5th. Absolute space is not modified by the presence of matter in it—that is, by its extrinsic termination.
6th. Ubications are extrinsic terms of absolute space, and their relations have in space itself an extrinsic foundation.
A similar series of conclusions was established in regard to duration. They were:
1st. There is a standing duration—that is, an actuality which does not imply succession.
2d. Standing duration is an objective reality.
3d. Standing duration is not created.
4th. Standing duration is the virtuality, or extrinsic terminability, of God’s eternity.
5th. Standing duration is not modified by the existence in it of created things—that is, by its extrinsic termination.
6th. The whens of creatures are extrinsic terms of standing duration, and their relations have in standing duration their extrinsic foundation.
Before we give the analogous conclusions concerning active powers and their causality, we have to premise that all power ready to act is said to be in actu primo, or in the “first act,” with respect to its termination and term, or act, which it is ready to produce. Its action is its termination, and it consists in the causation of a second act. This second act, inasmuch as it exists in its proper term, potency, or subject, is called actio in facto esse—that is, an action wholly complete, though the action proper is always in fieri; for it consists in the very production of such a second act, as we have just stated. The result of this production is the existence of a new reality, substantial or accidental, according to the nature of the act produced. This well-known terminology we shall use here for the parallel development of the three classes of questions which we have to answer.