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(This，then，musteitherbeeternaloritmustbedestructible
withoutbeingeverincourseofbeingdestroyed，andmusthavecometo
bewithouteverbeingincourseofcomingtobe。Butithasbeen
provedandexplainedelsewherethatnoonemakesorbegetstheform，
butitistheindividualthatismade，i。e。thecomplexofformand
matterthatisgenerated。Whetherthesubstancesofdestructible
thingscanexistapart，isnotyetatallclear；exceptthatobviously
thisisimpossibleinsomecases-inthecaseofthingswhichcannot
existapartfromtheindividualinstances，e。g。houseorutensil。
Perhaps，indeed，neitherthesethingsthemselves，noranyoftheother
thingswhicharenotformedbynature，aresubstancesatall；for
onemightsaythatthenatureinnaturalobjectsistheonlysubstance
tobefoundindestructiblethings。)
Thereforethedifficultywhichusedtoberaisedbytheschool
ofAntisthenesandothersuchuneducatedpeoplehasacertain
timeliness。Theysaidthatthe’what’cannotbedefined(forthe
definitionsocalledisa’longrigmarole’)butofwhatsorta
thing，e。g。silver，is，theythoughtitpossibleactuallyto
explain，notsayingwhatitis，butthatitisliketin。Thereforeone
kindofsubstancecanbedefinedandformulated，i。e。thecomposite
kind，whetheritbeperceptibleorintelligible；buttheprimaryparts
ofwhichthisconsistscannotbedefined，sinceadefinitoryformula
predicatessomethingofsomething，andonepartofthedefinitionmust
playthepartofmatterandtheotherthatofform。
Itisalsoobviousthat，ifsubstancesareinasensenumbers，
theyaresointhissenseandnot，assomesay，asnumbersofunits。
Foradefinitionisasortofnumber；for(1)itisdivisible，and
intoindivisibleparts(fordefinitoryformulaearenotinfinite)，and
numberalsoisofthisnature。And(2)as，whenoneofthepartsof
whichanumberconsistshasbeentakenfromoraddedtothenumber，it
isnolongerthesamenumber，butadifferentone，evenifitisthe
verysmallestpartthathasbeentakenawayoradded，sothe
definitionandtheessencewillnolongerremainwhenanythinghas
beentakenawayoradded。And(3)thenumbermustbesomethingin
virtueofwhichitisone，andthisthesethinkerscannotstate，
whatmakesitone，ifitisone(foreitheritisnotonebutasort
ofheap，orifitis，weoughttosaywhatitisthatmakesoneoutof
many)；andthedefinitionisone，butsimilarlytheycannotsaywhat
makesitone。Andthisisanaturalresult；forthesamereasonis
applicable，andsubstanceisoneinthesensewhichwehaveexplained，
andnot，assomesay，bybeingasortofunitorpoint；eachisa
completerealityandadefinitenature。And(4)asnumberdoesnot
admitofthemoreandtheless，neitherdoessubstance，inthesense
ofform，butifanysubstancedoes，itisonlythesubstancewhich
involvesmatter。Letthis，then，sufficeforanaccountofthe
generationanddestructionofso-calledsubstancesinwhatsenseitis
possibleandinwhatsenseimpossible——andofthereductionof
thingstonumber。
Regardingmaterialsubstancewemustnotforgetthatevenifall
thingscomefromthesamefirstcauseorhavethesamethingsfor
theirfirstcauses，andifthesamematterservesasstarting-point
fortheirgeneration，yetthereisamatterpropertoeach，e。g。for
phlegmthesweetorthefat，andforbilethebitter，orsomething
else；thoughperhapsthesecomefromthesameoriginalmatter。And
therecometobeseveralmattersforthesamething，whentheone
matterismatterfortheother；e。g。phlegmcomesfromthefatand
fromthesweet，ifthefatcomesfromthesweet；anditcomesfrom
bilebyanalysisofthebileintoitsultimatematter。Foronething
comesfromanotherintwosenses，eitherbecauseitwillbefoundata
laterstage，orbecauseitisproducediftheotherisanalysedinto
itsoriginalconstituents。Whenthematterisone，differentthings
maybeproducedowingtodifferenceinthemoving
