and cannot exist by itself. It is only a determinable principle, as yet without any determination, if considered as prime matter. Any existing sensible object is more than matter in this primary sense. It is secondary matter; i.e., a composition of two incomplete substances, matter and form, the form actuating the matter. Only because of union with a form does matter come into actual existence. If human bodies are, they are informed, and they must be informed by something that makes them human. This is the human soul, which at one and the same time gives existence to the body and specifies the nature of the composite. The human body can only be understood in terms of the kind of form actualizing it. By applying the hylomorphic doctrine to man, St. Thomas establishes the proportion that the body is to the soul as matter is to form. Just as primary matter does not exist without a substantial form, the human body does not exist either prior to or apart from its form, the soul. Primary matter cannot be known either imaginatively or positively in itself, but only negatively and by analogy, because it does not exist by itself. Likewise, the body of man can be known only negatively if an attempt to study it entirely apart from the soul is undertaken. By itself it is not conceivable as a human body, because it lacks being. The human body partakes in substantial corporeal existence through union with a form. Since it only partakes in the substance, it cannot be equated with the substance. The body cannot be the man. The study of the soul of man revealed to St. Thomas that it was spiritual, simple, substanti

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