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BOOK REVIEW Principles of Morality, trans. Thomas Gilby, 0. P., Volume 18 (1a2ae, 18-21) Summa Theologiae. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965, pp. 207, with Latin Text, English translation, Introduction, Notes, Appendices, and Glossaries. $6.75. Amid the many books appearing today on Christian ethics it is good to have this one reappear, newly translated and freshly interp~eted by. a scholar not only deeply in touch with the mind and heart of the Angelic Doctor but in touch also with the moral anguish of our day. Gilby's over-all evaluation of St. Thomas' thought in these four questions is sober and accurate; he never claims it as a panacea, which has been done in the past, nor disclaims it as merely an interesting historical treatment, which more and more is being done in the present. Gilby puts the tract firmly in the context of the whole Summa, and the whole Summa in the context of life itself. He admits, but explains, the dead-pan look of these .questions, i. e., the lack of elevation, exhortation, and moral indignation, as necessary for their immediate purpose of calm clarification. Thomas here is not telling us what we ought to do, he is simply analyzing what we do do in order to help him to construct, as far as possible, a science of morals. The science, however, is not here; only the principles are here. Omnia actio inquantum habet aliquid de esse intantum habet de bonitate (18, 1), Gilby translates: "every action inasmuch as it has something real about it has something good about it." The good moral act, then, will not escape reality, will not be lost in a fog of unreal and nebulous relations. It can be judged by the being it has. This severely objective, even metaphysical, first principle of morality is, of course, nuanced more and more by St. Thomas as he moves into the complexities of the human act. And here Gilby helps by reminding us again and again that not all the complexities of man's action are discussed in these questions. The knowledge provided by moral science is partial; it calls for the complement of a virtue " at once intellectual and moral, if we are not merely to watch, but also enter the stream of living processes bearing men to their final good" (p. 125). Gilby is referring, of course, to the virtue of prudence "which holds the key to St. Thomas' teaching on morality, though it is not found in the present four Questions " (p. 125) . Understood, then, in the light of these various cautions, the treatise on the principles of morality is immensely interesting. It is a short treatise; it has defined limits; with the Gilby translations and annotations it is quite readable and frequently brilliant. Domifl.ican House of Studies, Washington, D. C. !66 THOMAS R. HEATH, o. p. ...

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