APPENDIX A 



heavenly account for the transformations of the four " elements " 



i^opai in Fire Air Water Earth, i.e., for the yeveais of them out 



causing of one another, some additional (f>opa. or <^opat beside that 



(a) yevt<rii ; pf |.jjg 'I Whole " (or the npcoTov Kivovfievov) is required : 



if this were the only <l>opd, no transformation would take 



place and the four elements would be static. 



And with regard to the yeveais of living things, Aris- 

 totle describes in other treatises more strikingly and in 

 fuller detail than he does in G.A. the important part 

 played by these other <f>opai (i.e., those of the heavenly 

 bodies). Thus in Phys. II. 194 b 13 we read dvdpcoTTos 

 dvOpcDTTov yevva Kai ijAioj"; and at Met. A 1071 a ISff. 

 the " causes " of a man are listed as (a) the " elements," 

 viz., (i) his matter (Fire and Earth),'' and (ii) his own form 

 (rStov ethos) ; also (h) something external, viz., his father ; 

 and besides these (c) the Sim and the circle of the ecliptic 

 (o Xo^os kvkXos) — and these last stand to him neither as 

 matter, nor as form, nor as privation, nor as being identi- 

 cal with him in form, but as Kivovvra, i.e., " efficient " or 

 " motive " causes [cf. §§ 5 and 6 above). Cf. also G.A. 

 II. 737 a 3 : the heat of the Sun and the heat of animals 

 as contained in semen is able to cause generation, whereas 

 Fire cannot. 

 (b) ycVems (10) The whole question of yeveais and <f>dopd is more fully 

 and ^flopo. discussed at the end of the treatise G. 4" C. (II. chh. 10 



and 11), where the meaning of the statements about 

 the Sun and the ecliptic is explained. Here Aristotle 

 states that yeveais is continuous because the circular 

 revolution of the " first heaven " is eternal (17 Kara, ttjv 

 (fiopdv Kivrjais is dt'Sios) ; and this <l>opa. produces yeveais 

 by bringing to yew-qriKov (the generative agent, viz., the 

 Sun) nearer and by taking it further away. This <j>opd 

 however is a single movement (as we saw above, § 3), and 

 therefore will only explain yeveais ; it will not also ex- 



« This would not, however, have sounded so strange to a Greek ; 



cf. G.A. 716 a 17 ovpavov Si Kai rfKiOv ... is yivvuivras koX rrarepa^ npoir- 



ayopfvovmi'. — It is a Statement which caught the fancy of the Middle 

 Ages, and is quoted by Dante (from the Latin translation of Physics II) 

 in his JDe monarchia I. 9 iriit. ; cf. Paradiso XXII. 116 quegli ch' i padre 

 d' ogni mortal vita. 



'' Aristotle regularlv takes these two as tlie elements par excellence, 

 standing for all four (see De caelo III. 298 a 29, 298 b 8) — because Fire 

 " has not heaviness " and Earth " has not lightness " (IV. 311 b 27). 

 Cf. App. B §§ 20, 22, 23. 



570 



