This, accordingly, is the
character which the motions actually exhibit. What need then is
there to seek for other principles?
7
Since (1) this is a possible account of the matter, and (2) if
it were not true, the world would have proceeded out of night and 'all
things together' and out of non-being, these difficulties may be taken
as solved. There is, then, something which is always moved with an
unceasing motion, which is motion in a circle; and this is plain not
in theory only but in fact. Therefore the first heaven must be
eternal. There is therefore also something which moves it. And since
that which moves and is moved is intermediate, there is something
which moves without being moved, being eternal, substance, and
actuality. And the object of desire and the object of thought move
in this way; they move without being moved. The primary objects of
desire and of thought are the same. For the apparent good is the
object of appetite, and the real good is the primary object of
rational wish. But desire is consequent on opinion rather than opinion
on desire; for the thinking is the starting-point. And thought is
moved by the object of thought, and one of the two columns of
opposites is in itself the object of thought; and in this, substance
is first, and in substance, that which is simple and exists
actually. (The one and the simple are not the same; for 'one' means
a measure, but 'simple' means that the thing itself has a certain
nature.
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