第27章

Sincethatwhichiscompoundedoutofsomethingsothatthe

wholeisone，notlikeaheapbutlikeasyllable-nowthesyllable

isnotitselements，baisnotthesameasbanda，norisflesh

fireandearth(forwhentheseareseparatedthewholes，i。e。the

fleshandthesyllable，nolongerexist，buttheelementsofthe

syllableexist，andsodofireandearth)；thesyllable，then，is

something-notonlyitselements(thevowelandtheconsonant)butalso

somethingelse，andthefleshisnotonlyfireandearthorthehot

andthecold，butalsosomethingelse:-if，then，thatsomethingmust

itselfbeeitheranelementorcomposedofelements，(1)ifitisan

elementthesameargumentwillagainapply；forfleshwillconsist

ofthisandfireandearthandsomethingstillfurther，sothatthe

processwillgoontoinfinity。But(2)ifitisacompound，clearly

itwillbeacompoundnotofonebutofmorethanone(orelsethat

onewillbethethingitself)，sothatagaininthiscasewecanuse

thesameargumentasinthecaseoffleshorofthesyllable。Butit

wouldseemthatthis’other’issomething，andnotanelement，and

thatitisthecausewhichmakesthisthingfleshandthatasyllable。

Andsimilarlyinallothercases。Andthisisthesubstanceofeach

thing(forthisistheprimarycauseofitsbeing)；andsince，while

somethingsarenotsubstances，asmanyasaresubstancesareformed

inaccordancewithanatureoftheirownandbyaprocessofnature，

theirsubstancewouldseemtobethiskindof’nature’，whichisnot

anelementbutaprinciple。Anelement，ontheotherhand，isthat

intowhichathingisdividedandwhichispresentinitasmatter；

e。g。aandbaretheelementsofthesyllable。

WEmustreckonuptheresultsarisingfromwhathasbeensaid，and

computethesumofthem，andputthefinishingtouchtoourinquiry。

Wehavesaidthatthecauses，principles，andelementsofsubstances

aretheobjectofoursearch。Andsomesubstancesarerecognizedby

everyone，butsomehavebeenadvocatedbyparticularschools。Those

generallyrecognizedarethenaturalsubstances，i。e。fire，earth，

water，air，&c。，thesimplebodies；secondplantsandtheirparts，and

animalsandthepartsofanimals；andfinallythephysicaluniverse

anditsparts；whilesomeparticularschoolssaythatFormsandthe

objectsofmathematicsaresubstances。Butthereareargumentswhich

leadtotheconclusionthatthereareothersubstances，theessence

andthesubstratum。Again，inanotherwaythegenusseemsmore

substantialthanthevariousspccies，andtheuniversalthanthe

particulars。AndwiththeuniversalandthegenustheIdeasare

connected；itisinvirtueofthesameargumentthattheyare

thoughttobesubstances。Andsincetheessenceissubstance，and

thedefinitionisaformulaoftheessence，forthisreasonwehave

discusseddefinitionandessentialpredication。Sincethedefinition

isaformula，andaformulahasparts，wehadtoconsideralsowith

respecttothenotionof’part’，whatarepartsofthesubstanceand

whatarenot，andwhetherthepartsofthesubstancearealsopartsof

thedefinition。Further，too，neithertheuniversalnorthegenusisa

substance；wemustinquirelaterintotheIdeasandtheobjectsof

mathematics；forsomesaythesearesubstancesaswellasthesensible

substances。

Butnowletusresumethediscussionofthegenerallyrecognized

substances。Thesearethesensiblesubstances，andsensiblesubstances

allhavematter。Thesubstratumissubstance，andthisisinonesense

thematter(andbymatterImeanthatwhich，notbeinga’this’

actually，ispotentiallya’this’)，andinanothersensetheformula

orshape(thatwhichbeinga’this’canbeseparatelyformulated)，and