ARISTOTLE AND THE EARLIER PERIPATETICS vol.I by Eduard Zeller, B.F.C.Costelloe 1897

: put
:
,
PHYSICS 465
lis action in obedience to purpose cannot obtain
e mastery in nature : for, along with the free
of form, we have the necessary element ofmatter
mot be entirely overcome by form. We have alvn
(p. 359 sqq.) that Aristotle finds in matter the
rk of chance and blind natural necessity.
Both
timately coincide, since chance is precisely that
es not happen as the fulfiment of some design,
raduced by the way, in consequence of the
of intervening causes which are indispensable
ainment of a further end.
This characteristic
existence renders it impossible to assign a purrerything
in the world.
Nature, indeed, works
lefinite ends, but, in the realisation of her
produces many things parenthetically, by the
l mere necessity ; ' yet she still endeavours as
rible to make use of such chance products, emier
superfluities for purposes of her own, and,
)d housewife, taking care that nothing be lost. 2
that natural science, in like manner, cannot
:oceed with the same rigour,
but must take
)unt the disturbances 'introduced into the
F nature by necessity and chance, admitting
s to rules, and feeling satisfied when her
itions hold in the majority of instances. 3
361, n. 1, supra. and nutrition of animal orgar-
An. ii. 6, 744, b, 16 isms ; Gen. An. ii. 4, 738, a, 3r
i/ios aya8bs, xa\ f)