Note 183 — THE CATHOLIC WORLD. VOL. XVIII., No. 107.—FEBRUARY, 1874.[181]

The Aristotelic meaning of the word privation will be easily understood from the following example: If a cylindrical piece of wax be made to assume a spherical form, the sphericity will be educed, as the schools say, from the cylindrical wax, not inasmuch as it is cylindrical, but inasmuch as it is non-spherical. Such a non-sphericity is a privation, which is more than a negation, as it implies not only the absence of sphericity, but also the presence of its contrary—that is, of the cylindrical form. Privation is usually defined carentia formæ in subjecto apto. It is a principle per accidens.