Proposition Lxxiv.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Proclus and Taylor, Thomas
PROPOSITION LXXIV.
Every form is a certain whole; for it consists of many things, each of which gives completion to the form. But not every whole is a form.
For a particular[238] thing is a whole and also an individual, so far it is an individual, but neither of them is a form. For every whole consists of parts; but form is that which may be divided into individual forms. Whole, therefore, is one thing, and form another. And the one is present with many things, but the other with a few. Hence, whole is above the forms of beings.
COROLLARY.
From these things it is evident that whole has a middle order between being and forms. And hence it follows that being subsists prior to forms, and that forms are beings, but that not every being is form. Whence also, in effects, privations are in a certain respect beings, but are no longer forms, and in consequence of the unical power of being, they also receive a certain obscure representation of being.[239]