t more of one quality than another.

But is it in this alone, that this excellent man shows himself--

To others a physician, whilst himself
Is full of ulcers?
(Euripides, Frag. 1071.)

No indeed; but yet much farther in his second reprehension, without any
way minding it, he drives Epicurus and Democritus out of this life. For
he affirms that the statement of Democritus--that the atoms are to the
senses color by a certain human law or ordinance, that they are by the
same law sweetness, and by the same law concretion--is at war with our
senses, and that he who uses this reason and persists in this opinion
cannot himself imagine whether he is living or dead. I know not how to
contradict this discourse; but this I can boldly affirm, that this is
as inseparable from the sentences and doctrines of Epicurus as they say
figure and weight are from atoms. For what is it that Democritus says?
"There are substances, in number infinite, called atoms (because
they cannot be divided), without difference, without quality, and
passibility, which move, being dispersed here and there, in the infinite
voidness; and that when they approach one another, or meet and are
conjoined, of such masses thus heaped together, one appears water,
another fire, another a plant, another a man; and that all things are
thus properly atoms (as he called them), and nothing else; for there is
no generation from what does not exist; and of those things which are
nothing can be generated, because these atoms are so firm, that they can
neither change, alter, nor suffer; wherefore there cannot be made color
of those things which are without color, nor nature or soul of those
things which are without quality and impassible." Democritus then is
to be blamed, not for confessing those things that happen upon his
principles, but for supposing principles upon which such things happen.
For he should not have supposed immutable principles; or having supposed
them, he should have seen that the generation of all quality is taken
away; but having seen the absurdity, to deny it is most impudent. But
Epicurus says, that he supposes the same principles with Democritus, but
that he says not that color, sweet, white, and other qualities, are
by law and ordinance. If therefore NOT TO SAY is the same as NOT TO
CONFESS, he does merely what he is wont to do. For it is as when, taking
away divine Providence, he nevertheless says that he leaves piety and
devotion to