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. 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.
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