On the Vital Principle/Book 1/Prelude to Chapter 3
This chapter is upon motion, and its purport is to learn whether the Vital Principle is in motion or at rest, and if in motion, whether self-moved or in motion imparted to it; its object is also to inquire whether motion proceeds directly from Vital Principle, whether, that is, it impels to move while it is itself at rest, or whether it imparts to the body the motions which it first communicates to itself. Aristotle[1] admits of the six following modes of motion: generation, corruption, growth, decay, change and locomotion, which are all vital processes; but as, in a succeeding passage of this chapter, he speaks of only four modes, he may have supposed that the two first are included in the four last. There is an incidental allusion to movement by conveyance, to movement, that is, without progression. The inquiry proceeds to the question whether Vital Principle is self-motive, and, if so, whether it is or not still subject to motion by impulse from without, which seems to be answered in the negative; for it can scarcely be admitted that this Principle can be subject to external impulse, since its movements, if it do move, must result from sensual impressions.
- ↑ Metaphys. III. 7.