C. Conclusion

22. Briefly then about the two appetitive virtues of hope and charity (whatever may hold of faith), it can be conceded that there could be one appetitive habit with respect to the advantageous good that remains in the fatherland (like charity), and that there could be two appetitive habits with respect to God as he is the noble good and as he is the advantageous good, one of which would be extinguished (the way faith is now posited to be extinguished).

23. But we, from the sayings of the saints, are supposing a distinction in these habits of hope and charity, namely that hope does not incline to an act of tending absolutely to the advantageous good but to an imperfect act that comes from the absence of the object; so that the imperfection is not accidental to the act insofar as it belongs to the habit but is essential to it as it is elicited by the habit. But charity, as it is a habit, is a principle of tending to God as he is good in himself, so that perfection and imperfection as coming from the presence and absence of the object are accidental to the act as the act belongs to the habit. But charity inclines to an imperfect act from the absence of the object and to a perfect act from the presence of the object.