II. To the Initial Arguments

154. To the first initial argument [n.122]: the authority from Topics VI seems to reject real action by the fire on the body but not intentional action, because the statement of the Philosopher is not taken to be about that. But if a real action is posited, one must say that the proposition is true on the part of a natural cause left to itself in its acting, because then, by the continuation of it, the removing of what is fitting from the substance to which it is fitting becomes greater and greater; but in the issue at hand the natural cause is not left to itself.

155. Or, in another way, [the proposition is true] the more the fire is disposed to remove from the substance that for which it has a disposition; but here it does not have a disposition to remove it in this way, because it has no power for the effect of the disposition, namely the disposition that would in itself be its disposition when natural causes are left to themselves.

156. To the second [n.123] it is plain which action, namely intentional or real, is necessarily to be posited there and which could be posited there - and to the objections to the contrary [nn.123-124], the answer is from the second and third articles [nn.128-132, 133-141, 146-153].