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. But in both cases it is impossible that the
number of terms should be infinite. For terms of the former kind,
being intermediates, must have an end, and terms of the latter kind
change back into one another, for the destruction of either is the
generation of the other.
At the same time it is impossible that the first cause, being
eternal, should be destroyed; for since the process of becoming is not
infinite in the upward direction, that which is the first thing by
whose destruction something came to be must be non-eternal.
Further, the final cause is an end, and that sort of end which
is not for the sake of something else, but for whose sake everything
else is; so that if there is to be a last term of this sort, the
process will not be infinite; but if there is no such term, there will
be no final cause, but those who maintain the infinite series
eliminate the Good without knowing it (yet no one would try to do
anything if he were not going to come to a limit); nor would there
be reason in the world; the reasonable man, at least, always acts
for a purpose, and this is a limit; for the end is a limit.
But the essence, also, cannot be reduced to another definition
which is fuller in expression. For the original definition is always
more of a definition, and not the later one; and in a series in
which the first term has not the required character, the next has
not it either
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