THE STOIC CONCEPTION OF MATTER.

(The Stoics, who condensed Aristotle's categories to four, substrate,

quality-mode and relation),[280] who admit the existence of nothing

else than bodies, acknowledge no existence other than that contained

by bodies. They insist that there is but one kind of matter, which

serves as substrate to the elements, and that it constitutes "being";

that all other things are only affections ("passions") of matter, or

modified matter: as are the elements. The teachers of this doctrine do

not hesitate to introduce this matter into the (very nature of the)

divinities, so that their supreme divinity is no more than modified

matter.[281] Besides, of matter they make a body, calling it a

"quantityless body," still attributing to it magnitude.

Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 1 In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods · 第 339 / 467 题