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ARISTOTLE'S ORGANON.
[CHAP. VII.
sort, are similarly spoken of, in relation to something. Reclining, station, sitting, are nevertheless certain positions, and position is a relative; but to recline, to stand, or to sit, are not themselves positions, but are paronymously denominated from the above-named positions.
2. Some relatives admit contrariety. Yet there is contrariety in relatives, as virtue is contrary to vice, each of them being relative, and knowledge to ignorance;[1] but contrariety is not inherent in all relatives, since there is nothing contrary to double, nor to triple, nor to any thing of the sort.
3. Also degree. Relatives appear, notwithstanding, to receive the more and the less, for the like and the unlike are said to be so, more and less, and the equal and the unequal are so called, more and less, each of them being a relative, for the similar is said to be similar to something, and the unequal, unequal to something. 4. Exceptions. Not that all relatives admit of the more and less, for double is not called more and less double, nor any such thing, 5. Relatives reciprocally convertible. but all relatives are styled so by reciprocity, as the servant is said to be servant of the master, and the master, master of the servant; and the double, double of the half, also the half, half of the double, and the greater, greater than the less, and the less, less than the greater. In like manner it happens as to other things, except that sometimes they differ in diction by case, as knowledge is said to be the knowledge of something knowable, and what is knowable is knowable by knowledge: sense also is the sense of the sensible, and the sensible is sensible by sense. 6. Except where the attribution of the relation is erroneous. Sometimes indeed they appear not to reciprocate, if that be not appropriately attributed to which relation is made, but here he who attributes errs; for instance, a wing of a bird, if it be attributed to the bird, does not reciprocate, for the first is not appropriately- ↑ These are relatives, according to their genus, which is habit in this case. It may, however, be inquired how Aristotle afterwards ranks science, virtue, and their opposites, amongst qualities? Because the same thing, as he shows throughout, according to its connexion with different relations, occupies often a different predicament. Hence, also, contrariety is only partly inherent in relatives, since they derive their contrariety from the contrariety of their predicaments: thus in habit or in quality they receive contrariety, but not in the double or triple, because quantity does not receive it. To admit contraries therefore, is not the peculiarity of relatives, since contrariety is not in all relatives, nor in them alone,
