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PRELUDE TO CHAPTER II.
As the purport of this chapter is to determine the essential or characteristic properties of the Vital Principle in order to attain to a solid definition, it commences, very appropriately, with a short disquisition upon that form, and a protest against any deviation from its real purport; and thus the argument of the foregoing chapter is continued. The opening paragraph is necessarily obscure, from the nature of its topic, but it may be practically at least elucidated, by reference to similar topics in the other works. It is observed by Aristotle[1], that the antecedent is, absolutely speaking, more apprehensible than the sequence, as a point e.g. is than a line, a line than a surface, and a surface than a solid; so too an unit is more apprehensible than a number (for the unit is the origin of all number), as a single letter is than a syllable. But sometimes, on the other hand, the reverse of this happens—for as it is the solid,
- ↑ 1 Topica, VI. 4, 5.
