grows strong and the attracting faculty weakens, as does the retaining faculty, until the human being dies.
Without this governance through these instruments for this constitution, no ear would hear, no eyesight would look, and none of these sensory and spiritual faculties would have any ruling.
(Appetite and Will in Taking Nourishment)
The appetitive soul's sovereignty within this bodily frame is seeking what it deems beautiful, without knowing whether that harms or benefits it. This occurs only within the human constitution.
Other animals take nourishment only through will, not appetite, to repel the pain of hunger and need from themselves. They intend only what benefits them.
The ruling of appetite within the animal remains in taking an abundance of nourishment. Through that disorder enters it. Disorder likewise enters the human being through taking an abundance of that of which a little is beneficial, and through taking what has no benefit at all among what appetite seeks and through which the temperament is harmed.
This is the distinction between the human being and the animal in taking nourishment. The appetitive soul is to the vegetative soul as has been said:
When an intelligent man tests the world, it reveals to him an enemy in a friend's clothes.
It has friendship with the vegetative soul because it assists it in nourishment and taking it. It is the enemy insofar as it introduces to it
