CHAPTER XIX—That all Things aim at Likeness to God

ALL things evidently have a natural appetite for being, and resist destructive agencies wherever they are threatened with them. But all things have being inasmuch as they are likened to God, who is the essential subsistent Being, all other things having being only by participation. All things therefore have an appetite for likeness to God, making that their last end.

4. All created things are some sort of image of the prime agent, God: for every agent acts to the production of its own likeness:⁵³⁷⁵³⁷That is, to the production of something proportionate to and in keeping with itself. now the perfection of an image consists in representing its original by likeness thereto: the image in fact is made on purpose. All things then exist for the attainment of the divine likeness; and that is their last end.⁵³⁸⁵³⁸Some attribute or other of the Creator is relucent in every creature, according to the being which it has and the energy it displays, not however that attribute which serves best the immediate purposes of man, and ministers most to his security and comfort. This world is not exactly built for an hotel.