Thirdly, Although we should concede a right and left in Nature, yet in this common and received account we may err from the proper acception; mistaking one side for another; calling that in Man and other animals the right which is the left, and that the left which is the right, and that in some things right and left, which is not properly either. For first the right and left, are not defined by Phylosophers according to common acception, that is, respectively from one Man unto another, or any constant site in each; as though that should be the right in one, which upon confront or facing, stands athwart or diagonally unto the other; but were distinguished according to the activity and predominant locomotion upon either side. Thus _Aristotle_ in his excellent Tract _de incessu animalium_, ascribeth six positions unto Animals, answering the three dimensions; which he determineth not by site or position unto the Heavens, but by their faculties and functions; and these are _Imum _, _Ante Retro_, _Dextra et Sinistra_: that is, the superiour part, where the aliment is received, that the lower extream, where it is last expelled; so he termeth a Man a plant inverted; for he supposeth the root of a Tree the head or upper part thereof, whereby it receiveth its aliment, although therewith it respects the Center of the Earth, but with the other the Zenith; and this position is answerable unto longitude. Those parts are anteriour and measure profundity, where the senses, especially the Eyes are placed, and those posterior which are opposite hereunto. The dextrous and sinistrous parts of the body make up the latitude; and are not certain and inalterable like the other; for that, saith he, is the right side, from whence the motion of the body beginneth, that is, the active or moving side; but that the sinister which is the weaker or more quiescent part. Of the same determination were the _Platonicks_ and _Pythagoreans_ before him; who conceiving the heavens an animated body, named the _East_, the right or dextrous part, from whence began their motion: and thus the _Greeks_, from whence the _Latins_ have borrowed their appellation, have named this hand δέξια, denominating it not from the site, but office, from δέχομαι _capio_, that is, the hand which receiveth, or is usually implied in that action.