existence of a thing not in the sense of
its potentially existing. The term _potentially_ we use, for instance,
of the statue in the block, and of the half in the whole (since it may
be subtracted), and of a person knowing a thing, even when he is not
thinking of it, but might be so; whereas energeia is the opposite. By
applying the various instances our meaning will be plain, and one must
not seek a definition in each case, but rather grasp the conception of
the analogy as a whole,--that it is as that which builds to that which
has a capacity for building; as the waking to the sleeping; as that
which sees to that which has sight, but whose eyes are closed; as the
definite form to the shapeless matter; as the complete to the
unaccomplished. In this contrast, let the energeia be set off as forming
the one side, and on the other let the potential stand. Things are said
to be in energeia not always in like manner (except so far as there is
an analogy, that as this thing is in this, and related to this, so is
that in that, or related to that); for sometimes it implies _motion_ as
opposed to the _capacity of motion_, and sometimes _complete existence_
opposed to _undeveloped matter_".[727] As the term dynamis has the
double meaning of "_possibility of existence_" as well as "_capacity of
action_" so there is the double contrast of "_action_" as opposed to the
capacity of action; and "_actual existence_" opposed to possible
existence or potentiality. To express accurately this latter antithesis,
Aristotle introduced the term entelecheia[728]--entelechy, of which the
most natural account is that it is a compound of en telei echein--"being
in a state of perfection."[729] This term, however, rarely occurs in the
"Metaphysics," whilst energeia is everywhere employed, not only to
express activity as opposed to passivity, but complete existence as
opposed to undeveloped matter.

[Footnote 725: "That which Aristotle calls 'form' is not to be
confounded with what we may perhaps call shape [or figure]; a hand
severed from the arm, for instance, has still the outward shape of a
hand, but, according to Aristotelian apprehension, it is only a hand now
as to matter, and not as to form; an actual hand, a hand as to form, is
only that which can do the proper work of a hand."--Schwegler's "History
of Philosophy," p. 122.]

[Footnote 726: "Metaphysics," bk. vii. ch. ii.]

[Footnote 727: "Metaphysics," bk. viii. ch. vi.]

[Footnote 728: "