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Nor is it possible to track back the series of necessary antecedents
to a starting-point, of which you can say that, existing itself from
eternity, it has determined their existence as its consequent. These
however again, are matters that have been dealt with in another
treatise. There too it was stated in what cases absolute and
hypothetical necessity exist; in what cases also the proposition
expressing hypothetical necessity is simply convertible, and what
cause it is that determines this convertibility.
Another matter which must not be passed over without consideration
is, whether the proper subject of our exposition is that with which
the ancient writers concerned themselves, namely, what is the
process of formation of each animal; or whether it is not rather, what
are the characters of a given creature when formed. For there is no
small difference between these two views. The best course appears to
be that we should follow the method already mentioned, and begin
with the phenomena presented by each group of animals, and, when
this is done, proceed afterwards to state the causes of those
phenomena, and to deal with their evolution. For elsewhere, as for
instance in house building, this is the true sequence. The plan of the
house, or the house, has this and that form; and because it has this
and that form, therefore is its construction carried out in this or
that manner
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