Note 331 — Lecture VII. GREEK AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. I. The Creator.
Reading edition
De mundi opif. 5 (i. 5): this is the most explicit expression of his theory of the nature of matter. It may be supplemented by de plant Noe, 1 (i. 329), τὴν οὐσίαν ἄτακτον καὶ συγκεχυμένην οὖσαν ἐξ αὑτῆς εἰς τάξιν ἐξ ἀταξίας καὶ ἐκ συγχύσεως εἰς διάκρισιν ἄγων ὁ κοσμοπλάστης μορφοῦν ἤρξατο: quis rer. div. her. 27 (i. 492): de somn. 2. 6 (i. 665): οὐσία is the more usual word, but ὕλη is sometimes found, e.g. de plant Noe, 2 (i. 330): the conception underlying either word is more Stoical than Platonic, i.e. it is rather that of matter having the property of resistance than that of potential matter or empty space: hence in de profug. 2 (i. 547), τὴν ἄποιον καὶ ἀνείδεον καὶ ἀσχημάτιστον οὐσίαν is contrasted, in strictly Stoical phraseology, with τὸ κινοῦν αἴτιον.