Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3 / In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods

by Plotinus

REFUTATION OF ANAXAGORAS AND DEMOCRITUS.

1. The subject of the present consideration is mixture to the point of total penetration of the different bodies. This has been explained in two ways: that the two liquids are mingled so as mutually to interpenetrate each other totally, or that only one of them penetrates the other. The difference between these two theories is of small importance. First we must set aside the opinion of (Anaxagoras and Democritus[58]), who explain mixture as a juxtaposition, because this is a crude combination, rather than a mixture.[59] Mixture should render the whole homogeneous, so that even the smallest molecules might each be composed of the various elements of the mixture.