Appendix to the Books on Plants and Peripatetic Questions

For this alone is one, while curves are many. Therefore, by the straight we recognize both the straight and the crooked, and by the true we recognize both the true and the false; for the science of contraries is one and the same. Furthermore, Beings original: "Entia" are arranged and known in a similar manner. All things are directed toward the One, which is the most perfect being: from this same One, as if from a universal measure, the knowledge of all things depends. For there is the Intellect The faculty of understanding or "nous" in Greek philosophy., by which all things are understood. It is necessary, therefore, that those to whom Intellect has been communicated—such as human beings—share the same principles, which is why a consensus on first principles is found among them.

Whoever dissents, however, must possess a corrupted judgment. This corruption happens to occur either from the matter in which his intellect is born—for not all matter is prepared in the same way—or from disturbing Phantasms Mental images or sensory impressions that can mislead the mind., or from the passions of the soul. For we do not judge things we love in the same way as those we pursue with hatred. But truly, if any of these factors has twisted an author from the right path, he will realize it, provided that nothing has been scraped away from the true principles among those things he strives to cut down. For the dogmas of Aristotle The Greek philosopher (384–322 BCE) whose logic and metaphysics dominated medieval and Renaissance thought. are so interconnected that not even the smallest one can be moved without the others.

The order of the universe, moreover, demonstrates the same thing. For the First Being original: "Ens"; referring to the Prime Mover or God., upon which all other things depend, is one and indivisible. From this same source, corporeal nature—which is divisible according to the triple dimension Height, width, and depth.—descends, from which a multitude arises, participating in being more clearly or more obscurely: the Heavens and the Earth, along with the other elements. Afterward come the inanimate mixtures, then Plants participating in the vegetative soul The lowest level of soul responsible for growth and nutrition., and animals participating also in the sensitive soul The faculty of soul responsible for sensation and movement., and finally man, a participant in reason.

Just as individual things participate in being, so too do they participate in unity. For the Elements never allow themselves to be separated from one another so that a vacuum An empty space devoid of matter; Aristotelian physics famously claimed "nature abhors a vacuum." might fall between them; for their nature would perish if separated by a vacuum from that source from which they receive their existence. And if the parts of living creatures are separated from their source, they die; for they live only as long as they are attached to the Heart, by whose vital heat they must be continually nourished. Each individual thing is also one in number as long as it has not been divided, and one in species or genus...