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. But each of the other thinkers agrees that the element of
corporeal things is of this sort. At least none of those who named one
element claimed that earth was the element, evidently because of the
coarseness of its grain. (Of the other three elements each has found
some judge on its side; for some maintain that fire, others that
water, others that air is the element. Yet why, after all, do they not
name earth also, as most men do? For people say all things are earth
Hesiod says earth was produced first of corporeal things; so primitive
and popular has the opinion been.) According to this argument, then,
no one would be right who either says the first principle is any of
the elements other than fire, or supposes it to be denser than air but
rarer than water. But (2) if that which is later in generation is
prior in nature, and that which is concocted and compounded is later
in generation, the contrary of what we have been saying must be
true,-water must be prior to air, and earth to water.
So much, then, for those who posit one cause such as we mentioned;
but the same is true if one supposes more of these, as Empedocles says
matter of things is four bodies. For he too is confronted by
consequences some of which are the same as have been mentioned,
while others are peculiar to him. For we see these bodies produced
from one another, which implies that the same body does not always
remain fire or earth (we have spoken about this in our works on
nature); and regarding the cause of movement and the question
whether we must posit one or two, he must be thought to have spoken
neither correctly nor altogether plausibly
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