GENERATION OF ANIMALS 



thing itself. An artist, then, at work — jes, but in each 

 several thing ; and it is doubtful whether Aristotle had, 

 or intended to have, any idea of Nature over and above, 

 outside, the individual things "■ which he described as 

 her " works." In fact, he goes so far as to say {P. A. 

 641 b 11) that no abstraction can be the object of study 

 for Natural science, because Nature makes all that she 

 makes to serve some purpose (evc/ca tov). Nature aims 

 always at producing a reXos in the sense of a completely 

 formed individual, and that is the Final Cause in each 

 case, for that is what has the best claim to be called a 

 " being " (ovoia).^ There is, says Aristotle, more beauty 

 and purpose (to ov Ice/ca aal to koXov) to be found in the 

 works of Nature than in those of art (P. A. 639 b ^0). 



(17) Nevertheless, we must remember that Nature is not, in Xature as 

 Aristotle's view, a term to be exclusively reserved for the matter. 

 Final Cause, with which are associated the Formal and 



often the Motive Causes ; it may be applied also, as we 

 saw just now {i 14), to the Material Cause ; and in this 

 connexion we may recall that, for Aristotle, Matter and 

 Form themselves pervade all the strata of existence, for 

 even the simplest sort of Matter is to some extent " in- 

 formed," and Matter in its highest phase is identical ' 

 with Form (see 7-29 a 34, n.). 



^lopiov, p-epos, "part " 



(18) The term " part," which occurs in the title of the treatise Meaning. 

 De partibus animal ium, nepl ^uicdv (jLopiiov (or, as Aristotle 

 himself calls it at G.A. 782 a -21, " the treatise Of the 

 Causes of the Parts of Animals "), includes considerably 



more than is normaliy included by the English " part of 

 the body." For instance, we should not normally call 

 blood a " part," but Aristotle applies the term fiopiov to 

 all the constituent substances of the body as well as to the 

 limbs and organs. For him, blood is one of the ^dwv 

 fjLopia (see P.A. 648 a 2 : and note on G:A. 720 b 31). 

 Since, however, all the " parts " are either " uniform " 

 or " non-uniform," a detailed description of them will 

 be more appropriate in the following paragraphs. 



" See however § 5 above. 

 " See App. A § 18. 



c xlvii 



