Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/314

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304
NOTES.
[BK. III.

its repetitions, is still vague and obscure. It seems, however, to embody former assertions--that a single sensation from a special organ, that is, must be true; and that there is room for fallacy when other qualities are added to that sensation, and still more so when common properties, as motion, magnitude, or number, are, for explanation, to be taken into the account.

Note 5, p. 147. And since vision is a sense, &c.] It will be apparent that this passage depends, for its meaning, upon etymology--φαντασία (fancy or imagination) may be derived, if not from φάος, yet, from the same root as φάος, which probably is φῶς (light), as light is essential to vision; and φάος may have formed φαίνω, which is an approximation to φαντασία. The Latin version is, "cum autem visus maxime sit sensus, hinc est quod nomen imaginatio ab ipso lumine sumpsit, phantasiaque dicitur, quia sine lumine visio fieri nequit." Imagination or the mental perception of images, that is, being regarded as an inward sight, and sight as the most precious of the senses, was derived from the same root as light, because light is essential to sight.