Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/40

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30
Aristotle on the
[Bk. I.

are the tendencies of those elements; and this conclusion applies equally to the intermediate movements. Since the Vital Principle besides appears to give motion to the body, it is probable that it communicates to the body the motions which it imparts to itself, and, if so, the converse may be true that it communicates to itself the motions which it imparts to the body. Now, the body is moved by translation, so that the Vital Principle should change with the body and be set free from it, either wholly or in its parts; and if this is admitted, it should follow that the Vital Principle, having gone forth from the body, might re-enter, and the consequence of this would be that the dead bodies of animals rise again. Could the Vital Principle be subject to casual motion communicated by some other power than its own, then an animal might be impelled to move by impulse from without; but it is noway necessary that that which is essentially self-motive should be moved by something else, unless by mere chance, any more than that which is good, in and for itself, should be so by or for the sake of something else. It may be confidently affirmed besides, that the Vital Principle, if it do move, is moved by objects which act upon the senses. Although, however, Vital Principle should be self-motive, it would still be in motion, and thus, as all motion is displacement of that which moved, as being moved, the Vital Principle might