Full Idea
Democritus thinks that the substances hold on to one another and remain together for a length of time until some stronger necessity arising from their surroundings shakes and disperses them.
Gist of Idea
Atoms cling together, until a stronger necessity disperses them
Source
report of Democritus (fragments/reports [c.431 BCE], A037) by Aristotle - On Democritus (frag)
Book Reference
Democritus: 'Early Greek Phil VII: Democritus', ed/tr. Laks,A/Most,G [Harvard Loeb 2016], p.89
A Reaction
[quoted in Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens] He's not wrong. This seems to provide a mechanism for the Heracltean flux. Ancient critics wanted to know where the 'stronger necessity' came from.
Related Idea
Idea 15149 Properties cluster together, either because of intrinsic relations, or because of an underlying process [Boyd, by Chakravartty]