Which, then, among these is entitled to be
regarded as the genuine physicist? The one who confines himself to the
material, or the one who restricts himself to the formulable essence
alone? Is it not rather the one who combines both in a single formula?
If this is so, how are we to characterize the other two? Must we not
say that there is no type of thinker who concerns himself with those
qualities or attributes of the material which are in fact
inseparable from the material, and without attempting even in
thought to separate them? The physicist is he who concerns himself
with all the properties active and passive of bodies or materials thus
or thus defined; attributes not considered as being of this
character he leaves to others, in certain cases it may be to a
specialist, e.g. a carpenter or a physician, in others (a) where
they are inseparable in fact, but are separable from any particular
kind of body by an effort of abstraction, to the mathematician, (b)
where they are separate both in fact and in thought from body
altogether, to the First Philosopher or metaphysician. But we must
return from this digression, and repeat that the affections of soul
are inseparable from the material substratum of animal life, to
which we have seen that such affections, e.g. passion and fear,
attach, and have not the same mode of being as a line or a plane.
2
For our study of soul it is necessary, while formulating the
problems of which in our further advance we are to find the solutions,
to call into council the views of those of our predecessors who have
declared any opinion on this subject, in order that we may profit by
whatever is sound in their suggestions and avoid their errors.
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