The Improvement of Human Reason - Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan by Ibn Tufail
page 56 of 141 (39%)
page 56 of 141 (39%)
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Body as such; for if so, then no Body could subsist without them both:
whereas on the contrary, we find Heavy Bodies which are void of all Lightness, and also some Light Bodies which are void of all Heaviness, and yet without _doubt_ they both are _Bodies_; in each of which there is something superadded to Corporeity, by which they are distinguish'd one from the other, and that makes the difference between them, otherwise they would be both one and the same thing, in every respect. From whence it appear'd plainly, that the Essence both of an _Heavy_, and _Light Body_ was compos'd of two things; One, which was common to them both, _viz. Corporeity_, the other, by which they are distinguish'd one from the other, _viz. Gravity_ in the one, and _Levity_ in the other, which were superadded to the Essence of Corporeity. ยง 42. In like manner he consider'd either Bodies, both Animate and Inanimate, and found their Essence confined in _Corporeity_ and in some, one thing, or more superadded to it. And thus he attain'd a Notion of the Forms of Bodies, according to their differences. These were the first things he found out, belonging to the Spiritual World; for these Forms are not the objects of Sense, but are apprehended by Intellectual Speculation. Now among other things of this kind which he discover'd, it appear'd to him that the _Animal Spirit_, which is Seal'd in the Heart (as we have mention'd before) must necessarily have some _Quality_ superadded to its _Corporeity,_ which rendred it capable of those wonderful Actions, different Sensations and Ways of apprehending Things, and various sorts of Motions; and that this _Quality_ must be its _Form_, by which it is distinguish'd from other Bodies (which is the same that the Philosophers call the Sensitive Soul) and so in Plants, that which was in them the same that radical Moisture was in Beasts, was something proper to them, which, was their _Form_, which the Philosophers call the Vegetative Soul. And that there was also in |
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