Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/207

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NOTES.
BOOK THE FIRST.
CHAPTER I.

Note 1, p. 11. Truth in relation to nature, &c.] Aristotle[1] says that some beings exist by nature, and some by other causes; those by nature include animals and their parts, plants and elementary bodies, as fire and air, earth and water, for all such, evidently, exist, and exist by nature. The objects, in fact, of nature's constitution are broadly distinguished from whatever does not emanate from her—"for all her productions appear to have within them a principle of motion, and of rest; some for locomotion, and some for the motions of growth, decay, and change. But neither a bed, a garment, nor any other similar object, whether formed of stone, earth, or composition, has any such innate tendency to change; and thus nature is to be regarded as the source and first cause of motion and rest in something which has, not casually but, innately, in itself, from its origin, the capability of being so acted upon." The term nature[2], besides, is applied to any substance which, however rude and unchangeable, admits, by its own properties, of being converted into something, as

  1. Nat. Auscult. II. I.
  2. Metaphys. IV. 4. 3. 5.