De causis curatricibus Theses Progymnasticae

XXIIX.
And in reality, in every mixed body, such an effective essence not only resides, but also the mixed body subsists, moves, is informed, is figured, is perfected, and is denominated through it.

XXIX.
And hence it seemed excellent to the philosophers to call such an essence ἐνέργειαν energy/actuality, or Form. Indeed, they also indicated the same thing as φύσιν physis or Nature: and this for the reason that the generation or nature of all things is enclosed by an implanted virtue or Form; or that generation exists as a way or transition to Form. Although they otherwise use the word "Nature" differently and in various ways; so that by it they sometimes signify the generation and production of living things: sometimes the first matter from which natural entities are made: sometimes the proximate matter of any kind or species: likewise the universal cause of all motions, that is, God and His ordinary power, poured out into this whole system of the world, to whose laws all internal things are moved: or (as appears elsewhere) τὸ κινοῦν μὴ κινούμενον the mover not moved, and τὸ κινοῦν καὶ κινούμενον the mover and the moved, that is (as some have rendered it) an independent and dependent principle.

XXX.
Therefore, they defined that Form or Nature as the principal intrinsic efficient cause of the motion and rest of all natural bodies.

XXXI.
Furthermore, just as natural bodies vary greatly among themselves regarding matter, so also their powers, those intimate ones or forms, appear diverse.

XXXII.
For some have motions and actions that are quite manifest and evident, as well as perfect: some have ones that are quite obscure, recondite, and imperfect.

XXXIII.
A Form of the prior kind is called a Soul, and the bodies in which it resides are called animate. Of the latter, it is simply called Nature, and the bodies in which it resides are called inanimate.

XXXIV.
But neither are souls in all bodies of such a kind, but they differ greatly in perfection and nobility. For some lack sense and act without cognition; some act with cognition and sense joined together. Some, beyond cognition and sense, also operate with reason and intellect, and thus contain as it were all the rest collected in one essence and power; and for that reason, they far surpass all the others in excellence of perfection.

XXXV.
Plants are endowed with the first of these species of soul, in which it is called Vegetative or natural: animals with the second, in which it is called Sensitive: humans with the third, in which it is called Rational and is truly termed divine and celestial.

XXXVI.
Therefore, by manifest and evident REASON φανερώσιν manifestation, that intrinsic cause of the aforementioned apparent actions is either Form or Nature,