PARTS OF ANIMALS, I. i. 



begin with have the appropriate specific character ° ; 

 and (6) that the producing agent was pre-existent : 

 it was chronologically earlier as well as logically- 

 earlier : in other words, men are begotten by men, 

 and therefore the process of the child's formation is 

 what it is because its parent was a man. [Similarly 

 too -with those that appear to be formed spontane- 

 ously, just as with those produced by the arts ; for 

 some that are formed spontaneously are identical 

 Avdth those produced by art, e.g. health. As for those 

 things whose producing agent is pre-existent, e.g. the 

 art of statuary, no spontaneous formation occurs. Art 

 is the logos of the article wdthout the matter. And 

 similarly with the products of chance : they are 

 formed by the same process that art would employ.] ^ 

 So the best way of putting the matter would be to 

 say that because the essence of man is what it is, 

 therefore a man has such and such parts, since there 

 cannot be a man without them. If we may not say 

 this, then the nearest to it must do, viz. that there 

 cannot be a man at all otherwise than with them, or, 

 that it is well that a man should have them. And 

 upon this these considerations follow : Because man is 

 such and such, therefore the process of his formation 

 must of necessity be such and such and take place 

 in such a manner ; which is why first this part is 

 formed, then that. And thus similarly with all the 

 things that are constructed by Nature. 



Now those who were the first to study Nature in 



63 



