Book 7
3
As for things which are not visibly separable, there is no reason why the same should not apply to them; e.g., if all the circles that had ever been seen were bronze; for the bronze would be none the less no part of the form, but it is difficult to separate it in thought.
4
For example, the form of man is always manifested in flesh and bones and elements of this kind; then are these actually parts of the form and formula, or are they not so, but matter, though since the form is not induced in other materials, we cannot separate it?
5
Now since this seems to be possible, but it is not clear when, some thinkersThe Pythagoreans. are doubtful even in the case of the circle and the triangle, considering that it is not proper to define them by lines and continuous space, but that all these are to the circle or triangle as flesh or bone is to man, and bronze or stone to the statue; and they reduce everything to numbers, and say that the formula of line is the formula of 2.
6
And of the exponents of the Forms, some make 2 the Ideal line, and some the form of the lineThe distinction seems to be that given in Aristot. Met. 8.3.1. Some held that the line, considered absolutely, is simply twoness; others that it is twoness in length. ; for they say that in some cases the form and that of which it is the form, e.g. 2 and the form of 2, are the same; but in the case of line this is no longer so.
