years, and expressing many opinions subsequently rejected by him.
2. The so-called Questiones Disputatæ, a rich collection of monographs, on the most important subjects of the whole province of theology, which St. Thomas here treats more fully than in his other writings. Written as occasion required, they have been grouped in a somewhat confusing way under the titles De Potentia, De Malo, De Spiritualibus Creaturis De Virtutibus and De Veritate. A better arrangement would be under the three headings: De Ente et Potentia, De Veritate et Cognitione, De Bono et Appetitu Boni. We should then possess a fairly complete system of theologicophilosophical Ontology, Psychology and Ethics.
3. The Summa contra Gentiles is for the most part philosophical, but it contains only such philosophical subjects as bear on theology. It is divided into four books: the first two treat of the Essence and Nature of God and of creatures; the third treats of the movement of creatures to their end in God, and of supernatural Providence; the fourth book deals with the various mysteries which bear on the union of creatures with God. The method of exposition is not dialectical but positive. An excellent commentary on this work appeared towards the end of the fifteenth century, written by Francis of Ferrara. An English translation, by Fr. Joseph Rickaby, S.J., has just been published (1905).
4. But the Saint’s masterpiece is his Summa Theologica, composed towards the end of his life and never completed. It contains his mature opinions on almost the entire province of theology. It is divided into three great parts, the second of which is subdivided into two parts, termed respectively, Prima Secundæ and Secunda Secundæ. Each part is divided into “questions” and these again into “articles.”
Part I. treats of God as He is in Himself and as the Principle of all things:
A. Of God Himself:
(a) His Being (qq. 2–13);
