It follows that first of all we must treat of nutrition and reproduction, for the nutritive soul is found along with all the others and is the most primitive6 and widely distributed power of soul, being indeed that one in virtue7 of which all are said to have life. The acts in which it manifests itself are reproduction and the use of food-reproduction, I say, because for any living thing that has reached its normal development and which is unmutilated, and whose mode of generation is not spontaneous, the most natural act is the production of another like itself, an animal producing an animal, a plant a plant, in order that, as far as its nature allows, it may partake in the eternal and divine. That is the goal towards which all things strive, that for the sake of which they do whatsoever8 their nature renders possible. The phrase ‘for the sake of which’ is ambiguous; it may mean either (a) the end to achieve which, or (b) the being in whose interest, the act is done. Since then no living thing is able to partake in what is eternal and divine by uninterrupted continuance (for nothing perishable9 can for ever remain one and the same), it tries to achieve that end in the only way possible to it, and success is possible in varying degrees; so it remains10 not indeed as the self-same individual but continues its existence in something like itself-not numerically but specifically one.
The soul is the cause or source of the living body. The terms cause and source have many senses. But the soul is the cause of its body alike in all three senses which we explicitly11 recognize. It is (a) the source or origin of movement, it is (b) the end, it is (c) the essence of the whole living body.
That it is the last, is clear; for in everything the essence is identical with the ground of its being, and here, in the case of living things, their being is to live, and of their being and their living the soul in them is the cause or source. Further, the actuality of whatever is potential is identical with its formulable essence.
It is manifest that the soul is also the final cause of its body. For Nature, like mind, always does whatever it does for the sake of something, which something is its end. To that something corresponds in the case of animals the soul and in this it follows the order of nature; all natural bodies are organs of the soul. This is true of those that enter into the constitution of plants as well as of those which enter into that of animals. This shows that that the sake of which they are is soul. We must here recall the two senses of ‘that for the sake of which’, viz. (a) the end to achieve which, and (b) the being in whose interest, anything is or is done.
We must maintain, further, that the soul is also the cause of the living body as the original source of local movement. The power of locomotion12 is not found, however, in all living things. But change of quality and change of quantity are also due to the soul. Sensation is held to be a qualitative13 alteration14, and nothing except what has soul in it is capable of sensation. The same holds of the quantitative15 changes which constitute growth and decay; nothing grows or decays naturally except what feeds itself, and nothing feeds itself except what has a share of soul in it.
Empedocles is wrong in adding that growth in plants is to be explained, the downward rooting by the natural tendency of earth to travel downwards16, and the upward branching by the similar natural tendency of fire to travel upwards17. For he misinterprets up and down; up and down are not for all things what they are for the whole Cosmos18: if we are to distinguish and identify organs according to their functions, the roots of plants are analogous19 to the head in animals. Further, we must ask what is the force that holds together the earth and the fire which tend to travel in contrary directions; if there is no counteracting20 force, they will be torn asunder21; if there is, this must be the soul and the cause of nutrition and growth. By some the element of fire is held to be the cause of nutrition and growth, for it alone of the primary bodies or elements is observed to feed and increase itself. Hence the suggestion that in both plants and animals it is it which is the operative force. A concurrent22 cause in a sense it certainly is, but not the principal cause, that is rather the soul; for while the growth of fire goes on without limit so long as there is a supply of fuel, in the case of all complex wholes formed in the course of nature there is a limit or ratio which determines their size and increase, and limit and ratio are marks of soul but not of fire, and belong to the side of formulable essence rather than that of matter.
Nutrition and reproduction are due to one and the same psychic23 power. It is necessary first to give precision to our account of food, for it is by this function of absorbing food that this psychic power is distinguished24 from all the others. The current view is that what serves as food to a living thing is what is contrary to it-not that in every pair of contraries each is food to the other: to be food a contrary must not only be transformable into the other and vice25 versa, it must also in so doing increase the bulk of the other. Many a contrary is transformed into its other and vice versa, where neither is even a quantum and so cannot increase in bulk, e.g. an invalid26 into a healthy subject. It is clear that not even those contraries which satisfy both the conditions mentioned above are food to one another in precisely27 the same sense; water may be said to feed fire, but not fire water. Where the members of the pair are elementary bodies only one of the contraries, it would appear, can be said to feed the other. But there is a difficulty here. One set of thinkers assert that like fed, as well as increased in amount, by like. Another set, as we have said, maintain the very reverse, viz. that what feeds and what is fed are contrary to one another; like, they argue, is incapable28 of being affected29 by like; but food is changed in the process of digestion30, and change is always to what is opposite or to what is intermediate. Further, food is acted upon by what is nourished by it, not the other way round, as timber is worked by a carpenter and not conversely; there is a change in the carpenter but it is merely a change from not-working to working. In answering this problem it makes all the difference whether we mean by ‘the food’ the ‘finished’ or the ‘raw’ product. If we use the word food of both, viz. of the completely undigested and the completely digested matter, we can justify31 both the rival accounts of it; taking food in the sense of undigested matter, it is the contrary of what is fed by it, taking it as digested it is like what is fed by it. Consequently it is clear that in a certain sense we may say that both parties are right, both wrong.
Since nothing except what is alive can be fed, what is fed is the besouled body and just because it has soul in it. Hence food is essentially32 related to what has soul in it. Food has a power which is other than the power to increase the bulk of what is fed by it; so far forth33 as what has soul in it is a quantum, food may increase its quantity, but it is only so far as what has soul in it is a ‘this-somewhat’ or substance that food acts as food; in that case it maintains the being of what is fed, and that continues to be what it is so long as the process of nutrition continues. Further, it is the agent in generation, i.e. not the generation of the individual fed but the reproduction of another like it; the substance of the individual fed is already in existence; the existence of no substance is a self-generation but only a self-maintenance.
Hence the psychic power which we are now studying may be described as that which tends to maintain whatever has this power in it of continuing such as it was, and food helps it to do its work. That is why, if deprived of food, it must cease to be.
The process of nutrition involves three factors, (a) what is fed, (b) that wherewith it is fed, (c) what does the feeding; of these (c) is the first soul, (a) the body which has that soul in it, (b) the food. But since it is right to call things after the ends they realize, and the end of this soul is to generate another being like that in which it is, the first soul ought to be named the reproductive soul. The expression (b) ‘wherewith it is fed’ is ambiguous just as is the expression ‘wherewith the ship is steered’; that may mean either (i) the hand or (ii) the rudder, i.e. either (i) what is moved and sets in movement, or (ii) what is merely moved. We can apply this analogy here if we recall that all food must be capable of being digested, and that what produces digestion is warmth; that is why everything that has soul in it possesses warmth.
We have now given an outline account of the nature of food; further details must be given in the appropriate place.
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1
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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derivative
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| n.派(衍)生物；adj.非独创性的，模仿他人的 | |
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perceptive
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| adj.知觉的，有洞察力的，感知的 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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8
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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9
perishable
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| adj.（尤指食物）易腐的，易坏的 | |
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10
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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explicitly
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| ad.明确地，显然地 | |
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12
locomotion
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| n.运动，移动 | |
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13
qualitative
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| adj.性质上的，质的，定性的 | |
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14
alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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quantitative
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| adj.数量的，定量的 | |
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downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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18
cosmos
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| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
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analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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20
counteracting
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
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21
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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concurrent
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| adj.同时发生的，一致的 | |
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psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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24
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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25
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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27
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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28
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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29
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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30
digestion
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| n.消化，吸收 | |
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31
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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32
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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33
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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