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PRELUDE TO CHAPTER VIII.
This chapter is a brief summary of the principal theories and arguments which have been alluded to, and it adds but little for comment. The opening paragraphs are rendered less definite than might be wished for, by the recurring particle πως and by the substitution of ὄντα for πράγματα, although the distinction between them is not very apparent. It had just been said that “knowledge, in act, is identical with what is known,” and here the same is predicated of Vital Principle, although with a qualifying addition; and the meaning, in either case, is dependent upon Aristotle's two sovereign conditions. It may be understood how the intellect as well as the sentient faculty can be regarded as identical with their subjects, in the way that a sentient organ, by reception of the form without the matter, may be said to be identified with the coloured or sonorous object; but it is not obvious how this can apply to faculty or sense in poten-
