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

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PHYSICS 475
This position draws further support from experience.
For he contends that if the spaces of the heavens, as well
as the intermediate
space between heaven and earth,
were full of air or fire, then the bulk of these elements,
considering the magnitude of the stars and their distance
from each other, would be so hugely disproportioned to
that of the remaining elements that the latter could not
preserve their equilibrium, but would be swallowed up
by them. A proper proportion between the elements '
can therefore only be maintained on the hypothesis that
the celestial space is filled with a body different from the
matter of the elements. We 2 are also led to believe that
this body is superior to all change, by the fact that
antiquity, so far as tradition reaches, furnishes us with
no evidence of the least alteration in the fabric of the
heaven or its parts. 3 Finally, the unthinking belief of
humanity harmonises with this
conviction, and such a
belief deserves respect as the inheritance of unnumbered
generations. 4 All nations have placed the residence of
the gods in heaven, because they were convinced of its
immortal and divine nature. The name ' aether ' may
be traced to the same source, for Aristotle, like Plato, 5
derives it from del dsiv, from the restless rotation of
3
treatise on birth and destruc- De Ccelo, i. 3, 270, b, 11.
tion.
4
ov yap aira| ou5e Sis a\A*
1
Such a proportion involves airetpdicis Se? voiiifeiv t&s uvtzs
that there is as much air and as atpiKveiaBai S6^as els ri/ias. De,
much fire as will be produced by Ccelo, 270, b, 19. See Meteor.
the transformation of all water 339, b, 27, where the same reason
into air and all air into fire on is given in almost the same
the basis of the existing quanti- words, and Metapli. xii. 8 ad fin.
tative extent of these bodies. See infra, the section of Ch. IX.
2 Meteor, i. 3, 339, b, 13-340, on the Heavens, and Ch.XII.pt. 2.
a, 18.
s
Plato, Crat. 410, b.
470 ARISTOTLE
the celestial globes, and not from aWsiv. 1
The conclusion
is that the asther must be distinguished from all
elementary matter. 2
1
De Casio, i. 3, 270, b, 4-25
Meteor, i. 3, 339, b, 19 sqq.
and following these passages
De Mundo, c. 2, 392, a, 5. On
the name ' aether,' cf. Zell. Ph.
d. Or. i. 897, 4 ad fin.
2
Although it is called mparov
ittoix«ov, Dp Cado, iii. 1, 298, b,
6 ; Meteor, i. 1, 338, b, 21 ; c. 3,
339, b, 16, 340, b, 11, rb ruv
acrrptav (TTOix^ov; Gen. An. iii.
3, 737, a, 1, it is yet expressly
distinguished in these passages
from the four o-TDixeta. Gen. An.
ii. 3, 736, b, 29, it is called Urepov
(Tu/xa Kal 8et6repov t£>v Ka\ovfi4vtav
o-toix*'""' ; Meteor, i. 3, 340, b, 7
(cf . p. 488, n. 3, infra), erepov o-Sjua
irvpds T€ Kal aepos ; and De Cosh,
i. 2, 269, a, 30 : oiicia ctefiaros
&\hri irapa ras ivravda ffvffra'fftis
6etor4pa Kal Trporepa rofrruv andvtuv
;
cf. ibid. o. 3 (following n.).
If, therefore, we understand by
oToixeia only such simple bodies
as stand to one another in the
relation of opposites, and pass
into one another, we cannot
reckon the aather among these.
Only when we extend the meaning
of the word to embrace all
simple bodies can we call it a
aroix&ov. On the other hand, it
is, to say the least of it, inaccurate
and misleading to say
Without opposition and without
that according to Aristotle the
celestial spheres have no material
substratum ' (Bbkntano,
'
Psyclwl. d. Arist. 198 ; Hebtling,
Mat. und Form, 22), that 'the
a3th er consists of a material which
is 'no material, of an immaterial
material ' (Kampe, Erlienntnissth.
d. Arist. 30 sq.) that all
that is meant by the BAij of the
stars is the potentiality they
possess of motion and change
in space, and that in this sense
we might even attribute SAtj to
vovs (Heetling, Hid. 23). Aristotle
certainly says, Metaph. viii.
4, 1044, b, 7 : in the case of
ytwtrral ovaiai, we have to deal
both with their matter and form
it is otherwise with (pvaucaX piv
atbioL 8e ovaiai. iaws yap tvta
(
ovk 6X
€I faviv, ff oil roiavTfjv aWa.
fx6vov KaTard-rrov K