That this will be a real exchange of philosophies is indicated from the first. The part of the narrator is first taken by both voices, but when the text says that the philosophers are talking among themselves, the vocal lines alternate, instead. Throughout, the philosophers notice the same things, and describe them in tight-knit duets, but their lines alternate when they describe the best reactions: laughter or tears, flight or death.

While the Baroque era had much of the Renaissance's reverence for classical mythology, philosophy, and arts, the philosopher Heraclitus was far more often treated as a comic figure than a serious thinker. (Barbara Strozzi's Eraclito amoroso is the best-known example.)

As usual, here Heraclitus is the languishing lover, and his doleful laments, usually in the minor, are answered by Democritus' cheerful major responses. In the opening mini-duet that becomes the recurrent refrain, for example, Democritus' lines imitate laughter, as he declares that the ways of love are laughable, but Heraclitus' imitate tears. The accompaniment, too, is cheerful and dance-like for Democritus, halting for Heraclitus. While it is a fairly rudimentary technique, the consistency of its use points towards characterization in musical drama, rather than the often generic expression of emotion that typically dominates such cantatas.

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