And this is a natural result; for the same reason is
applicable, and substance is one in the sense which we have explained,
and not, as some say, by being a sort of unit or point; each is a
complete reality and a definite nature. And (4) as number does not
admit of the more and the less, neither does substance, in the sense
of form, but if any substance does, it is only the substance which
involves matter. Let this, then, suffice for an account of the
generation and destruction of so-called substances in what sense it is
possible and in what sense impossible--and of the reduction of
things to number.
4
Regarding material substance we must not forget that even if all
things come from the same first cause or have the same things for
their first causes, and if the same matter serves as starting-point
for their generation, yet there is a matter proper to each, e.g. for
phlegm the sweet or the fat, and for bile the bitter, or something
else; though perhaps these come from the same original matter. And
there come to be several matters for the same thing, when the one
matter is matter for the other; e.g. phlegm comes from the fat and
from the sweet, if the fat comes from the sweet; and it comes from
bile by analysis of the bile into its ultimate matter. For one thing
comes from another in two senses, either because it will be found at a
later stage, or because it is produced if the other is analysed into
its original constituents. When the matter is one, different things
may be produced owing to difference in the moving cause; e.
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