en as it
were by design. Thus the statue of Mityus at Argos killed him who was
the cause of the death of Mityus by falling as he was surveying it. For
such events as these seem not to take place casually. Hence it is
necessary that fables of this kind should be more beautiful.

ON PHILOSOPHY

Quoted in Cicero's 'Nature of the Gods'

If there were men whose habitations had been always under ground, in
great and commodious houses, adorned with statues and pictures,
furnished with everything which they who are reputed happy abound with:
and if, without stirring from thence, they should be informed of a
certain divine power and majesty, and after some time the earth should
open and they should quit their dark abode to come to us, where they
should immediately behold the earth, the seas, the heavens; should
consider the vast extent of the clouds and force of the winds; should
see the sun and observe his grandeur and beauty, and perceive that day
is occasioned by the diffusion of his light through the sky; and when
night has obscured the earth they should contemplate the heavens,
bespangled and adorned with stars, the surprising variety of the moon in
her increase and wane, the rising and setting of all the stars and the
inviolable regularity of their courses,--when, says he, "they should see
these things, they would undoubtedly conclude that there are gods, and
that these are their mighty works."

ON ESSENCES

From 'The Metaphysics,' Book xi., Chapter I

The subject of theory (or speculative science) is _essence_. In it are
investigated the principles and causes of essences. The truth is, if the
All be regarded as a whole, essence is its first (or highest) part.
Also, if we consider the natural order of the categories, essence stands
at the head of the list; then comes quality; then quantity. It is true
that the other categories, such as qualities and movements, are not in
any absolute sense at all, and the same is true of [negatives, such as]
not-white or not-straight. Nevertheless, we use such expressions as
"Not-white is."

Moreover, no one of the other categories is separable [or independent].
This is attested by the procedure of the older philosophers; for it was
the principles, elements, and causes of essence that were the objects of
their investigations. The thinkers of the present day, to be sure, are
rather inclined to consider universals as essence. For genera are
universals, and these they hold to be