Chapter 101 — That the ultimate end of all things is the divine goodness

The ultimate end of things is necessarily the divine goodness. For the ultimate end of things produced by one who works through his will is that which is willed by the agent first and for its own sake. It is for this that the agent does all that he does. But the first object willed by the divine will is God’s goodness, as is clear from what we have said previously. Hence the ultimate end of all things made by God must necessarily be the divine goodness.

Furthermore, the end of the generation of anything generated is its form. Once this is achieved, generation ceases. Moreover, everything that is generated, whether by art or by nature, is in some way rendered similar to the agent in virtue of its form, since every agent produces an effect that has some resemblance to the agent himself. Thus the house that is in matter proceeds from the house existing in the mind of the architect. In the realm of nature, likewise, man begets man. And if anything that is generated or effected by natural processes is not like its generating cause according to species, it is at any rate likened to its efficient causes as imperfect to perfect.

The fact that a generated product is not assimilated to its generating cause according to species is explained by its inability to rise to perfect likeness with its cause; but it does participate in that cause to some extent, however imperfectly. This occurs, for example, in animals and plants that are generated by the power of the sun. Hence in all things that are made, the end of their generation or production is the form of their maker or generator, in the sense that they are to achieve a likeness of that form. But the form of the first agent, God, is nothing else than his goodness. This, then, is the reason why all things were made: that they might be made like the divine goodness.