11. (Following the ideas of Aristotle,[301] Plotinos wonders whether
some objector) will ask whether the composition of a body requires
anything beyond extension and all the other qualities? Yes: it demands
a substrate to receive them (as a residence). This substrate is not a
mass; for in this case, it would be an extension. But if this substrate
have no extension, how can it be a residence (for form)? Without
extension, it could be of no service, contributing neither to form
nor qualities, to magnitude nor extension. It seems that extension,
wherever it be, is given to bodies by matter. Just as actions, effects,
times and movements, though they do not imply any matter, nevertheless
are beings, it would seem that the elementary bodies do not necessarily
imply matter (without extension), being individual beings, whose
diverse substance is constituted by the mingling of several forms.
Matter without extension, therefore, seems to be no more than a
meaningless name.