A definition in this
sense tells you, e.g. the meaning of the phrase 'triangular
character'. When we are aware that triangle exists, we inquire the
reason why it exists. But it is difficult thus to learn the definition
of things the existence of which we do not genuinely know-the cause of
this difficulty being, as we said before, that we only know
accidentally whether or not the thing exists. Moreover, a statement
may be a unity in either of two ways, by conjunction, like the
Iliad, or because it exhibits a single predicate as inhering not
accidentally in a single subject.
That then is one way of defining definition. Another kind of
definition is a formula exhibiting the cause of a thing's existence.
Thus the former signifies without proving, but the latter will clearly
be a quasi-demonstration of essential nature, differing from
demonstration in the arrangement of its terms. For there is a
difference between stating why it thunders, and stating what is the
essential nature of thunder; since the first statement will be
'Because fire is quenched in the clouds', while the statement of
what the nature of thunder is will be 'The noise of fire being
quenched in the clouds'.
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