Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit

Again, of things on earth, sweet water is opposite to bitter, and barren to fertile land. Again, there are other things contrary to one another, as visible bodies to incorporeal, things endowed with vitality to things inanimate, rational to irrational, mortal to immortal, things discernible by the outward sense to things perceptible only by the intellect; [*](Numbers xvi. 48. ) [*](Genesis xv. 10. )

Again, grammatical knowledge is contrary to ignorance of the same subject, musical science to unacquaintance with music, an educated to an illiterate condition; and, in short, skill in art to want of skill. Again, in the different arts there are vocal elements and mute elements, there are sharp and flat sounds, there are straight and circular lines.

Once more, in animals and plants, there are some barren and some productive; some very prolific, others which yield but small increase; animals oviparous and animals viviparous; animals with soft skins, and others with hard shells; some wild and some tractable creatures; some fond of solitude, and others gregarious.

To go on further: poverty is opposite to wealth, glory to want of reputation, baseness of birth to nobility, want to abundance, war to peace, law to lawlessness, a bad to a good disposition, inactivity to labour, youth to old age, power to want of power, weakness to strength. And why need I enumerate every class separately, when these are unlimited and indescribable by reason of their multitude?