In respect of relation there is no proper change; for,
without changing, a thing will be now greater and now less or equal,
if that with which it is compared has changed in quantity. And (c) the
matter of each thing, and therefore of substance, must be that which
is potentially of the nature in question; but the relative is
neither potentially nor actually substance. It is strange, then, or
rather impossible, to make not-substance an element in, and prior
to, substance; for all the categories are posterior to substance.
Again, (d) elements are not predicated of the things of which they are
elements, but many and few are predicated both apart and together of
number, and long and short of the line, and both broad and narrow
apply to the plane. If there is a plurality, then, of which the one
term, viz. few, is always predicated, e.g. 2 (which cannot be many,
for if it were many, 1 would be few), there must be also one which
is absolutely many, e.g. 10 is many (if there is no number which is
greater than 10), or 10,000. How then, in view of this, can number
consist of few and many? Either both ought to be predicated of it,
or neither; but in fact only the one or the other is predicated.
2
We must inquire generally, whether eternal things can consist of
elements. If they do, they will have matter; for everything that
consists of elements is composite. Since, then, even if a thing exists
for ever, out of that of which it consists it would necessarily
also, if it had come into being, have come into being, and since
everything comes to be what it comes to be out of that which is it
potentially (for it could not have come to be out of that which had
not this capacity, nor could it consist of such elements), and since
the potential can be either actual or not,-this being so, however
everlasting number or anything else that has matter is, it must be
capable of not existing, just as that which is any number of years old
is as capable of not existing as that which is a day old; if this is
capable of not existing, so is that which has lasted for a time so
long that it has no limit.
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