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.) But of series which are infinite in
this way, and of the infinite in general, all the parts down to that
now present are alike intermediates; so that if there is no first
there is no cause at all.
Nor can there be an infinite process downwards, with a beginning
in the upward direction, so that water should proceed from fire, earth
from water, and so always some other kind should be produced. For
one thing comes from another in two ways-not in the sense in which
'from' means 'after' (as we say 'from the Isthmian games come the
Olympian'), but either (i) as the man comes from the boy, by the boy's
changing, or (ii) as air comes from water. By 'as the man comes from
the boy' we mean 'as that which has come to be from that which is
coming to be' or 'as that which is finished from that which is being
achieved' (for as becoming is between being and not being, so that
which is becoming is always between that which is and that which is
not; for the learner is a man of science in the making, and this is
what is meant when we say that from a learner a man of science is
being made); on the other hand, coming from another thing as water
comes from air implies the destruction of the other thing. This is why
changes of the former kind are not reversible, and the boy does not
come from the man (for it is not that which comes to be something that
comes to be as a result of coming to be, but that which exists after
the coming to be; for it is thus that the day, too, comes from the
morning-in the sense that it comes after the morning; which is the
reason why the morning cannot come from the day); but changes of the
other kind are reversible
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