All matter contains within it something like a "potency of life"; that's Milton's phrase. It has a capacity for action, actually a capacity for motion, and, just as books can take on a life of their own in Areopagitica, so all matter for later Milton.

所有物质都更包含一种类似“生命的潜质“的东西;,这是弥尔顿的原话，所有物质都有行动的可能,运动的可能，正如《论出版自由》中书籍可以有自己的,生命一样，晚年的弥尔顿相信一切物质都是这样。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选