Note 320 — Chapter XI

The following are the words of Aristotle which Harvey omits from his quotation:—

"and, moreover, as the souls differ one from another in nobility and ignobleness, so too does the nature aforesaid differ." (Aristotle: On the Generation of Animals, 736b, 31-33.)

If these words be read in their proper connection, it becomes clear that "the nature which is analogous to the element of the stars" is the same as "the nature aforesaid" (ἡ τοιαύτη φύσις), which is the "body other than the so-called elements and more divine." Fire is repeatedly styled a "body" by Aristotle, it being one of the four "simple bodies" (ἁπλᾶ σώματα) or elements. Compare Aristotle: On Generation and Corruption, 330b, 1-3. We shall find that Harvey in his turn styles fire a "body" (corpus). See Harvey: On Generation, LXXI, Syd. 506, l. 26-31; Op. Omn. 527, l. 28 to 528, l. 1.

The Latin translation of Aristotle which Harvey quotes reads, in dealing with the "spirits": "spiritus qui in semine spumosoque corpore continetur, et natura quae in eo spiritu est proportione respondens elemento stellarum." (Aristotle: On the Generation of Animals, Vol. III, 360b, 4-5.) The Greek text reads: τὸ ἐμπεριλαμβανόμενον ἐν τῷ σπέρματι καὶ ἐν τῷ ἀφρώδει πνεῦμα καὶ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι φύσις, ἀνάλογον ὀῦσα τῷ τῶν ἄστρων στοιχείῳ (736b, 35 to 737a, 1). Two manuscripts omit "ἐν" before "τῷ πνεύματι."

In the chapter immediately preceding Aristotle says:—

"Not only does a liquid become thick which is made of water and earthy matter, but also one made of water and spirits; even as foam thickens and whitens; and the smaller and less conspicuous the bubbles are, the whiter and stiffer does the mass appear. Oil, too, is affected in the same way; for it becomes thick when mixed with spirits, so that, as it whitens, it thickens; what is watery within it being separated by the heat, and becoming spirits.... For the reasons aforesaid the semen, too, is stiff and white as it issues from within, since it contains much hot spirits due to the interior heat. But after the exit of the semen, when its heat has exhaled and its air has cooled, it liquefies and darkens. For in drying semen, as in phlegm, the water remains and perhaps some little earthy matter. The semen then is a combination of spirits and water, the spirits being hot air; so the semen, being derived from water, is naturally liquid.... The cause of the whiteness of the semen is that the generative medium (ἡ γονή) is foam, and that foam is white.... It seems not to have escaped even the ancients that the nature of semen is foamy; at all events they named from this property (δυνάμεως) the goddess who rules coition." (Aristotle: On the Generation of Animals, 735b, 8-16; 735b, 32 to 736a, 2; 736a, 13-14 and a, 18-21.)

A very ancient poem, ascribed to Hesiod, relates the myth of Aphrodite and says that she was so called by gods and men "because she was produced in foam." (Theogony, l. 197-198.) The "air" ἀήρ of one of the foregoing passages from Aristotle is of course not atmospheric air, but something aëriform produced by heat, as the context shows. In the same treatise he speaks of the presence, within the early embryo which has never breathed, of spirits (πνεῦμα) due to heat and moisture, "the one active, the other passive." (On the Generation of Animals, 741b, 37 to 742a, 16.)