"Substance" jest słowem wysoce metaforycznym (filozofia) i jednocześnie chemiczno-fizycznym (chemical/organic substance).

Dosłowne znaczenie:
In general: physical material in solid, liquid, or gaseous form, composed of one or more chemical elements derived from animal, mineral, or vegetable sources.
Barron's Dictionary of Marketing Terms

Przenośne znaczenie:
1. Essential nature; essence.
2. Gist; heart.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
A boy is the only known substance from which a man can be made.

Substance: Essential nature; essence.
http://www.dtl.org/trinity/misc/glossary.htm

The essence of this ministry is far more durable than that. It’s made out of different substance than that.
http://www.emissaries.org/transcript.php?id=74

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Note added at 11 hrs (2007-01-06 06:46:55 GMT)
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What the world does not see however, is that their spirit man is indeed **made from a different substance**.
http://www.revelationofjohn.com/Moses.html

[...] these children (are) so pretty that one might almost believe that they were **made from a different substance** than poor or middling children.
http://www.piranesia.net/baudelaire/spleen/19joujou.html

W końcu słownikowe tłumaczenie brzmi:
to be (made / cast) from a different mould.