100 RICHARD MCKEON 



minds, know nothing unless they can comprehend it by sense, 

 but the investigations of the wise man must be concerned more 

 with insensible than with sensible things. The elements are 

 simple and minimum parts determined by simple, non-contra- 

 dictory qualities, as earth is by cold and dry. The parts which 

 are seen are composites in which one of the elementary particles 

 dominates, as the composite in which cold and dry particles 

 predominate is called earth. If one wishes to apply separate 

 names to the two, William says, the particles which are not 

 seen may be called the elements, elementa, and the particles 

 which are seen may be called the elemented, elevientata, prod- 

 ucts or mixtures of elements.'*^ Some philosophers who have 

 read neither the writings of Constantine nor those of any other 

 physicist say that the elements are the properties or qualities 

 of things which are seen, that is, dryness, coldness, dampness, 

 and heat. William uses quotations from Plato, Johannitius, and 

 Macrobius to prove that the qualities are in the elements, and 

 therefore, the elements are not the qualities. Other philosophers 

 say that things which are seen are elements, and William argues 

 that there is no contradiction between this position and that 

 of Constantine, although they treat two different kinds of 

 elements. Constantine treats the natures of bodies as a physi- 

 cist, and he calls the simple and minimum particles of bodies 

 " elements " in the sense of first principles. Philosophers who 

 investigate the creation of the world rather than the natures of 

 individual bodies call the four parts which are seen " elements " 

 because the world is composed of them and they were created 

 first. If it is said that these are not elements, because they are 

 made of the four elements, and earth, for example, contains 

 some water, and that Plato asks how one is to decide during 

 the transmutation of elements whether to call it earth or 

 water,*' William's reply is that the earth in question is some- 

 thing porous and saturated with water, and even if it is dis- 



"Cf. Tlieodore Silverstein, " Elementatum: its appearance among the Twelfth 

 century Cosmogonists," Medieval Studies, XVI (1954) , pp. 156-162. 

 *■' Plato, Timaeus 49B-C. 



