GENERATION OF ANIMALS, III. xi. 



or not their generation is the result of such copulation 

 has not so far been adequately observed. 



Anyone who \\'ishes to follow the right line of in- Theory of 

 quiry might well inquire what it is which, as it takes deration!' 

 shape, corresponds in the case of these creatures 

 to the " material principle." In females of course 

 this is a residue produced bv the animal, a residue 

 which potentially is such as the parent is from which 

 it came, and which is perfected into an animal by the 

 principle from the male " imparting movement to it. 

 In the present case, however, what are we to describe 

 as holding this sort of position ? and whence comes 

 the principle that imparts movement , corresponding to 

 the male, and what is it ? Now we must apprehend 

 that, even in the case of those animals which generate, 

 it is the incoming nourishment that is the material out 

 of which the heat residing in the animal produces 

 the residue — the " principle " of the fetation — by 

 setting it apart and concocting it. Similarly ^^•ith 

 plants, except that with them and certain of the 

 animals there Ls no need of the principle of the male 

 over and above that, because they contain in them- 

 selves this principle mixed (with the female) ; in 

 most animals, however, the residue does need this 

 principle. Of the one set, the nourishment is water 

 and earth ; of the other, it is the things that are 

 formed out of these ; so that in their case the seasonal 

 heat present in their en\ironment causes to accumu- 

 late and to take shape by means of concoction out 

 of sea-water and earth that which in the case of 

 animals the heat present in them produces out of the 

 nourishment. And that portion of the soul-principle 

 which gets enclosed or separated oflF within the pneuma 

 makes a fetation and implants movement in it. Now 



359 



