Yet even if we had not
seen the stars, none the less, I suppose, would they have been eternal
substances apart from those which we knew; so that now also if we do
not know what non-sensible substances there are, yet it is doubtless
necessary that there should he some.-Clearly, then, no universal
term is the name of a substance, and no substance is composed of
substances.
17
Let us state what, i.e. what kind of thing, substance should be
said to be, taking once more another starting-point; for perhaps
from this we shall get a clear view also of that substance which
exists apart from sensible substances. Since, then, substance is a
principle and a cause, let us pursue it from this starting-point.
The 'why' is always sought in this form--'why does one thing attach to
some other?' For to inquire why the musical man is a musical man, is
either to inquire--as we have said why the man is musical, or it is
something else. Now 'why a thing is itself' is a meaningless inquiry
(for (to give meaning to the question 'why') the fact or the existence
of the thing must already be evident-e.g. that the moon is
eclipsed-but the fact that a thing is itself is the single reason
and the single cause to be given in answer to all such questions as
why the man is man, or the musician musical', unless one were to
answer 'because each thing is inseparable from itself, and its being
one just meant this'; this, however, is common to all things and is
a short and easy way with the question).
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