The following tasks are required to complete this lesson:
- Study the Lesson carefully.
- Complete the lesson Assessment.
Lesson
The first division of relative quantity is twofold : for what ever is measured by comparison with another quantity, is either equal or unequal. And that indeed is equal which when com pared to something else is neither less nor greater. This part however, of relative quantity, viz. equality, is naturally indivisible : for it cannot be said that one portion of equality is different from another. For all equality in its proper measurement preserves one measure. The quantity too which is compared, has not an appellation different from that to which it is compared. For as a friend is the friend of a friend, and a neighbour is the neighbour of a neighbour, so the equal is said to be equal to the equal. But of unequal quantity there is a twofold division: for that which is unequal may be cut into the greater and the less, which have a denomination contrary to each other. For the greater is greater than the less, and the less is less than the greater. Hence both have not the same appellations as was observed to be the case with equal quantity, but they are distinguished by different names, in the same manner as those of teacher and learner, or of any other relatives which are compared to contraries that are differently denominated.
Of greater inequality however, there are five parts. For one partis that which is called multiple; another is superparticular ; a third superpartient ; a fourth multiple-superparticular ; and a fifth multiple-superpartient. To these five parts, therefore, of greater inequality, other five parts of less inequality are opposed, just as the greater is always opposed to the less. These species also of less inequality have the same appellations as those of greater inequality, with the addition of the preposition sub. For they are denominated submultiple, subsuperparticular, subsuperpartient, niultiple-subsuperparticular, and multiple-subsuperpartient.
Assessment
