Again, according to the assumption on the belief in the Ideas
rests, there will be Forms not only of substances but also of many
other things; for the concept is single not only in the case of
substances, but also in that of non-substances, and there are sciences
of other things than substance; and a thousand other such difficulties
confront them. But according to the necessities of the case and the
opinions about the Forms, if they can be shared in there must be Ideas
of substances only. For they are not shared in incidentally, but
each Form must be shared in as something not predicated of a
subject. (By 'being shared in incidentally' I mean that if a thing
shares in 'double itself', it shares also in 'eternal', but
incidentally; for 'the double' happens to be eternal.) Therefore the
Forms will be substance. But the same names indicate substance in this
and in the ideal world (or what will be the meaning of saying that
there is something apart from the particulars-the one over many?). And
if the Ideas and the things that share in them have the same form,
there will be something common: for why should '2' be one and the same
in the perishable 2's, or in the 2's which are many but eternal, and
not the same in the '2 itself' as in the individual 2? But if they
have not the same form, they will have only the name in common, and it
is as if one were to call both Callias and a piece of wood a 'man',
without observing any community between them.
But if we are to suppose that in other respects the common
definitions apply to the Forms, e.
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