Kitap 7
2
That from which they are generated is what we call matter; that by which, is something which exists naturally; and that which they become is a man or a plant or something else of this kind, which we call substance in the highest degree. All things which are generated naturally or artificially have matter; for it is possible for each one of them both to be and not to be, and this possibility is the matter in each individual thing.
3
And in general both that from which and that in accordance with which they are generated, is nature; for the thing generated, e.g. plant or animal, has a nature. And that by which they are generated is the so-called formal nature, which has the same form as the thing generated (although it is in something else); for man begets man.
3
Such is the generation of things which are naturally generated; the other kinds of generation are called productions. All productions proceed from either art or potency or thought.
4
Some of them are also generated spontaneously and by chance in much the same way as things which are naturally generated; for sometimes even in the sphere of nature the same things are generated both from seed and without it.e.g. fish (Aristot. Hist. An. 569a 11) and insects (Aristot. Hist. An. 539a 24). We shall consider cases of this kind later.In Aristot. Met. 7.9. Things are generated artificially whose form is contained in the soul (by form I mean the essence of each thing, and its primary substance);
