[153b]
“Yes.” “The one, therefore, has come into being first of all things that have number; but all others also have number, if they are others and not an other.” “They have.” “And since it came into being first, it came into being, I suppose, before the others, and the others later; but things which have come into being later are younger than that which came into being before them and thus the other things would be younger than the one, and the one older than the other things.” “Yes, they would.”“Here is another question: Can the one have come into being contrary to its own nature, or is that impossible?” “It is impossible.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.
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