PROPOSITION XL.

Primordial Matter, considered simply in itself, cannot be the intrinsic constitutive principle of Individuation.

The proof of this Proposition will cost little labour or space; since the enunciated truth is admitted generally by Doctors of the School, and becomes patent of itself, as soon as the nature of Primordial Matter, (or Materia Prima, as it is called), is explained, according to the teaching of the Peripatetic Philosophy. Primordial Matter, then, is declared to be a pure receptivity, a simple subjective faculty of receiving actuation, which is the ultimate residuum, so to speak, of all material things. As such, it is one in all things corporeal, undistinguished till its actuation. Its Act is its Form; and, by virtue of its Act or Form, it is defined and discriminated. Furthermore, it is indivisible in itself, and indivisible even as actuated by its substantial Form. The accidental Form of Quantity, supervening upon its full constitution as actual substance, gives to it its capacity of division or, in other words, its divisibility. From this brief description, which will serve for the present, it is plain, that Primordial Matter cannot be the intrinsic constitutive principle of Individuation. For nothing gives that which is not its own to give. But Primordial Matter is one, common, and an distinguished in all things; therefore, it cannot become a principle constitutive of distinction. It is, in itself, indivisible; therefore, it cannot serve as the foundation for dividing one from the other.