Sextus Empiricus: Physics 377
would be either ungenerable, like the atom ofEpicurus, or generable, like
a man, and either visible, like iron or fire, or invisible, like the atom. But
whichever one of these it would be, it would not be able to produce any
effect. 220. For it produces something else [the effect] either while it
remains by itself or when it it joined with another thing. But while
remaining by itself, it would not be able to produce an effect in something
other than itself and its own nature; and when joining with another thing,
it would not be able to produce some third thing which was not pre-
viously in existence. For neither is one thing able to become two nor are
two able to produce a third. 221. For if one thing were able to become
two, each of the things which have become, being one, would produce
two, and of the four that have [now] come to be, each of these, being
one, would produce two, and similarly for each of the eight that have
[now] come to be, and so on to infinity. But it is completely absurd to
hold that from one thing an infinite number of things should come to
be and therefore it is absurd to hold that from one thing more [than one]
should come to be.
- The same [objections] hold if someone should think that more
are produced from less by conjunction. For if one joining with one causes
a third thing to be, the third added to the two will produce a fourth,
and the fourth added to the three will produce a fifth, and so on to
infinity. Therefore, body is not the cause of body. - Further, for the same reasons, the non-bodily is not the cause of
the non-bodily. For nothing more can come to be from one or from more
than one. Furthermore, that which is non-bodily, being an intangible
nature, is not able to produce or experience anything. 224. So, the non-
bodily is not able to be productive of the non-bodily. And in this way
the opposite is also not possible, namely, that a body be productive of
the non-bodily or the non-bodily of a body. For the body does not have
in it the nature of the non-bodily nor did the non-bodily contain the
nature of the body. Therefore, neither is able to be constituted out of
the other. 225. But just as a horse does not come to be from a plane-
tree owing to the fact that the nature of the horse is not in the plane-
tree, nor is a man able to come to be from a horse owing to the fact that
the nature of man is not in a horse, so the non-bodily will never come
to be from a body owing to the fact that the body does not contain the
nature of the non-bodily; nor, conversely, will a body ever come to be
from the non-bodily. 226. Yet even if the one does exist in the other,
still one will not come to be from the other. For if each has being, it
will not come to be from the other, but is already in existence, and since
it is already in existence, it will not come to be owing to the fact that