Why then should sizes also be quantities? Probably because they
approximate quantities, and because we call quantities all objects that
contain quantities, even though we do not measure them with quantity in
itself. We call large what numerically participates in much; and small
what participates in little. Greatness and smallness are quantities,
not absolute, but relative; nevertheless the Aristotelians say that
they are relative quantities so far as they seem to be quantities.[252]
That is a question to be studied; for, in this doctrine, number is a
kind apart, while sizes would hold second rank; it is not exactly a
kind, but a category which gathers things which are near each other,
and which may hold first or second rank. As to us, we shall have to
examine if the Numbers which exist in themselves be only substances, or
if they be also quantities. In either case, there is nothing in common
between the Numbers of which we speak, and those which exist in things
which participate therein.[253]