Unlike and contrary

Meaning

Unlike things need not be contrary. Nuysement distinguishes parts different in place or shape but naturally allied from alien or opposed matter whose mixture obstructs the subject’s action. The former separation is distinction, not severance: heaven and earth, or wood and bark, remain connected.

The latter can be called division or removal, but even contraries are not declared incapable of coexisting. Their conjunction is objectionable because it destroys or impedes the substance’s powers. This distinction governs the whole separation chapter. A reader who equates every difference with opposition will mistake Nature’s articulated body for a heap of pieces that must all be cut apart.