Page:Theory of Mind of Roger Bacon.djvu/35

 Species but is due to the difference in the Matters of the Patients. Hence, in several Patients whose Matters differ, the “pars prima” as part of each Patient will differ from the “pars prima” of the several other Patients. But the “pars prima assimilata,” if uniformly Species, in each case must be identical in essence. Now the total Effect is a summation of such parts; accordingly the total Effect should be identical in essence in the several cases—if the Species is the “pars prima.” But the Species as “pars prima” is essential to his eduction theory. Therefore, here again some other notion is before his mind, namely, the emission theory.

If the Species is not mere Form, but Form and Matter inevitably in span, then change cannot be effected through Form alone; the Matter has also its part to play. So, then, the Species, as “pars prima assimilata” of the Patient, is both Form and Matter. But the Species is educed from the Matter of the Patient; and that is to say, that the only change in the Matter consists in its acquisition of a new Form. Here then again are two different conceptions of the Species. In the one case it is Matter and Form; in the other case it is mere Form. Only as a true representative of the Agent is it the former; whereas it is the latter alone when considered as a means of educing the change in the Matter. A conflict once more between the emission theory and that of eduction. Further, if the Species is the incomplete effect of the Agent, it will be lacking quantitatively or qualitatively in its likeness to the Agent. The latter it cannot be, for it is univocal with the Agent. And the former it can be only as a weak or a small reproduction of the Agent. And if its character of incompleteness is measured by reference to the complete effect, it is incomplete as part of a whole. It may therefore be conceived as an incomplete reproduction or an incomplete whole; and the two are readily confused. The first is consistent only with the emission theory, and the latter with the eduction theory alone.

If the Species is the immediate effect of the Agent, it is not brought into being through the medium of a third factor. Its mode of production is therefore an unanalysable ultimate. And as thus immediately produced in the Patient, it must be identical with the “pars prima.” It follows, then, that a full assemblage of Species is the “effectus completus,” and that fewer than this assemblage is an “effectus incompletus.” Hence, complete as opposed to incomplete means here more as opposed to less; it signifies the relation of whole to part. This is consistent with his eduction theory alone. Moreover, if the Species is identical with the complete Effect, it must be qualitatively, not quantitatively, so. For, the one is an incomplete part of the whole, and the other is the complete