(The former generate numbers out of the dyad of the
unequal, i.e. of the great and small, and the other thinker we have
referred to generates them out of plurality, while according to both
it is generated by the essence of the One.) For even the philosopher
who says the unequal and the One are the elements, and the unequal
is a dyad composed of the great and small, treats the unequal, or
the great and the small, as being one, and does not draw the
distinction that they are one in definition, but not in number. But
they do not describe rightly even the principles which they call
elements, for some name the great and the small with the One and treat
these three as elements of numbers, two being matter, one the form;
while others name the many and few, because the great and the small
are more appropriate in their nature to magnitude than to number;
and others name rather the universal character common to these-'that
which exceeds and that which is exceeded'. None of these varieties
of opinion makes any difference to speak of, in view of some of the
consequences; they affect only the abstract objections, which these
thinkers take care to avoid because the demonstrations they themselves
offer are abstract,-with this exception, that if the exceeding and the
exceeded are the principles, and not the great and the small,
consistency requires that number should come from the elements
before does; for number is more universal than as the exceeding and
the exceeded are more universal than the great and the small.
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