Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/245

CH. IV.] Note 7, p. 41. How, indeed, is it possible.] This is very elliptical and obscure, but its purport seems to be an objection to the doctrine of Xenocrates, a follower of Plato, who maintained that the Vital Principle might be separate from the body. The argument runs thus: if the Vital Principle be a number, and if each unit be a point, how, as the point is not separable from the line, can the Vital Principle be separate from the body? Although the point may be, abstractedly, apart from the line, yet as the line is not divisible into points, (since points are but the termination of the line) it follows that the Vital Principle, when regarded as a point, cannot be, actually, separate from the body. The Latin paraphrase is, "Insuper qui fieri potest ut separentur et absolvantur a corporibus, ipsa puncta? siquidem lineae non dividuntur in puncta ;" the French is, "Comment est-il possible que les âmes se séparent et se délivrent des corps, puisque les lignes ne se divisent pas en points?"