Cause Principle Unity

A general account of bonding
reasons; one of them walks better, while another speaks better. No one of
these alone possesses all things in all ways. Rather, the one who is found to
be happy and skilful in more ways and at more levels will bind more things,
will rule in more ways and will win out over more people of their own
species.
14. The opportunities for the bonding agent. We experience various feelings
at different times and on different occasions, and there is no one measure
common to them all. Likewise, there is no one and simple factor which can
please everyone or satisfy all things, much less does any one thing satisfy
different persons or one person at different times. For example, neither the
same food nor the same quantity or quality of food always satisfies. This
principle applies to all things which bond our appetites.
15. The different types of bonding agents. Some things bond by their own
power. Other things bond because of their quantity or because of one of
their parts. Still other things bond because they are aided by something else
to which they are attached or which properly disposes them, as when a
beautiful building arises out of irregularly shaped parts.
16. The variable power of the bonding agent. There are many things which
we judge to be beautiful but which nevertheless bind us as good, for example,
a horse, a ship, a house, a statue, a dog or a bird. But a beautiful person
does not bind us in order to be considered good, and a good person does
not bind us in order to be thought to be beautiful. It could happen that
crime and error are joined to the beautiful. Consider a beautiful but poor
woman: the more disturbing she is, the more easily one tends to give her
a gift. There are diverse reasons for diverse things, contrary reasons for
contrary things, and similar reasons for similar things.
17. Where the bonding agent is located. Those who have not studied the matter
too deeply, like the Platonists, think that that which binds is the form
of the thing, and crosses over from the thing to the mind, even though it
does not leave the object itself. This is like fire which does not lessen when
it communicates its form, and like an image which is in an object first, then
in the mirror, then in the intervening space, and finally in the eye. But considering
the matter more profoundly, we find that, indeed, it does exist in
the body, and it consists of a certain physical bond, but, like the soul whose
powers reveal its condition, it does not occupy any specific part of the body.
Indeed, even though the amorous effects of love may arise from the eyes or
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