Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/335

 is simply, then we inquire whether there is a medium of it or not, but when knowing, either that it is, or if is, either in part or simply, we again investigate why it is, or what it is, then we inquire what the middle is. But I mean by the that if it is in a part and simply, in a part indeed (as) is the moon eclipsed or increased? for in such things we inquire if a thing is or is not; but simply (as) if there is a moon or not, or if night is or not. In all these inquiries it occurs that we investigate either if there is a middle or what the middle is, for the cause is the middle, and this is investigated in all things. Is there then an eclipse? is there a certain cause or not? after this, when we know that there is, we inquire what this is. For the cause of a thing not being this or that, but simply substance, or not simply, but something of those which subsist per se, or accidentally, is the middle. I mean by what is simply (substance) the subject, as the moon, or the earth, or the sun, or a triangle, but by a certain thing, (as) an eclipse, equality, inequality if it is in the middle or not. For in all these it is evident that what a thing is and why it is are the same; what is an eclipse? a privation of light from the moon through the interposition of the earth. Why is there an eclipse, or why is the moon eclipsed? because its light fails through the interposition of the earth. What is symphony? a ratio of numbers in sharp and flat. Why does the sharp accord with the flat? because the sharp and flat have the ratio of numbers. Do then the sharp and flat accord? is there then a ratio of them in numbers? assuming that there is, what then is the ratio? That the inquiry is of the middle those things prove whose middle falls within the cognizance of the senses, since we inquire when we have not a sensible perception, as of an eclipse, whether it is or not. But if we were above the moon we should not inquire neither if, nor why, but it would be immediately evident, as from sensible perception we should also obtain knowledge of the universal;