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We have already explained how essential nature is set out in the
terms of a demonstration, and the sense in which it is or is not
demonstrable or definable; so let us now discuss the method to be
adopted in tracing the elements predicated as constituting the
definable form.
Now of the attributes which inhere always in each several thing
there are some which are wider in extent than it but not wider than
its genus (by attributes of wider extent mean all such as are
universal attributes of each several subject, but in their application
are not confined to that subject). while an attribute may inhere in
every triad, yet also in a subject not a triad-as being inheres in
triad but also in subjects not numbers at all-odd on the other hand is
an attribute inhering in every triad and of wider application
(inhering as it does also in pentad), but which does not extend beyond
the genus of triad; for pentad is a number, but nothing outside number
is odd. It is such attributes which we have to select, up to the exact
point at which they are severally of wider extent than the subject but
collectively coextensive with it; for this synthesis must be the
substance of the thing.
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