GENERATION OF ANIMALS, I. i.-ii. 



Still, plants will have to be considered indepen- 

 dently all by themselves. 



As far as animals are concerned, we must describe II 

 their generation just as we find the theme requires of*^a\e°° 

 for each several kind as we go along, Unking our »nd female. 

 account on to what has already been said. As we 

 mentioned, we mav safely set down as the chief 

 principles of generation the male (factor) <* and the 

 female (factor) ; the male as possessing the principle 

 of movement and of generation, the female as possess- 

 ing that of matter. ** One is most likely to be con- 

 vinced of this by considering how the semen is formed 

 and whence it comes ; for although the things that 

 are formed in the course of Nature no doubt take their 

 rise "^ out of semen,** we -must not fail to notice how 

 the semen itself is formed from the male and the 

 female, since it is because this part * is secreted from 

 the male and the female, and because its secretion 

 takes place in them and out of them, that the male 

 and the female are the principles of generation. By 

 a " male " animal we mean one which generates in 

 another, by " female " one which generates in itself. 

 This is why in cosmology too they speak of the 

 natiu-e of the Earth as something female and call 

 it " mother," while they give to the heaven and 

 the sun and anything else of that kind the title of 

 " generator," and " father." 



Now male and female differ in respect of their The gexaai 

 logos/ in that the power or faculty possessed by the p*''^ • 

 one differs from that possessed by the other ; but 

 they differ^ also to bodily sense, in respect of certain 



' Cf. the definition given at 724 a 17 ff., and also 721 b 6. 



* See Introd. § 18. 



f See Introd. § 10. With this passage cf. 766 a 18 fiF, 



11 



