Likewise, also, a
letter is more intelligible than a syllable. Whereas to us it
sometimes happens that the converse is the case: for the solid falls
under perception most of all-more than a plane-and a plane more than a
line, and a line more than a point; for most people learn things
like the former earlier than the latter; for any ordinary intelligence
can grasp them, whereas the others require an exact and exceptional
understanding.
Absolutely, then, it is better to try to make what is posterior
known through what is prior, inasmuch as such a way of procedure is
more scientific. Of course, in dealing with persons who cannot
recognize things through terms of that kind, it may perhaps be
necessary to frame the expression through terms that are
intelligible to them. Among definitions of this kind are those of a
point, a line, and a plane, all of which explain the prior by the
posterior; for they say that a point is the limit of a line, a line of
a plane, a plane of a solid. One must, however, not fail to observe
that those who define in this way cannot show the essential nature
of the term they define, unless it so happens that the same thing is
more intelligible both to us and also absolutely, since a correct
definition must define a thing through its genus and its differentiae,
and these belong to the order of things which are absolutely more
intelligible than, and prior to, the species.
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