They also disagree concerning body: Is it composed of individual substances (1) that admit no division, as many theologians maintain; is it composed of matter and form, as many philosophers maintain; or is it composed of neither the one nor the other, as many groups maintain? These are three positions, the soundest of which is the third.

The proponents of each of these three positions also disagree over whether body admits division without end. The correct view is that it does not admit endless division. Those who affirm the indivisible atom, however, say that division ultimately reaches a limit which, while it exists, admits no further division. This is not so. Rather, when parts are reduced sufficiently in size, they undergo transformation. Thus, when particles of water are reduced in size (2), they are transformed and become (3) air. As long as a thing exists, one side of it (4) remains distinguishable from another. Nothing exists whose parts cannot be distinguished from one another, as those who affirm the indivisible atom maintain. Nor can it be divided endlessly. Rather, when it becomes sufficiently small (5), it no longer admits actual division in external reality, even though one part of it remains distinct from another (6). Indeed, when it is subjected (7) to division or the like, it is transformed.

Thus, however exceedingly small such particles may be, one portion remains distinguishable from another intrinsically, by sensory perception, and by reason. Yet one portion cannot be separated from another by being split apart; instead, the particle disintegrates and is transformed because its constitution is too weak to withstand this. A fuller treatment of this belongs elsewhere.