Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/213

CH. I.] whereon the parts of a word, that is syllables, conjoin to make the whole sound, and thus that each is for ever a distinct sound. But a line, on the contrary, is continuous, as there is no common boundary whereon its parts, that is points, conjoin, as lines, to make a superficies, whereon all parts of the solid conjoin; so too time is continuous, for that which is present is conjoined with that which is past, as it is with that which is future." Aristotle, having shewn that there are these opposite conditions of quantity, in a positive as in an abstract sense, defines an unit (ἡ μόνας) as being, in direct opposition to a point, without position or place; a line as being divisible only in one way; a superficies as divisible in two, and a solid, quantitatively considered, as divisible in three, and, indeed, in all ways. Number is still regarded, of course, as a collection of units; the superficies as that which has only length and breadth; and the solid as that which has length, breadth, and depth.

Note 6, p. 12. Among entities in potentiality or whether, &c.] These terms run, like a golden thread, through all the physiological works of Aristotle, and were adopted by him in order to distinguish virtual from actual condition or existence, the capability, that is, of becoming, by innate force or power, an entelechy or reality, which is the purport of the last term. They may be briefly exemplified thus: — an egg, e.g. is alive in potentiality — it has within it, that is, a principle, whereby, under genial