登陆注册
15400000000009

第9章

Every body must necessarily be either finite or infinite, and if infinite, either of similar or of dissimilar parts.If its parts are dissimilar, they must represent either a finite or an infinite number of kinds.That the kinds cannot be infinite is evident, if our original presuppositions remain unchallenged.For the primary movements being finite in number, the kinds of simple body are necessarily also finite, since the movement of a simple body is simple, and the simple movements are finite, and every natural body must always have its proper motion.Now if the infinite body is to be composed of a finite number of kinds, then each of its parts must necessarily be infinite in quantity, that is to say, the water, fire, &c., which compose it.But this is impossible, because, as we have already shown, infinite weight and lightness do not exist.

Moreover it would be necessary also that their places should be infinite in extent, so that the movements too of all these bodies would be infinite.But this is not possible, if we are to hold to the truth of our original presuppositions and to the view that neither that which moves downward, nor, by the same reasoning, that which moves upward, can prolong its movement to infinity.For it is true in regard to quality, quantity, and place alike that any process of change is impossible which can have no end.I mean that if it is impossible for a thing to have come to be white, or a cubit long, or in Egypt, it is also impossible for it to be in process of coming to be any of these.It is thus impossible for a thing to be moving to a place at which in its motion it can never by any possibility arrive.

Again, suppose the body to exist in dispersion, it may be maintained none the less that the total of all these scattered particles, say, of fire, is infinite.But body we saw to be that which has extension every way.How can there be several dissimilar elements, each infinite? Each would have to be infinitely extended every way.

It is no more conceivable, again, that the infinite should exist as a whole of similar parts.For, in the first place, there is no other (straight) movement beyond those mentioned: we must therefore give it one of them.And if so, we shall have to admit either infinite weight or infinite lightness.Nor, secondly, could the body whose movement is circular be infinite, since it is impossible for the infinite to move in a circle.This, indeed, would be as good as saying that the heavens are infinite, which we have shown to be impossible.

Moreover, in general, it is impossible that the infinite should move at all.If it did, it would move either naturally or by constraint:

and if by constraint, it possesses also a natural motion, that is to say, there is another place, infinite like itself, to which it will move.But that is impossible.

That in general it is impossible for the infinite to be acted upon by the finite or to act upon it may be shown as follows.

(1.The infinite cannot be acted upon by the finite.) Let A be an infinite, B a finite, C the time of a given movement produced by one in the other.Suppose, then, that A was heated, or impelled, or modified in any way, or caused to undergo any sort of movement whatever, by in the time C.Let D be less than B; and, assuming that a lesser agent moves a lesser patient in an equal time, call the quantity thus modified by D, E.Then, as D is to B, so is E to some finite quantum.We assume that the alteration of equal by equal takes equal time, and the alteration of less by less or of greater by greater takes the same time, if the quantity of the patient is such as to keep the proportion which obtains between the agents, greater and less.If so, no movement can be caused in the infinite by any finite agent in any time whatever.For a less agent will produce that movement in a less patient in an equal time, and the proportionate equivalent of that patient will be a finite quantity, since no proportion holds between finite and infinite.

(2.The infinite cannot act upon the finite.) Nor, again, can the infinite produce a movement in the finite in any time whatever.

Let A be an infinite, B a finite, C the time of action.In the time C, D will produce that motion in a patient less than B, say F.Then take E, bearing the same proportion to D as the whole BF bears to F.E

同类推荐
  • 天工开物

    天工开物

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 子雍如禅师语录

    子雍如禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 上方大洞真元妙经品

    上方大洞真元妙经品

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说作佛形像经

    佛说作佛形像经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 奉使京西

    奉使京西

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 刀剑桐子传

    刀剑桐子传

    一条奇怪的信息使桐谷和人穿越到异世界‖之后被娘化‖此时这个世界正发生人吃人惨案,但是更加非你所思的事情是!出现了另一个世界的桐人!
  • 精灵城

    精灵城

    一只不安本分的黑暗鸦,牵起黑暗帷幕的一角;一位辞乡廿载的神秘客,扯开神秘组织的谋图;一段珍藏数月的诡异画,引发诡异难测的迷局。一个追逐梦想的少年郎,踏上复杂多变的征途,迷惘与抉择,困惑和取舍,他将如何登上那个巅峰?欢迎点击阅读小说《精灵城》。
  • 开天辟地:天启

    开天辟地:天启

    各位大哥进来嘛!~~***************************************
  • 欲擒心

    欲擒心

    顾墨筠一直嫌弃我,于是我重生后的第一件大事便是……把他给办了!结果,上辈子的故事全都变了走向……这是一个糙妹子“扮猪吃虎”搞定冰山腹黑帝的故事。
  • 守望大唐

    守望大唐

    由于军阀割据四方,民不聊生,下层百姓纷纷起而反抗,农民战争遍布全国。在反隋斗争中,各地起义军逐渐汇集成、孙文.许颜领导的瓦岗军,方德领导的河北起义军和茅兴邦领导的江淮起义军。三大反隋主力转战中原、河北和江淮地区,极大地动摇了隋朝统治基础,造成了隋王朝总体崩溃形势。在这种形势下,统治阶级内部逐渐形成策划起兵的新动向,分崩离析,各自寻谋出路。
  • TFboys:长安陌笙

    TFboys:长安陌笙

    他们和她们,是最美好的相见。他们拥有彼此,已是千城殇。他们拥有一个,猜不透的未来。
  • 都市唐僧

    都市唐僧

    范强失恋,轻生跳海,恰巧遇见来尘世历练的佛主,见其万世之前竟是与自己有些因果,故而出手相救,将一佛珠赐下,令范强重生。重获新生的范强,却是发现一切都回不到以前,因为无数的妖魔鬼怪闻风而来,都是为了他体内的那颗佛珠,他竟然成了如唐僧一般的存在,真是·····
  • 青云仙侠记

    青云仙侠记

    身世可怜的少年,谱写一部仙侠传奇。我哭,谁与我共劝慰?我笑,谁与我共开怀我悲,当如何对你们。我痴,谁解我心结?倘若我恨,我当如何??人活着有些事,做了就要承担责任,我不悔
  • 刺杀穿越者

    刺杀穿越者

    穿越成为大家族弃少,四岁展露魔法天赋,五岁进入魔法学院,八岁毕业,十岁发明火药,十八岁就成为大将军率军横扫敌国……真是一出爽到爆炸的狗血无敌穿越争霸故事啊,然而……常安并不是这个故事的主角,作为一名穿越者杀手,常安的任务,便是在这位穿越者对世界的平衡造成更大破坏之前,将其刺杀!
  • 金匮钩玄

    金匮钩玄

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。