Disputationes tres

do we ask, first, whether it exists, and then, how it happens.

THESIS I.

We affirm that those who dispute poorly about the manner of Mixture are those who establish that it occurs by the apposition of the smallest Atoms, with the mixables divided into the smallest corpuscles, which they say escape the senses.

II.

How great an Absurdity the opinion of these men presents is evident from the fact that this should be called composition rather than physical Mixture, especially since it is known that bodies are divisible to infinity. Nor will such a Mixture be any different from that in which someone mixes heaps of barley and wheat together.

III.

Since this is a Mixture improperly so-called, and is most different from physical Mixture, we rightly reject it, along with that of Democritus, as being akin and similar to it.

IIII.

If, furthermore, we were to concede that opinion of Democritus and of those who are of the same mind as him, Mixture would be estimated not by Nature but by sense. Whence it would follow that the same thing would appear mixed to one person, if they did not see sharply, but to a lynx-eyed person, it would not appear mixed.