That by
which it is changed is the immediate mover; that which is changed, the
matter; that into which it is changed, the form. The process, then,
will go on to infinity, if not only the bronze comes to be round but
also the round or the bronze comes to be; therefore there must be a
stop.
Note, next, that each substance comes into being out of
something that shares its name. (Natural objects and other things both
rank as substances.) For things come into being either by art or by
nature or by luck or by spontaneity. Now art is a principle of
movement in something other than the thing moved, nature is a
principle in the thing itself (for man begets man), and the other
causes are privations of these two.
There are three kinds of substance-the matter, which is a 'this'
in appearance (for all things that are characterized by contact and
not, by organic unity are matter and substratum, e.g. fire, flesh,
head; for these are all matter, and the last matter is the matter of
that which is in the full sense substance); the nature, which is a
'this' or positive state towards which movement takes place; and
again, thirdly, the particular substance which is composed of these
two, e.g. Socrates or Callias. Now in some cases the 'this' does not
exist apart from the composite substance, e.g. the form of house
does not so exist, unless the art of building exists apart (nor is
there generation and destruction of these forms, but it is in
another way that the house apart from its matter, and health, and
all ideals of art, exist and do not exist); but if the 'this' exists
apart from the concrete thing, it is only in the case of natural
objects.
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