These, then, are the reasons of the generation of animals. For since
it is impossible that such a class of things as animals should be of
an eternal nature, therefore that which comes into being is eternal in
the only way possible. Now it is impossible for it to be eternal as an
individual (though of course the real essence of things is in the
individual)- were it such it would be eternal- but it is possible
for it as a species. This is why there is always a class of men and
animals and plants. But since the male and female essences are the
first principles of these, they will exist in the existing individuals
for the sake of generation. Again, as the first efficient or moving
cause, to which belong the definition and the form, is better and more
divine in its nature than the material on which it works, it is better
that the superior principle should be separated from the inferior.
Therefore, wherever it is possible and so far as it is possible, the
male is separated from the female. For the first principle of the
movement, or efficient cause, whereby that which comes into being is
male, is better and more divine than the material whereby it is
female. The male, however, comes together and mingles with the
female for the work of generation, because this is common to both.
A thing lives, then, in virtue of participating in the male and
female principles, wherefore even plants have some kind of life; but
the class of animals exists in virtue of sense-perception.
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