Thank you for subscribing to Annotated Thomist...check back each day for a new section of St. Thomas' corpus, annotated and summarized. (FREE TRIAL FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS!!!)
AT is also available to donors of $10 or more on Patreon or SubscribeStar along with all of the other benefits (daily bonus videos, bonus articles, PDFs, etc.)
If you need more personalized help reading the Summa, I am available for 1-on-1 sessions, here.
In this article, St. Thomas determines what the ratio of goodness is. He distinguishes it into three, i.e., the "mode," "species," and "order." Central to this is the "species." For, the mode leads towards the acquisition of the species and order direct the species to the end.
Let's think of a good painter. The good painter, first, must be a painter. This is the possession of the "species" or "form." Yet, before this, the mode of the man's existence must be disposed towards receiving the form. Further, in order for the completeness of the act of being a good painter, he must be directed towards (i.e., ordered towards) good painting.