For what is to prevent this coming to pass, unless it be impossible?
And it is not impossible unless the opposite is necessary. This
difficulty, however, we will discuss elsewhere.
To resume, must there be something immovable and at rest outside
of what is moved, and no part of it, or not? And must this necessarily
be so also in the case of the universe? Perhaps it would be thought
strange were the origin of movement inside. And to those who so
conceive it the word of Homer would appear to have been well spoken:
'Nay, ye would not pull Zeus, highest of all from heaven to the
plain, no not even if ye toiled right hard; come, all ye gods and
goddesses! Set hands to the chain'; for that which is entirely
immovable cannot possibly be moved by anything. And herein lies the
solution of the difficulty stated some time back, the possibility or
impossibility of dissolving the system of the heavens, in that it
depends from an original which is immovable.
Now in the animal world there must be not only an immovable without,
but also within those things which move in place, and initiate their
own movement. For one part of an animal must be moved, and another
be at rest, and against this the part which is moved will support
itself and be moved; for example, if it move one of its parts; for one
part, as it were, supports itself against another part at rest.
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