pleases, one of these parts will remain stationary to provide the necessary thrust for another to be moved—since the soul is not of a bodily nature, nor does it fill the body as its local space, like water filling a bottle or a sponge, but in wonderful ways it is mixed into the body it animates, and with its incorporeal nod, so to say, it powers or steers the body with a kind of concentration, not with any material engine48—how much less, I am saying, is this "nod" of its will the subject of local movement itself, in order to move the body locally, when it moves the whole body through its parts, and only moves some parts locally through others which it does not move locally!
48. He clearly lacks words to say how the incorporeal soul moves the body, that is, how it initiates movements, the mechanics of which he has been rather curiously setting forth. The phrase he uses which 1 have translated "with a kind of concentration, not with any material engine" is quadam intentione, non mole.
Book VIll 371 lf this cannot be understood it must be believed, as also the truth about God's immovability which this about the soul is meant to illustrate
22, 43. But if this is hard to understand, let both these things be believed, both that the spiritual creature moves the body locally without being locally moved itself, and that God without being moved through time moves the spiritual crea ture through time. But ifyou do not wish to believe this about the soul—which in fact you would not only believe but also undoubtedly understand if you could think about its being incorporeal, which it is; anyone could easily see, surely, that something which is not extended through local space can scarcely be moved through space. But whatever is extended through local space is a body; and therefore it follows that the soul cannot be thought of as being moved through space if it is not a body. But, as I was on the point of saying, if you are unwilling to believe this about the soul, there is no need to press you unduly; unless, however, you believe that the substance of God is not subject to movement through either time or space, then you are not yet believing that he is completely and perfectly unchangeable.49
Returning to the twofold operation of God's providence, and the order established thereby
23, 44. But the nature of the Trinity is altogether unchangeable; and thus God is eternal in such a way that nothing can be co-eternal with him, and while he remains with and in himselfwithout any time or place, he nonetheless moves the creation subject to him through time and place. He creates natures by his good ness, regulates wills by his authority, so that among natures there is none that does not come from him, while among wills none is good which does not benefit from him, none bad which he cannot put to good use. But he did not give all natures free will, while those he did give it to are the higher, more powerful ones; so the natures which do not have free will are necessarily subordinate to those which do, and this by the creator's design, who never punishes a bad will in such a way as to eliminate the nature's rank or worth. Since therefore no mere body and no non-rational soul has free will, these things are subordinate to the natures which are in fact endowed with free will—not every one of them to all of them, but according to the just distribution of the creator.
So then, God's providence rules and administers the whole of creation, both natures and wills; natures so that they may simply be, wills on the other hand so that neither the good ones may be unfruitful nor the bad ones go unpunished.
49. 1n Augustine's theology God's unchangeability was almost the basic divine attribute, what in the more refined and accurate terminology of Aquinas and his fellow scholastics would be called God's absolute simplicity.