22. R. Attend therefore to the few things that remain. A. Bring forth whatever thou hast, if only it be such as I can understand, and I will willingly agree. R. We do not forget, that to say that anything is in anything, is capable of a double sense. It may mean that it is so in such a sense as that it can also be disjoined and be elsewhere, as this wood in this place, or the sun in the East. Or it may mean anything is so in a subject, that it cannot be separated from it, as in this wood the shape and visible appearance, as in the sun the light, as in fire heat, as in the mind discipline, and such like. Or seems it otherwise to thee? A. These distinctions are indeed most thoroughly familiar to us, and from early youth most studiously made an element of thought; wherefore, if asked about these, I must needs grant the position at once. R. But do you not concede that if the subject do not abide, that which is in the subject cannot inseparably abide? A. This also I see necessary: for, the subject remaining, that which is in the subject may possibly not remain, as any one with a little thought can perceive. Since the color of this body of mine may, by reason of health or age, suffer change, though the body has not yet perished. And this is not equally true of all things, but of those whose coexistence with the subject is not necessary to the existence of the subject. For it is not necessary that this wall, in order to be a wall, should be of this color, which we see in it; for even if, by some chance, it should become black or white, or should undergo some other change of color, it would nevertheless remain a wall and be so called. But if fire were without heat, it will not even be fire; nor can we talk of snow except as being white.

CAPUT XII. Quot modis quaedam sint in alio.

22. R. Ergo attende pauca quae restant. A. Profer si quid habes, modo tale sit quod intelligam, libenterque concedam. R. Esse aliquid in aliquo, non nos fugit duobus modis dici. Uno quo ita est, ut etiam sejungi atque alibi esse possit, ut hoc lignum in hoc loco, ut sol in oriente: altero autem quo ita est aliquid in subjecto, ut ab eo nequeat separari, ut in hoc ligno forma et species quam videmus, ut in sole lux, ut in igne calor, ut in animo disciplina, et si qua sunt alia similia. An tibi aliter videtur? A. Ista quidem vetustissima sunt nobis, et ab ineunte adolescentia studiosissime percepta et cognita: quare non possum de his interrogatus, quin ea sine ulla deliberatione concedam. R. Quid illud? nonne concedis, quod in subjecto est inseparabiliter, si subjectum ipsum non maneat, manere non posse? A. Hoc quoque video necessarium; nam manente subjecto, posse id quod in subjecto est non manere, quisquis diligenter res advertit, intelligit. Siquidem hujus corporis color potest vel valetudinis ratione vel aetate immutari, cum ipsum corpus necdum interierit. Et hoc non peraeque in omnibus valet, sed in his in quibus, non ut sint ipsa subjecta, ea quae in subjectis sunt coexistunt. Non enim ut sit iste paries, paries hoc colore fit, quem in eo videmus; cum etiam si quo casu nigrescat aut albescat, vel aliquem alium mutet colorem, nihilominus tamen maneat paries ac dicatur. At vero ignis si calore 0896 careat, ne ignis quidem erit; nec nivem vocare, nisi candidam, possumus.