Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/276

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266
NOTES.
[BK. II.

of tangible as well as sapid qualities; and Touch is ex-
tended over the body. Some properties, however, which are enumerated, are subject to all the senses, and, hence, termed common; but the attempted illustration of them by "a kind of motion" (κίνησις τις) does not, owing to its vagueness, assist in explaining them.

Note 2, p. 91. An object is said to be perceived, &c.] An example in illustration of casual or accidental percep-
tion
; but it is by its wording so obscure as to stand itself in need of elucidation. The purport, however, seems to be, that the percipient does not, by sight, (as sight distinguishes only colour and form) discern what the white object really is; but the other senses, by some accidental perception, coming in aid of the special sense, may determine that the white object is a certain individual. There may besides, perhaps, be a covert allusion to the two-fold acceptation of the term accident, which signified then as it does now both casual incidents and the real, or inalienable properties of bodies; and if so, the passage may imply that the individual is perceived by chance; detected, that is, by a mere guess. It is of little moment, but the individual alluded to is said, by Philoponus, to have been a friend of Aristotle's; and that letters which had passed between them were extant in his time.