About service natural force

As for the purely service forces among the natural forces, these are the handmaidens of the feeding force. There are four such forces: attracting, retaining, digesting and expelling. The attracting force is created to attract useful substances; it does this with the help of the long-stretching fibers of the organ in which it resides.

The retaining force is created to retain useful substances while they are disposed of by the changing force, which changes them and extracts nutrition from them. The holding force does this using fibers running obliquely, sometimes assisted by transverse fibers.

The digestive force is the force that transforms what the attracting force has attracted and the retaining force has retained into a composition adapted to receive the action of the changing force, and gives this composition a nature suitable for converting it into an actual nutrient.

This is the effect of this force on useful substances, and this action is called digestion. As for its effect on surpluses, it transforms them, as long as possible, into this form - this is also called digestion - or makes it easier for them to be released from the organ in which they are confined under the pressure of an expelling force. This is achieved by softening their composition if density is an obstacle, or by compacting if softness is an obstacle, or by breaking if viscosity is an obstacle. This action is called “bringing to maturity,” and sometimes the terms “digestion” and “bringing to maturity” are used interchangeably.

The expelling force pushes out the surplus remaining from nutrients that are either unsuitable for nutrition, or exceed the quantity sufficient for nutrition, or can be dispensed with, or their use in the desired direction is completed. This is, for example, urine.

This force directs the surplus into the directions and passages prepared for them; if there are no such passages, then the excess is expelled from a more noble organ to a less noble one and from a denser one to a looser one. In those cases where the direction of expulsion coincides with the direction in which the excess matter tends, the expelling force does not deviate it, as long as possible, from this direction.

These four natural forces are served by the four primary natural qualities, that is, heat, coldness, moisture and dryness.

As for warmth, its service is, in fact, common to all four forces. And as for coldness, part of its service is service of an incidental nature, and not of substance. After all, the point of coldness, in essence, is to be the opposite of all other forces, for the actions of all forces are expressed in movement. As for attraction and repulsion, this is clear, but regarding the digestion of food, it must be said that digestion is carried out to the end by separating the particles of what is thick and rough, and combining them with what is thin and soft, and this happens with the help of separating movements . And the holding force acts by moving the oblique fibers and giving them an arrangement that helps with a strong grip.

As for coldness, it kills, causes intoxication and prevents all the mentioned actions, although it incidentally helps the grasping by holding the fibers in an arrangement that helps to grasp well. Thus, coldness does not participate in the functions of the grasping force as an essentially acting force, but gives the grasping instrument a disposition which preserves its action.

As for the expelling force, it uses the quality of coldness, which prevents the thinning of the wind, 6 which promotes the expulsion of excess, and helps to thicken it, and also connects and compacts the compressive transverse fibers. And this is also done for the sake of adapting the tool, but not for the sake of helping in the action itself. Cold enters into the service of these forces accidentally, and if it interfered with their very action, it would undoubtedly cause harm and inevitably weaken the movement.

As for dryness, it is needed due to the action of three forces: both moving and retaining. Both moving forces, that is, attracting and expelling, find in dryness an additional strengthening of the stability necessary during movement. I mean the movement of the pneuma carrying these forces towards the object of their action in a powerful impulse, which is prevented by relaxation from moisture, if it takes place in the substance of the pneuma or in the substance of force.

The holding force needs dryness for setting, and the digestive force more urgently needs moisture.

If the active and passive qualities are compared as to their necessity for these forces, it will be found that the holding force requires dryness more than heat, since the holding force requires more time to bring the transverse fibers to rest than to make them move and grab. The fact is that the time required to set them in motion - and this requires heat - is short, while the rest of the time of action of the restraining force is spent on holding and bringing them to a state of rest. Since the nature of children is more prone to moisture, this force is weaker in them.

As for the attracting force, its need for warmth is stronger than for dryness, because warmth helps in attracting nutrients. Moreover, the predominant part of the time of action of this force is spent on setting in motion, and the need to move is more urgent for it than the need to bring the parts of its tool to a state of rest and compress them with the help of dryness. In addition, this force requires not only numerous, but also energetic movements.

Attraction is carried out either by the action of an attractive force, as in a magnet that attracts iron, or by the “compulsion of the void”, as when water is drawn from a well into a bucket, or by heat, as the flame of a lamp draws oil. However, this third type, according to researchers, refers to “compulsion of emptiness”, or rather, this is exactly what it is. Consequently, when, in the presence of an attractive force, there is the help of warmth, then the attraction occurs more strongly. As for the expelling force, it needs dryness less than the other two, that is, attracting and retaining, for it does not need to grab, like a retaining force, and constantly attract and capture, like an attracting one, and it should not take possession of the attracted substance, capturing part of the attracted , so that other parts will follow. In general, the expelling force does not need to stop anything at all, on the contrary, it needs to be moved and compacted a little, which contributes to compression and pushing, but not compacted to such an extent that the expelling tool retains a shape and figure convenient for squeezing and grasping for a long time, as with a holding force, or for a short time, as with an attracting force, until the parts of the attracted are attracted one after another. Therefore, the need for dryness in the expelling force is small.

The thing that needs heat the most is digestion. It does not need dryness, but it does need moisture to make nutrients fluid and adapt them to pass through the ducts and perceive different shapes.

No one has the right to say that if moisture helped digestion, then the children’s strength would not refuse to digest dense food. The fact is that children are powerless to digest such food, while young men are capable of it, not for the reason mentioned, but because of affinity and lack of affinity. Things that are dense are not akin to the nature of children, and the child’s digestive powers do not handle them. Its retaining forces do not accept dense substances and its expelling forces expel them quickly. As for young men, dense food suits their nature and is suitable for their nutrition.

From all this taken together it follows that the holding force needs to grasp and for a long time maintain a stable disposition to grasp, and it also needs a little assistance in moving; the attractive force needs to grasp and maintain the disposition to grasp for a very short time, as well as considerable assistance in movement; the expelling force needs only grasping, without needing such stability of disposition to grasping, which should be taken into account, as well as an aid in movement, and the digestive force needs the ability to liquefy and mix. This is why these forces are divided regarding the use of the four qualities mentioned and regarding the need for them.