The same statement holds good also for the operations of art,
and even for those which are apparently spontaneous.
For the same result as is produced by art may occur spontaneously.
Spontaneity, for instance,
may bring about the restoration of health.
The products of art, however,
require the pre-existence of an efficient cause homogeneous with themselves,
such as the statuary's art,
which must necessarily precede the statue;
for this cannot possibly be produced spontaneously.
Art indeed consists in the conception of the result to be produced
before its realization in the material.
As with spontaneity, so with chance;
for this also produces the same result as art, and by the same process.