We have now outlined the nature of substance, showing that it is
that which is not predicated of a stratum, but of which all else is
predicated. But we must not merely state the matter thus; for this
is not enough. The statement itself is obscure, and further, on this
view, matter becomes substance. For if this is not substance, it
baffles us to say what else is. When all else is stripped off
evidently nothing but matter remains. For while the rest are
affections, products, and potencies of bodies, length, breadth, and
depth are quantities and not substances (for a quantity is not a
substance), but the substance is rather that to which these belong
primarily. But when length and breadth and depth are taken away we see
nothing left unless there is something that is bounded by these; so
that to those who consider the question thus matter alone must seem to
be substance. By matter I mean that which in itself is neither a
particular thing nor of a certain quantity nor assigned to any other
of the categories by which being is determined. For there is something
of which each of these is predicated, whose being is different from
that of each of the predicates (for the predicates other than
substance are predicated of substance, while substance is predicated
of matter). Therefore the ultimate substratum is of itself neither a
particular thing nor of a particular quantity nor otherwise positively
characterized; nor yet is it the negations of these, for negations
also will belong to it only by accident.
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