GENERATION OF ANIMALS, I. xviii. 



can when he says in his account of their generation 

 during the " Reign of Love," * 



There many neckless heads sprang up and grew * ; 



later on, he says, they grew on to each other. This 

 is clearly impossible : on the one hand, if they had 

 not Soul '^ or life of some sort in them they could 

 not remain safe and sound ; and on the other hand, 

 if they were a number of separate living animals, 

 as one might say, they could not groAv on to each 

 other so as to become one animal again. Yet this 

 is actually the kind of thing which those people 

 have to say who allege that the semen is drawn 

 from the whole of the body ; just as it was in the 

 beginning in the earth in the Reign of Love, so 

 it is, according to them, in the living body.** Of 

 course it is impossible that the parts should become 

 connected, i.e., come off from the parents so that they 

 go together into one place.* Besides, in any case, 

 how were the upper and lower parts, the right and 

 left, the front and the back, " sundered " ? All 

 these ideas are fantastic. 



Further, among the parts, some are distinguished 

 by some faculty they possess, others by ha\'ing cer- 

 tain physical quaUties f : thus, the non-uniform parts 

 (such as the tongue or the hand) are distinguished by 

 possessing the faculty to perform certain actions, the 

 uniform parts by hardness or softness or other such 

 qualities. Unless, therefore, it possesses certain 

 special qualities, a substance is not blood or flesh ; 

 and hence it is plain that the substance which is 



' One of the definitions of Trddos given at Met. 1022 b 15 

 is " a quality (ttoiottjs) in virtue of which a thing may be 

 altered, e.g., whiteness, blackness, heaviness, lightness, etc." 



6^ 



