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It is strange also to attribute generation to things that are
eternal, or rather this is one of the things that are impossible.
There need be no doubt whether the Pythagoreans attribute generation
to them or not; for they say plainly that when the one had been
constructed, whether out of planes or of surface or of seed or of
elements which they cannot express, immediately the nearest part of
the unlimited began to be constrained and limited by the limit. But
since they are constructing a world and wish to speak the language
of natural science, it is fair to make some examination of their
physical theorics, but to let them off from the present inquiry; for
we are investigating the principles at work in unchangeable things, so
that it is numbers of this kind whose genesis we must study.
4
These thinkers say there is no generation of the odd number, which
evidently implies that there is generation of the even; and some
present the even as produced first from unequals-the great and the
small-when these are equalized. The inequality, then, must belong to
them before they are equalized. If they had always been equalized,
they would not have been unequal before; for there is nothing before
that which is always. Therefore evidently they are not giving their
account of the generation of numbers merely to assist contemplation of
their nature
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