The matter actuated by a form is a _real potency_, and nothing more. It is only by stretching the word “being” beyond its legitimate meaning that this real potency is sometimes called a real being. In fact, the potential term of the real being is real, not on account of any real entity involved in its own nature, but merely on account of the real act by which it is actuated. How anything can be real without possessing an entity of its own our reader may easily understand by recollecting what we have often remarked about the centre of a sphere, whose reality is entirely due to the spherical form, or by reflecting that negations and privations are similarly called _real_, not because of any entity involved in them, but simply because they are appurtenances of real beings. We have seen that S. Augustine would fain have called the primitive matter a _nothing-something_ and a _being non-being_, if such phrases had been allowable. His thought was deep, but he could not find words to express it thoroughly. Our “real potency” is that “nothing-something” which was in the mind of the holy doctor. S. Thomas gives us a clew to the explanation of such a “nothing-something” by remarking that _to be_ and _to have being_ are not precisely the same thing. _To be_ is the attribute of a complete act, whilst _to have being_ is the attribute of a potency actuated by its act. That is said _to be_ which contains in itself the formal reason of its being; whilst that is said _to have being_ which does not contain in itself the formal reason of its being, but receives its being from without, and puts it on as a borrowed garment. Of course, God alone can be said _to be_ in the fullest meaning of the term, as he alone contains in himself the _adequate_ reason of his being; yet all created essence can be said _to be_, inasmuch as it contains in itself the _formal_ reason of its being--that is, an act giving existence to a potency; whereas the potency itself can be said merely _to have being_, because _being_ is not included in the nature of potency, but must come to it from a distinct source. And therefore, as a thing colored _has_ color, but _is not_ color, and as a body animated _has_ life, but _is not_ life, so the matter actuated by its form _has_ being, but _is not_ a being.