ATURE'
means the primary material of which any natural object consists or out
of which it is made, which is relatively unshaped and cannot be
changed from its own potency, as e.g. bronze is said to be the
nature of a statue and of bronze utensils, and wood the nature of
wooden things; and so in all other cases; for when a product is made
out of these materials, the first matter is preserved throughout.
For it is in this way that people call the elements of natural
objects also their nature, some naming fire, others earth, others
air, others water, others something else of the sort, and some
naming more than one of these, and others all of them. 'Nature'
means the essence of natural objects, as with those who say the
nature is the primary mode of composition, or as Empedocles says:
"Nothing that is has a nature, / But only mixing and parting of the
mixed, / And nature is but a name given them by men."