5
Animals which, like men and birds, have the superior part
distinguished from the front are two-footed (biped). In them, of the
four points of motion, two are wings in the one, hands and arms in the
other. Animals which have the superior and the front parts identically
situated are four-footed, many-footed, or footless (quadruped,
polypod, limbless). I use the term foot for a member employed for
movement in place connected with a point on the ground, for the feet
appear to have got their name from the ground under our feet.
Some animals, too, have the front and back parts identically
situated, for example, Cephalopods (molluscs) and spiral-shaped
Testaceans, and these we have discussed elsewhere in another
connexion.
Now there is in place a superior, an intermediate, and an
inferior; in respect to place bipeds have their superior part
corresponding to the part of the universe; quadrupeds, polypods, and
footless animals to the intermediate part, and plants to the inferior.
The reason is that these have no power of locomotion, and the superior
part is determined relatively to the nutriment, and their nutriment is
from the earth. Quadrupeds, polypods, and footless animals again
have their superior part corresponding to the intermediate, because
they are not erect. Bipeds have theirs corresponding to the superior
part of the universe because they are erect, and of bipeds, man par
excellence; for man is the most natural of bipeds.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25