Further, matter exists in a potential state, just because it
may come to its form; and when it exists actually, then it is in its
form. And the same holds good in all cases, even those in which the
end is a movement. And so, as teachers think they have achieved
their end when they have exhibited the pupil at work, nature does
likewise. For if this is not the case, we shall have Pauson's Hermes
over again, since it will be hard to say about the knowledge, as about
the figure in the picture, whether it is within or without. For the
action is the end, and the actuality is the action. And so even the
word 'actuality' is derived from 'action', and points to the
complete reality.
And while in some cases the exercise is the ultimate thing (e.g.
in sight the ultimate thing is seeing, and no other product besides
this results from sight), but from some things a product follows (e.g.
from the art of building there results a house as well as the act of
building), yet none the less the act is in the former case the end and
in the latter more of an end than the potency is. For the act of
building is realized in the thing that is being built, and comes to
be, and is, at the same time as the house.
Where, then, the result is something apart from the exercise,
the actuality is in the thing that is being made, e.g. the act of
building is in the thing that is being built and that of weaving in
the thing that is being woven, and similarly in all other cases, and
in general the movement is in the thing that is being moved; but where
there is no product apart from the actuality, the actuality is present
in the agents, e.
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