MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY llTH AND 12TH CENTURIES 101 



solved in water, it is' not the element " earth " but the 

 " earthly," which is " part of the element," which is dissolved. 

 Therefore the elements of bodies are the particles and the 

 elements of the world are accounted for by their conjunctions 

 and mixtures. 



William raises two more questions which have the same 

 characteristic of relating the problem of how wholes are com- 

 pounded of parts and how intelligible principles are used to 

 structure sensible data, that is, how the incorporeal things of 

 understanding are related to the corporeal things of sensible 

 experience. They are the questions (1) of the composition of 

 the universe or of the bonds by which elements are joined 

 together in compounds and organisms and (2) of the origin 

 of the universe or whether the elements were formed from a 

 preexistent chaos or were present in the chaos. Both questions 

 raise issues which are philosophic in character about the 

 defining properties of elements which are qualitatively simple 

 and quantitatively minimum in kind, and about how they 

 " are " (corporeal or incorporeal) and " are understood " (sen- 

 sible or intellectual) . 



William's treatment of the structure of the universe is based 

 on Plato's demonstration that between extreme elements fire 

 and earth, two and not more than two elements, air and water, 

 are needed to establish the unity and cohesiveness of a uni- 

 verse.^* Plato's argument is that that which comes to be must 

 be corporeal and therefore visible and tangible, for the basic 

 proportion underlying his account of creation is that being is 

 to becoming as thought and reason are to opinion and sensa- 

 tion. William interprets Plato's statement that Divine Reason 

 ordained that the universe be so constructed as to be percep- 

 tible to sight and to touch as a consequence of the purpose in 

 creation that man should see even with his eyes in the creation 

 and government of things the divine power and wisdom and 

 goodness, should fear the power, venerate the wisdom, and 

 imitate the goodness. But sight is impossible without fire and 



''/?>irf., 31B-32C. 



