For other things are called 'capable',
some because something else has such a potency over them, some because
it has not, some because it has it in a particular way. The same is
true of the things that are incapable. Therefore the proper definition
of the primary kind of potency will be 'a source of change in
another thing or in the same thing qua other'.
13
'Quantum' means that which is divisible into two or more
constituent parts of which each is by nature a 'one' and a 'this'. A
quantum is a plurality if it is numerable, a magnitude if it is a
measurable. 'Plurality' means that which is divisible potentially into
non-continuous parts, 'magnitude' that which is divisible into
continuous parts; of magnitude, that which is continuous in one
dimension is length; in two breadth, in three depth. Of these, limited
plurality is number, limited length is a line, breadth a surface,
depth a solid.
Again, some things are called quanta in virtue of their own
nature, others incidentally; e.g. the line is a quantum by its own
nature, the musical is one incidentally. Of the things that are quanta
by their own nature some are so as substances, e.g. the line is a
quantum (for 'a certain kind of quantum' is present in the
definition which states what it is), and others are modifications
and states of this kind of substance, e.g. much and little, long and
short, broad and narrow, deep and shallow, heavy and light, and all
other such attributes.
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