At this unexpected objection, not only Themistius, but the rest of the company appear’d not a little surpriz’d; but after a while Philoponus conceiving his opinion, as well as that of Aristotle, concern’d in that Objection, You cannot sure (sayes he to Carneades) propose this Difficulty; not to call it Cavill, otherwise then as an Exercise of wit, and not as laying any weight upon it. For how can that be separated from a thing that was not existent in it. When, for instance, a Refiner mingles Gold and Lead, and exposing this Mixture upon a Cuppell to the violence of the fire, thereby separates it into pure and refulgent Gold and Lead (which driven off together with the Dross of the Gold is thence call’d Lithargyrium Auri) can any man doubt that sees these two so differing substances separated from the Mass, that they were existent in it before it was committed to the fire.
I should (replies Carneades) allow your Argument to prove something, if, as Men see the Refiners commonly take before hand both Lead and Gold to make the Mass you speak of, so we did see Nature pull down a parcell of the Element of Fire, that is fancy’d to be plac’d I know not how many thousand Leagues off, contiguous to the Orb of the Moon, and to blend it with a quantity of each of the three other Elements, to compose every mixt Body, upon whose Resolution the Fire presents us with Fire, and Earth, and the rest. And let me add, Philoponus, that to make your Reasoning cogent, it must be first prov’d, that the fire do’s only take the Elementary Ingredients asunder, without otherwise altering them. For else ’tis obvious, that Bodies may afford substances which were not pre-existent in them;