Note 33 — Chapter XII · DE ANIMÂ, ETC.
Reading edition
Aristot. Metaphys. Z. iii. p. 1029, a. 1-34; De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, a. 6; p. 414, a. 15.
In the first book of the Physica, Aristotle pushes this analysis yet further, introducing three principia instead of two:—(1 ) Form, (2) Matter, (3) Privation (of Form); he gives a distinct general name to the negation as well as to the affirmation; he provides a sign minus as counter-denomination to the sign plus. But he intimates that this is only the same analysis more minutely discriminated, or in a different point of view: διὸ ἔστι μὲν ὡς δύο λεκτέον εἶναι τὰς ἀρχάς, ἔστι δ’ ὡς τρεῖς (Phys. I. vii. p. 190, b. 29).
Materia Prima (Aristotle says, Phys. I. vii. p. 191, a. 8) is “knowable only by analogy” — i.e., explicable only by illustrative examples: as the brass is to the statue, as the wood is to the couch, &c.; natural substances being explained from works of art, as is frequent with Aristotle.