Compendium of the Study of Theology

ticular way. It is objected that in this last case the sign is really by imposition, since the sign is connected with the thing signified by the intellectus agens, i.e. God. Bacon replies that as "works" made by the mind (ab anima) such things are artificial, but as signs they are natural because it belongs to the essence of the species to signify its feelings in this way. Another objector is made to suggest that in that case the sign is really artificial, as when an artist arbitrarily declares that this figure shall be a figure of St. Nicholas and not that of another saint. Bacon replies: "Dominantur naturalia ab eorum essentia configurata arti". The meaning of these words seems to be that, though it belongs to the essence of a dog to bark, the quality is not a necessity of thought (like a geometrical axiom), but merely a consequence of the decree of the great Artificer (arti is of course ablative). Thus in one sense such a sign is a sign by imposition, though in another sense a natural sign. Bacon here mentions St. Augustine's¹ doubt as to whether animals utter sounds "with any intention of mind," and inclines to think they do, because a hen, for instance, makes a different sound when it is teaching its chicks to beware of a hawk from what it makes when it invites them to their food; and he goes on to remark that not only the sounds uttered by the sensitive soul, but even those which proceed from the intelligent soul (anima intellectiva) may be instinctive and without deliberation, as are our expressions of joy and sorrow, hope and fear, which, like the motions of young children, precede all deliberation.

This point suggests a digression on the subject of original sin. He questions (without positively pronouncing against) the doctrine of the Master of the Sentences that original sin springs "from the pollution of the soul through the flesh corrupted by the sin of our first parents," as an apple is polluted by being thrown into the dirt. Bacon objects that, if the pollution arose from the mere union with the flesh, the pollution would belong to its substance, whereas all sin