Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/56

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CHAPTER V.

The peculiar incongruity to which we have alluded, belongs as well to those who suppose Vital Principle to be some kind of body with tenuity of parts, as it does to those who with Democritus maintain that the body is moved by the Vital Principle; for if the Vital Principle is in the whole sentient body, then, being some kind of body, there must necessarily be two bodies in one and the same body. And it may be objected to those who speak of it as a number, that if so, there must be many points in a single point, or every kind of body must have Vital Principle, unless it is a number innate and different as well from other numbers, as from the points which are in the body. It results too from this theory, that an animal is moved by a number much in the same way that Democritus, as we have said, gives motion to it; for what matters it whether we speak of spherules, or large units, or units simply in motion? In either case, the animal is compelled to move from their being in motion.