GENERATION OF ANIMALS, IV. iii. 



which is close by, if more, into that which is 

 further removed. In the end, they become so 

 confused that the product does not take after any 

 of its family or kindred, and all that remains is 

 what is common to the race^ — i.e., it is just a human 

 being. The reason for which is that all particular 

 individuals are accompanied " by this characteristic : 

 since " human being " is general, whereas Socrates 

 who is the father, and the mother whoever she may 

 be, are to be classed as particular individuals. 



(1) The reason why the movements relapse is that The 

 the agent in its turn gets acted upon by that upon ^{'^^^^gai 

 which it acts (e.g., a thing which cuts gets blunted and 

 by the thing which is cut, and a thing which heats '^"" 

 gets cooled by the thing which is heated, and, gen- 

 erally, any motive agent, except the " prime mover," 

 gets moved somehow itself in return,'' e.g., that which 

 pushes gets pushed somehow in return, and that 

 which squeezes gets squeezed in return ; sometimes 

 the extent to which it gets acted upon is greater 

 than that to which it is acting — a thing which heats 

 may get cooled, or one which cools may get heated, 

 sometimes (a) without having acted at all, sometimes 

 (6) ha\'ing acted less than it has been acted upon. 

 These matters have been discussed in the treatise 

 on Acting and being acted upoii,'^ where it is stated 

 in what sorts of things acting and being acted upon 

 occur). (2) The reason, however, why that which 

 is acted upon departs from type and does not get 

 mastered is either (a) deficient potency in the con- 

 cocting and motive agent, or (h) the bulk and cold- 

 ness of that which is being concocted and articulated ; 

 since (the motive agent),'' gaining the mastery at one Uneven 

 place but not at another, causes the embryo that is mlnt^ 



411 



