Good creation and intelligent world

Meaning

I.1.8 argues that the world was created good by the one who is goodness itself. Creator and created participant remain distinct: the world shares in intelligence and is full of ideas of every form; it is not itself identified with the divine source. The world is not merely bodily: intelligence and the capacity to receive diverse forms belong to its completeness. This theological premise supports the account of action and receptivity distributed through natural things.

Goodness here does not deny every harmful effect in particular mixtures. The later distinction between a substance and its accidental impurities, and Sonnet V's continuing mixture of sap and venom before purification, prevent that inference. The initial claim concerns the adequacy and order of the created whole. It should neither be made into a universal guarantee that every natural substance is safe nor reduced to an ornamental pious opening with no argumentative role.