g. bundle; and others by being glued together,
e.g. a book; and others by being nailed together, e.g. a casket; and
others in more than one of these ways; and others by position, e.g.
threshold and lintel (for these differ by being placed in a certain
way); and others by time, e.g. dinner and breakfast; and others by
place, e.g. the winds; and others by the affections proper to sensible
things, e.g. hardness and softness, density and rarity, dryness and
wetness; and some things by some of these qualities, others by them
all, and in general some by excess and some by defect. Clearly,
then, the word 'is' has just as many meanings; a thing is a
threshold because it lies in such and such a position, and its being
means its lying in that position, while being ice means having been
solidified in such and such a way. And the being of some things will
be defined by all these qualities, because some parts of them are
mixed, others are blended, others are bound together, others are
solidified, and others use the other differentiae; e.g. the hand or
the foot requires such complex definition. We must grasp, then, the
kinds of differentiae (for these will be the principles of the being
of things), e.g. the things characterized by the more and the less, or
by the dense and the rare, and by other such qualities; for all
these are forms of excess and defect. And anything that is
characterized by shape or by smoothness and roughness is characterized
by the straight and the curved. And for other things their being
will mean their being mixed, and their not being will mean the
opposite.
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