the cause of the sound precedes the existence of the sound, [even though the existence of the sound] (1) is contiguous with the existence of the motion and never separate from it. The point, however, is that it occurs only afterward: the first instant of the motion is not the first instant of the sound. Rather, the motion must first exist, and the sound then follows it. Hence, the effect is conjoined to the cause by fa (“and then”), which denotes immediate succession.

Thus, one says: “I broke it, and then it broke apart,” and, “I cut it, and then it was severed.” One also says: “I struck him with the sword, and then he died,” or, “and so I killed him”; “He ate and then became full”; “He drank and then his thirst was quenched”; “He ate until he was full”; and, “He drank until his thirst was quenched,” and similar expressions. Breaking and cutting are acts inhering in the agent, such as when he strikes something with his hand or with an implement in his hand. When the impact reaches it, it breaks apart or is severed. One of the two thus follows the other: the first instant of the one is not the first instant of the other, nor is the last instant of the one the last instant of the other. Rather, the time of the cause comes first, and the time of the effect comes afterward.

For this reason, people disagreed regarding an effect generated by human action. One group said, “It is his action.” Another said, “It is the Lord’s action.” A third said, “Rather, the human being participates in bringing it about: it results from his action together with another cause.” Examples include an arrow’s leaving the bow, and satiety and the quenching of thirst resulting from eating and drinking.

Were it not for the cause preceding the effect, this disagreement would never have arisen. The cause occurs in the servant at the locus of his power and motion, whereas the effect occurs outside the locus of his power and motion. This also includes the movement of a sleeve together with the movement of the hand, the movement of the far end of a rope together with the movement of its near end, and many similar cases.

It is thus known that they have not found anywhere in existence a produced thing whose time coincides with that of its producer without (2)