This inquiry is universal; but that the infinite is not among
sensible things, is evident from the following argument. If the
definition of a body is 'that which is bounded by planes', there
cannot be an infinite body either sensible or intelligible; nor a
separate and infinite number, for number or that which has a number is
numerable. Concretely, the truth is evident from the following
argument. The infinite can neither be composite nor simple. For (a) it
cannot be a composite body, since the elements are limited in
multitude. For the contraries must be equal and no one of them must be
infinite; for if one of the two bodies falls at all short of the other
in potency, the finite will be destroyed by the infinite. And that
each should be infinite is impossible. For body is that which has
extension in all directions, and the infinite is the boundlessly
extended, so that if the infinite is a body it will be infinite in
every direction. Nor (b) can the infinite body be one and
simple-neither, as some say, something apart from the elements, from
which they generate these (for there is no such body apart from the
elements; for everything can be resolved into that of which it
consists, but no such product of analysis is observed except the
simple bodies), nor fire nor any other of the elements. For apart from
the question how any of them could be infinite, the All, even if it is
finite, cannot either be or become any one of them, as Heraclitus says
all things sometime become fire.
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