On Physics

it is necessary for matter to be present. It is not said to be "by accident" because of privation Privation refers to the absence of a form that should naturally be present., which is not present in itself but by accident. And this is the definition of prime matter. Concerning which Aristotle says in the same place that it is unbegotten and incorruptible. For if it were generated, it would have existed before it was generated. Similarly, if it were corrupted, it would have been corrupted before it was corrupted. Hence Dionysius Dionysius the Areopagite, a Christian theologian and philosopher. in the book On the Divine Names, chapter 4, says thus: "Nothing among existing things is corrupted according to what it is as a substance or nature; but by a defect of order, which is according to the nature of harmony; and the principle of proportion is weakened, similarly inhering in matter." And note that matter is called "matter" insofar as it is naturally apt to receive form. It is called "substance" or "subject" insofar as it stands under form. Hence accidents or form do not have their being except in matter.

It is, however, called hyle original: "yle"; from the Greek word for wood or raw material, used by philosophers to mean pure potentiality. insofar as it has no relation to any specific form and is naked of all form. It is called the "Origin" insofar as it is the principle of all natural things. Matter is divided thus: because some is corporeal and some is spiritual. Spiritual matter is that which is in creatures that do not have a position or place, such as angels and souls, for whom a similar matter is created along with them. Corporeal matter is that which is in things that have position and place. And of these, some is natural and some is artificial. Artificial matter is that which is in artificial things, the principle of which is a created will. Natural matter is that which is in natural things, the principle of which is nature.

And of these: some is universal or primary; some is particular or secondary. Universal matter is that which has no respect to any special form, but to every form. For there is a certain natural appetite in matter for every form, and this is through its total imperfection apart from form. For everything desires that most in which it is most deficient. Hence Aristotle, at the end of the first book of Physics, says: "Matter desires form just as the female desires the male, and the foul desires the good and the beautiful." Particular matter, however, is that which has been made "this certain thing" and is constrained by a substantial form and accidental forms.

And note that in artificial matter there is only passive power, such as in bronze with respect to a statue. In particular natural matter, however, there is not only passive power, but also active power, as is evident in a grain; and this is called by theologians a seminal reason original: "ratio seminalis"; a Stoic and Augustinian concept of "seed-like" principles implanted in matter that unfold over time., which is also something of form. Likewise, of particular things, some are ingenerable and incorruptible, such as in the heavens and in the higher bodies in which there is active power only with respect to lower things. Some, however, are generable and corruptible, such as in the elements and things composed of elements, in which there is both active and passive power. From these things which have been said, it can be gathered that matter is fivefold, namely...