Page:Margoliouth-BookAppleAscribed-1892.pdf/8

194

  فقط هو بمنزلة ما یکون فی طبیعة غایة الجهل فان الذین تکلموا فی الجواهر باسره مثل سپوسیپس جعلوا الشریف فی الموضع الوسط ینبغي فاما افلاطون وشیعة فوثاغورس فانهم باعدوا الامر بعدا کثیرا بما راوه

Translation: “And if these things are not because of anything in which the better was intended, then it is necessary that we should understand its limits and not assert this proposition of everything absolutely. For in these things the statement as it were sways to two sides, when they are stated absolutely, and when they are stated individually. I mean by the absolute statement, that nature in everything desires the better, and that she, wherever possible, bestows order and persistence. The same is the case with. . . and animals. For where it is possible. . . she does not fail in any single place. An example of that is how the throat is placed in front of the œsophagus. . and likewise there is placed. . . The desire follows the same course; only it appears that what does not obey it nor accept the better matter is abundant, nay, it is far more abundant than what does accept it. For that which is possessed of soul is of small number, whereas what has no soul is innumerable and comes quicker into existence than what has a soul, and is better in existence. And in general the good is little and in few things; and the bad large in number. And the fact that this only exceeds limit is like what is in the nature of the extremity of folly. For those who talked of substance as a whole like Speusippus made the honourable in the middle place small and rare, whereas the extremes on either side of the middle are according to them as they should be. Plato and the Pythagoreans however carried the matter very far in what they held.”

It is to be regretted that the passage breaks off here.