in that of the
species: he who uses the word 'animal' is herein using a word of wider
extension than he who uses the word 'man'.

Another mark of substance is that it has no contrary. What could be the
contrary of any primary substance, such as the individual man or
animal? It has none. Nor can the species or the genus have a contrary.
Yet this characteristic is not peculiar to substance, but is true of
many other things, such as quantity. There is nothing that forms the
contrary of 'two cubits long' or of 'three cubits long', or of 'ten',
or of any such term. A man may contend that 'much' is the contrary of
'little', or 'great' of 'small', but of definite quantitative terms no
contrary exists.

Substance, again, does not appear to admit of variation of degree. I do
not mean by this that one substance cannot be more or less truly
substance than another, for it has already been stated' that this is
the case; but that no single substance admits of varying degrees within
itself. For instance, one particular substance, 'man', cannot be more
or less man either than himself at some other time or than some other
man. One man cannot be more man than another, as that which is white
may be more or less white than some other white object, or as that
which is beautiful may be more or less beautiful than some other
beautiful object. The same quality, moreover, is said to subsist in a
thing in varying degrees at different times. A body, being white, is
said to be whiter at one time than it was before, or, being warm, is
said to be warmer or less warm than at some other time. But substance
is not said to be more or less that which it is: a man is not more
truly a man at one time than he was before, nor is anything, if it is
substance, more or less what it is. Substance, then, does not admit of
variation of degree.

The most distinctive mark of substance appears to be that, while
remaining numerically one and the same, it is capable of admitting
contrary qualities. From among things other than substance, we should
find ourselves unable to bring forward any which possessed this mark.
Thus, one and the same colour cannot be white and black. Nor can the
same one action be good and bad: this law holds good with everything
that is not substance. But one and the selfsame substance, while
retaining its identity, is yet capable of admitting contrary qualities.
The same individual person is at one time white, at another black, at
one time w