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. We have now to inquire
what are the causes that in each case have determined this
composition, a subject quite distinct from that dealt with in the
Researches.
Now there are three degrees of composition; and of these the first
in order, as all will allow, is composition out of what some call
the elements, such as earth, air, water, fire. Perhaps, however, it
would be more accurate to say composition out of the elementary
forces; nor indeed out of all of these, but out of a limited number of
them, as defined in previous treatises. For fluid and solid, hot and
cold, form the material of all composite bodies; and all other
differences are secondary to these, such differences, that is, as
heaviness or lightness, density or rarity, roughness or smoothness,
and any other such properties of matter as there may be. second degree
of composition is that by which the homogeneous parts of animals, such
as bone, flesh, and the like, are constituted out of the primary
substances. The third and last stage is the composition which forms
the heterogeneous parts, such as face, hand, and the rest.
Now the order of actual development and the order of logical
existence are always the inverse of each other. For that which is
posterior in the order of development is antecedent in the order of
nature, and that is genetically last which in nature is first.
(That this is so is manifest by induction; for a house does not
exist for the sake of bricks and stones, but these materials for the
sake of the house; and the same is the case with the materials of
other bodies
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