And (1) the
delimiting mark of that which as a result of thought comes to exist in
complete reality from having existed potentially is that if the
agent has willed it it comes to pass if nothing external hinders,
while the condition on the other side-viz. in that which is
healed-is that nothing in it hinders the result. It is on similar
terms that we have what is potentially a house; if nothing in the
thing acted on-i.e. in the matter-prevents it from becoming a house,
and if there is nothing which must be added or taken away or
changed, this is potentially a house; and the same is true of all
other things the source of whose becoming is external. And (2) in
the cases in which the source of the becoming is in the very thing
which comes to be, a thing is potentially all those things which it
will be of itself if nothing external hinders it. E.g. the seed is not
yet potentially a man; for it must be deposited in something other
than itself and undergo a change. But when through its own motive
principle it has already got such and such attributes, in this state
it is already potentially a man; while in the former state it needs
another motive principle, just as earth is not yet potentially a
statue (for it must first change in order to become brass.)
It seems that when we call a thing not something else but
'thaten'-e.g. a casket is not 'wood' but 'wooden', and wood is not
'earth' but 'earthen', and again earth will illustrate our point if it
is similarly not something else but 'thaten'-that other thing is
always potentially (in the full sense of that word) the thing which
comes after it in this series.
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