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CLASSICAL ESSAY |
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by Anaxagoras
All things were together infinite both in number and in smallness, -- for the small, too, was infinite. And when all things were together, none of them could be distinguished because of their smallness. For air and aether prevailed over all things, being both of them infinite; for amongst all things these are the greatest both in quantity and size. For air and aether are separated off from the mass that surrounds the world, and the surrounding mass is infinite in quantity. And since these things are so, we must suppose that there are contained many things and of all sorts in all (the worlds) that are brought together, germs of all things, with all sorts of shapes, and colors and savors, and that men have been formed in them, and the other animals that have life, and that these men have inhabited cities and cultivated fields, as with us; and that they have a sun and moon and the rest, as with us; and that their earth brings forth for them many things of all kinds, of which they gather together the best and use them for their dwellings. Thus much have I said with regard to separating off, but elsewhere too. ... As these thus revolve and are separated off by the force and speed. And the speed makes the force. And their speed is like nothing in speed of the things that are now among men, but in every way many times as quick. But before they were separated off, when all things were together, not even was any color distinguishable; for the mixture of all things prevented it, -- of the moist and of the dry, and the warm and the cold, and the light and dark [and much earth being in it], and of a multitude of innumerable germs in no way like each other. For none of the other things either is like any other. In everything there is a portion of everything except Nous, and there are some things in which there is Nous (mind) also. All other things partake in a portion of everything, while Nous is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone, itself by itself. For if it were not by itself, but were mixed with anything else, it would partake in all things if it were mixed with any; for in everything there is a portion of everything, as has been said by me in what goes before, and the things mixed with it would hinder it, so that it would have power over nothing in the same way that it has now being alone by itself. For it is the thinnest of all things and the purest, and it has all knowledge about everything and the greatest strength; and Nous has power over all things, both greater and smaller, that have life. And Nous had power over the whole revolution, so that it began to revolve in the beginning. And it began to revolve first from a small beginning; but the revolution now extends over a large space, and will extend over a larger still. And all the things that are mingled together and separated off and distinguished are all known by Nous. And Nous set in order all things that were to be and that were, and all things that are now and that are, and this revolution in which now revolve the stars and the sun and the moon, and the air and the aether that are separated off. And this revolution caused the separating off, and the rare is separated from the dense, the warm from the cold, the light from the dark; and the dry from the moist. And there are many portions in many things. But no thing is altogether separated off nor distinguished from anything else except Nous. And all Nous is alike, both the greater and the smaller; while nothing else is like anything else, but each single thing is and was most manifestly those things of which it has most in it. And when Nous began to move things, separating off took place from all that was moved, and so far as Nous set in motion all was separated. And as things were set in motion and separated, the revolution caused them to be separated much more. The dense and the moist and the cold and the dark came together where the earth is now, while the rare and the warm and the dry (and the bright) went out towards the further part of the aether. From these as they are separated off earth is solidified: for from mists water is separated off, and from water earth. From the earth stones are solidified by the cold, and these rush outwards more than water. But Nous has power over all things that are, and it is now where all the other things are, in the mass that surrounds the world, and in the things that have separated off and that are being separated off. Nor are the things that are in one world divided nor cut off from one another with a hatchet, neither the warm from the cold nor the cold from the warm. And when those things are being thus distinguished, we must know that all of them are neither more nor less; for it is not possible for them to be more than all, and all are always equal. Nor is there a least of what is small, but there is always a smaller; for it is impossible that what is should cease to be by being divided. But there is always something greater than what is great, and it is equal to the small in amount, and, compared with itself, each thing is both great and small. And since the portions of the great and of the small are equal in amount, for this reason, too, all things will be in everything; nor is it possible for them to be apart, but all things have a portion of everything. Since it is impossible for there to be a least thing, they cannot be separated, nor come to be by themselves; but they must be now, just as they were in the beginning, all together. And in all things many things are contained, and an equal number both in the greater and in the smaller of the things that are separated off. The Hellenes are wrong in using the expressions coming into being and passing away; for nothing comes into being or passes away, but mingling and separation takes place of things that are. So they would be right to call coming into being mixture, and passing away separation. The earth is flat in shape, and remains suspended because of its size and because there is no vacuum. For this reason the air is very strong, and supports the earth which is borne up by it. Of the moisture on the surface of the earth, the sea arose from the waters in the earth, . . . and from the rivers which flow into it. Rivers take their being both from the rams and from the waters in the earth; for the earth is hollow, and has waters in its cavities. And the Nile rises in summer owing to the water that comes down from the snows in Ethiopia. The sun and the moon and all the stars are fiery stones ignited by the rotation of the aether. Under the stars are the sun and moon, and also certain bodies which revolve with them, but are invisible to us. We do not feel the heat of the stars because of the greatness of their distance from the earth; and, further, they are not so warm as the sun, because they occupy a colder region. The moon is below the sun, and nearer to us. The sun surpasses the Peloponnesos in size. The moon has not a light of her own, but gets it from the sun. The course of the stars goes under the earth. The moon is eclipsed by the earth screening the suns light from it. The sun is eclipsed at the new moon, when the moon screens it from us. Both the sun and the moon turn in their courses owing to the repulsion of the air. The moon turns frequently, because it cannot prevail over the cold. |
The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy
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