Relations Within the Work

Distinctions That Organise the Argument

Relation: Authority / judgment Question to follow: How can respect for predecessors leave room for a new argument? Passages: Preface, Preface

Relation: Light / matter Question to follow: How does an active principle give order to a receiving nature? Passages: 164, 223

Relation: Soul / spirit / body Question to follow: Which term gives form, which mediates, and which receives? Passages: 163–165

Relation: Innate heat / radical moisture Question to follow: How are cooperating powers distinguished? Passages: 213, 224

Relation: Difference / harmony Question to follow: When do unequal qualities make concord or disorder? Passages: 229, 231

Relation: Creator / created whole Question to follow: How is unity maintained without making the maker a part? Passages: 240–245

A proposed symbolic application should preserve the work performed by each distinction. The relation can illuminate another subject without making the historical objects disappear.