5.  They have, however, been led into this error by their close study of heathen writers, who have respectively applied the terms “of whom” and “through whom” to things which are by nature distinct.  These writers suppose that by the term “of whom” or “of which” the matter is indicated, while the term “through whom” or “through which” The ambiguity of gender in ἐξ οὗ and δι᾽ οὗ can only be expressed by giving the alternatives in English. represents the instrument, or, generally speaking, subordinate agency. There are four causes or varieties of cause: 1.  The essence or quiddity (Form):  τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι. 2.  The necessitating conditions (Matter):  τὸ τίνων ὄντων ἀνάγκη τοῦτ᾽ εἶναι. 3.  The proximate mover or stimulator of change (Efficient):  ἡ τί πρῶτον ἐκίνησε. 4.  That for the sake of which (Final Cause or End):  τὸ τίνος ἕνεκα.  Grote’s Aristotle, I. 354. The four Aristotelian causes are thus:  1. Formal.  2. Material.  3. Efficient.  4. Final.  cf. Arist. Analyt. Post. II. xi., Metaph. I. iii., and Phys. II. iii.  The six causes of Basil may be referred to the four of Aristotle as follows: Aristotle. 1.  τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι 2.  τὸ ἐξ οὗ γίνεταί τι 3.  ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς μεταβολῆς ἡ πρώτη 4.  τὸ οὗ ἕνεκα Basil. 1.  καθ᾽ ὅ:  i.e., the form or idea according to which a thing is made. 2.  ἐξ οὗ:  i.e., the matter out of which it is made. 3.  ὑφ᾽ οὗ:  i.e., the agent, using means. δι᾽ οὗ:  i.e. the means. 4.  δι᾽ ὅ:  i.e., the end. εν ᾧ, or sine quâ non, applying to all.  Or rather—for there seems no reason why we should not take up their whole argument, and briefly expose at once its incompatibility with the truth and its inconsistency with their own teaching—the students of vain philosophy, while expounding the manifold nature of cause and distinguishing its peculiar significations, define some causes as principal, προκαταρκτική.  cf. Plut. 2, 1056. B.D. προκαταρκτικὴ αἰτία ἡ εἱμαρμένη. some as cooperative or con-causal, while others are of the character of “sine qua non,” or indispensable. cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. viii. 9.  “Of causes some are principal, some preservative, some coöperative, some indispensable; e.g. of education the principal cause is the father; the preservative, the schoolmaster; the coöperative, the disposition of the pupil; the indispensable, time.”