Thus, St Thomas, in reading Aristotle, says in, for example, In I Post. An., lectio 33, that, if there are Ideas, there must be participations of them in material things, and these participations then would belong to their respective essences. However, we doubt whether Plato ever has spoken of the essence of material things, residing in those things : For him the essence exactly lies outside those things. Consequently no doubling. Within a Platonic metaphysical framework then, material things at most only provoke investigation, without being the latter's true objects.