In a third
sense a man becomes unmusical from being musical, sick from being
well, and generally in this sense contraries arise from contraries.
Fourthly, as in the 'climax' of Epicharmus; thus from slander comes
railing and from this fighting, and all these are from something in
the sense that it is the efficient cause. In this last class sometimes
the efficient cause is in the things themselves, as in the last
mentioned (for the slander is a part of the whole trouble), and
sometimes external, as the art is external to the work of art or the
torch to the burning house. Now the offspring comes from the semen,
and it is plainly in one of the two following senses that it does
so- either the semen is the material from which it is made, or it is
the first efficient cause. For assuredly it is not in the sense of A
being after B, as the voyage comes from, i.e. after, the
Panathenaea; nor yet as contraries come from contraries, for then
one of the two contraries ceases to be, and a third substance must
exist as an immediate underlying basis from which the new thing
comes into being. We must discover then, in which of the two other
classes the semen is to be put, whether it is to be regarded as
matter, and therefore acted upon by something else, or as a form,
and therefore acting upon something else, or as both at once. For
perhaps at the same time we shall see clearly also how all the
products of semen come into being from contraries, since coming into
being from contraries is also a natural process, for some animals do
so, i.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43