Now _Ens_ (or _Entia_), in the doctrine of Aristotle, is not a synonymous or univocal word, but an homonymous or equivocal word; or, rather, it is something between the two, being equivocal, with a certain qualification. Though not a _Summum Genus_, _i.e._ not manifesting throughout all its particulars generic unity, nor divisible into species by the addition of well-marked essential _differentiæ_, it is an analogical aggregate, or a _Summum Analogon_, comprehending under it many subordinates which bear the same name from being all related in some way or other to a common root or _fundamentum_, the relationship being both diverse in kind and nearer or more distant in degree. The word _Ens_ is thus homonymous, yet in a qualified sense. While it is not univocal, it is at the same time not absolutely equivocal. It is _multivocal_ (if we may coin such a word), having many meanings held together by a multifarious and graduated relationship to one common _fundamentum_.[12] _Ens_ (or _Entia_), in this widest sense, is the theme of Ontology or First Philosophy, and is looked at by Aristotle in four different principal aspects.[13] [Footnote 12: Simplikius speaks of these Analoga as [Greek: to\ me/son tô=n te sunônu/môn kai\ tô=n o(mônu/môn, to\ a)ph' e(no/s], &c. Schol. ad Categor. p. 69, b. 29, Brand. See also Metaphys. Z. p. 1030, a. 34. Dexippus does not recognize, formally and under a distinct title, this intermediate stage between [Greek: sunô/numa] and [Greek: o(mô/numa]. He states that Aristotle considered Ens as [Greek: o(mô/numon], while other philosophers considered it as [Greek: sunô/numon] (Dexippus, p. 26, book i. sect. 19, ed. Spengel). But he intimates that the ten general heads called Categories have a certain continuity and interdependence ([Greek: sune/cheian kai\ a)llêlouchi/an]) each with the others, branching out from [Greek: ou)si/a] in ramifications more or less straggling (p. 48, book ii. sects. 1, 2, Spengel). The list (he says, p. 47) does not depend upon [Greek: diai/resis] (generic division), nor yet is it simple enumeration ([Greek: a)pari/thmêsis] of incoherent items. In the Physica, vii. 4, p. 249, a. 23, Aristotle observes: [Greek: ei)si\ de\ tô=n o(mônumiôn ai( me\n polu\ a)pe/chousi ai( de\ e)/chousai/ tina o(moio/têta, ai( d' e)ggu\s ê)\ ge/nei ê)\ a)nalogi/a|, dio\ ou) dokou=sin o(mônumi/ai ei)=nai ou)=sai.]] [Footnote 13: Aristot. Metaphys. [Greek: D]. p. 1017, a. 7, E. p. 1025, a. 34, p. 1026, a. 33, b. 4; upon which last passage see the note of Bonitz.] 1. [Greek: To\ o)\n kata\ sumbebêko/s]--_Ens per Accidens_--_Ens_ accidental, or rather concomitant, either as rare and exceptional attribute to a subject, or along with some other accident in the same common subject.