(7) So then it is eternal and infinite and one and all alike. And it
cannot perish nor become greater, nor does it suffer pain or grief.
For, if any of these things happened to it, it would no longer be one.
For if it is altered, then the real must needs not be all alike, but
what was before must pass away, and what was not must come into being.
Now, if it changed by so much as a single hair in ten thousand years,
it would all perish in the whole of time.
Further, it is not possible either that its order should be changed;
for the order which it had before does not perish, nor does that which
was not come into being. But, since nothing is either added to it or
passes away or is altered, how can any real thing have had its order
changed? For if anything became different, that would amount to a
change in its order.
Nor does it suffer pain; for a thing in pain could not all be. For a
thing in pain could not be ever, nor has it the same power as what is
whole. Nor would it be alike, if it were in pain; for it is only from
the addition or subtraction of something that it could feel pain, and
then it would no longer be alike. Nor could what is whole feel pain;
for then what was whole and what was real would pass away, and what
was not would come into being. And the same argument applies to grief
as to pain.
Nor is anything empty. For what is empty is nothing. What is nothing
cannot be.
Nor does it move; for it has nowhere to betake itself to, but is full.
For if there were aught empty, it would betake itself to the empty.
But, since there is naught empty, it has nowhere to betake itself to.
And it cannot be dense and rare; for it is not possible for what is
rare to be as full as what is dense, but what is rare is at once
emptier than what is dense.
This is the way in which we must distinguish between what is full and
what is not full. If a thing has room for anything else, and takes it
in, it is not full; but if it has no room for anything and does not
take it in, it is full.
Now, it must needs be full if there is naught empty, and if it is
full, it does not move. R. P. 145.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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