Page:The Anatomy of Tobacco.pdf/117

 indeterminate. Fourthly, anything which is capable of being applied to some use, and, on being applied to that use, continues its usefulness for a greater or less amount of time, but then becomes incapable of being so applied any longer, is said to exist in three modes, namely—I. Privation. II. Continuation. III. Negation. Exempli gratiâ wood, which, when alive and growing, exists in privation; when shapen into a beam, in continuation, and when, having in the course of years become rotten, it falls to pieces, in negation. Such substance is said to be temporary. Some, however, would deny that any substance can be properly placed in this class, since it only differs from determinate substance in continuing in position a longer time, which (they allege) is no sufficient differentia. And aught that cannot be placed in some one of these four classes, or partly in one and partly in another, is insoluble and unknowable (est insolubile et inscibile), which substances I have con-