Chapter 1 — In what the office of a wise man consists

My mouth shall meditate truth, and my lips shall hate impiety.

Proverbs 8:7

The general use which, in the Philosopher’s opinion (Aristotle, Topics 2.1.) should be followed in naming things, has resulted in those men being called “wise” who order things rightly and govern them well. Hence, among other things which men conceive of the wise man, the Philosopher reckons that it belongs to the wise man to order things. (Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.2, 982a17.) Now the rule of all things directed to the end of government and order must be taken from their end: for a thing is best disposed when it is fittingly directed to its end, since the end of everything is its good. Thus in the arts we observe that the art which governs and rules another is the one to which the latter’s end belongs. In this way the medical art rules and directs the art of the druggist, because health which is the object of medicine is the end of all drugs which are made up by the druggist’s art. The same may be observed in the art of sailing in relation to the art of ship-building, and in the military art in relation to the equestrian art and all warlike appliances. These arts which govern others are called “architectonic,” that is, “principal arts,” for which reason their craftsmen, who are called architects, are awarded the name of wise men.

Since, however, these same craftsmen, through being occupied with the ends of certain singular things, do not come to the universal end of all things, they are called wise about this or that, in which sense it is said, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation (1 Cor 3:10), whereas the name of being wise simply is reserved to him alone who considers the end of the universe, which is also the beginning of the universe. Thus, according to the Philosopher, it belongs to the wise man to consider the highest causes. (Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.1, 981b13–982a3; 1.2, 982a4–982b10.)

Now the ultimate end of each thing is that which is intended by the first author or mover of that thing, and the first author and mover of the universe is an intellect, as we shall prove further on. (Ch. 44; bk. 2, ch. 24.) Consequently, the ultimate end of the universe must be the good of the intellect, and this is truth. Therefore, truth must be the ultimate end of the whole universe, and the consideration of it must be the chief occupation of wisdom. And for this reason divine wisdom, clothed in flesh, declares that he came into the world to make known the truth, saying, for this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37).

Moreover, the Philosopher defines the first philosophy as being the knowledge of truth. (Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.4, 983b1–6.) not of any truth, but of that truth which is the source of all truth, namely, of that which relates to the first principle of being of all things. Hence its truth is the principle of all truth, since the disposition of things is the same in truth as in being.

Now it belongs to the same thing to pursue one contrary and to remove the other: thus medicine, which effects health, removes sickness. Hence, just as it belongs to a wise man primarily to meditate on the first principle and speak of it to others, so it belongs to him to refute contrary falsehood.

Therefore, the twofold office of the wise man is fittingly declared from the mouth of wisdom, in the words above quoted (Prov 8:7); namely, to meditate and publish the divine truth (which antonomastically is the truth, as signified by the words: my mouth shall meditate truth); and to refute the error contrary to truth, as signified by the words: and my lips shall hate impiety, by which is denoted falsehood opposed to divine truth, which is the contrary of religion (which is also called “piety”; hence the falsehood that is contrary to it receives the name of “impiety”).