The Ancient Philosophers Have Advanced Together With Us

The ancient philosophers assert that the elements and those things which are called by them principles are contraries, though they establish them without reason. But there is no difference whether this is asserted of harmony, or of order, or composition; for it is evident that the same reasoning will apply to all these. A house also, a statue, and anything else are generated after a similar manner, for a house is generated not from the particulars from which it is composed, but from there being separated. If therefore this is true, whatever is generated is generated from contraries, and whatever is corrupted is corrupted into contraries as well.