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For a definition is a sort of number; for (1) it is divisible, and
into indivisible parts (for definitory formulae are not infinite), and
number also is of this nature. And (2) as, when one of the parts of
which a number consists has been taken from or added to the number, it
is no longer the same number, but a different one, even if it is the
very smallest part that has been taken away or added, so the
definition and the essence will no longer remain when anything has
been taken away or added. And (3) the number must be something in
virtue of which it is one, and this these thinkers cannot state,
what makes it one, if it is one (for either it is not one but a sort
of heap, or if it is, we ought to say what it is that makes one out of
many); and the definition is one, but similarly they cannot say what
makes it one. And this is a natural result; for the same reason is
applicable, and substance is one in the sense which we have explained,
and not, as some say, by being a sort of unit or point; each is a
complete reality and a definite nature. And (4) as number does not
admit of the more and the less, neither does substance, in the sense
of form, but if any substance does, it is only the substance which
involves matter. Let this, then, suffice for an account of the
generation and destruction of so-called substances in what sense it is
possible and in what sense impossible--and of the reduction of
things to number
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