2i6 NICOLAUS STENO 



does not say the same thing, although not always in the same 

 words ; or, if he has said otherwise, who does not, nevertheless, 

 agree to the principles from which these details necessarily fol- 

 low. For the statements I have affirmed concerning matter 

 ! hold true in all cases, whether one considers matter as atoms, 

 or particles changeable in a thousand ways, or the four .elements, 

 or whatsoever chemical elements may be assumed to suit the 

 differences of opinion among chemists. And further, the state- 

 ments which I have made concerning the determination of 

 motion, are consistent with every agent, whether you call 

 the agent the form, or the qualities proceeding from the form, or 

 the idea, or the tenuous common substance, or the tenuous 

 particular substance, or the individual soul, or the world soul, 

 or the immediate act of God. 



After these things I shall explain the various modes of 

 speaking admitted by common usage, whereby we explain in 

 P. 13. different ways the different production of different, and some- 

 times the same, substances; for whatever contributes anything 

 to the production of any substance, does this either as place, or 

 as matter, or as the agent. Hence when like produces like, it 

 contributes to that object the place, the matter, and the motion 

 of production, just as the small plant enclosed within the seed 

 of some plant receives from that parent plant the matter in 

 which it has been produced, the matter from which it has been 

 produced, and the motion of the particles by which it has 

 received its form ; this same thing is true of animals enclosed 

 within the egg of similar animals. 



While the particular form or soul is producing something, 

 the motion of particles in the production of that body is 

 determined by some particular agent, whether this be the 

 agent of another similar body or something else similar to this 

 agent. 



The things which are said to be produced by the sun receive 

 the motion of their particles from the sun's rays, just as those 

 , which are attributed to the influences of the stars may receive 

 the motion of their particles from the stars ; for since it is cer- 

 tain that our eyes are affected by the light of the heavenly 

 bodies, it will also be beyond cavil that the rest of matter may 

 be affected by them in the same way. 



