They contain Earth and Water, then, for the reasons we have given: and they contain Air and Fire, because these are contrary to Earth and Water (Earth being contrary to Air and Water to Fire, in so far as one Substance can be ‘contrary’ to another). Now all compounds presuppose in their coming-to-be constituents4 which are contrary to one another: and in all compounds there is contained one set of the contrasted extremes. Hence the other set must be contained in them also, so that every compound will include all the ‘simple’ bodies.
Additional evidence seems to be furnished by the food each compound takes. For all of them are fed by substances which are the same as their constituents, and all of them are fed by more substances than one. Indeed, even the plants, though it might be thought they are fed by one substance only, viz. by Water, are fed by more than one: for Earth has been mixed with the Water. That is why farmers too endeavour to mix before watering. Although food is akin5 to the matter, that which is fed is the ‘figure’-i.e. the ‘form’ taken along with the matter. This fact enables us to understand why, whereas all the ‘simple’ bodies come-to-be out of one another, Fire is the only one of them which (as our predecessors6 also assert) ‘is fed’. For Fire alone-or more than all the rest-is akin to the ‘form’ because it tends by nature to be borne towards the limit. Now each of them naturally tends to be borne towards its own place; but the ‘figure’-i.e. the ‘form’-Of them all is at the limits.
Thus we have explained that all the compound bodies are composed of all the ‘simple’ bodies.
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1 specially | |
adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地 | |
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2 adaptable | |
adj.能适应的,适应性强的,可改编的 | |
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3 cohesion | |
n.团结,凝结力 | |
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4 constituents | |
n.选民( constituent的名词复数 );成分;构成部分;要素 | |
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5 akin | |
adj.同族的,类似的 | |
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6 predecessors | |
n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 );前辈;(被取代的)原有事物;前身 | |
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