Birlik Üzerine: Sayıların Kaynağı ve Yüce Bir

Now let us determine specifically concerning numbers. Because number is nothing other than the repetition of unity, let us first consider unity itself. Unity indeed penetrates every number most simply, and is the common measure, fountain, and origin of all numbers. It contains every number uniquely joined within itself, devoid of all multitude, always the same and immutable. Whence also, when multiplied by itself, it produces nothing but itself. It is indivisible and lacks all parts. If one were to imagine it being divided, it is not cut, but rather multiplied—namely, into unities. None of these unities, however, is greater or lesser than the whole unity, in the way a part is usually smaller than the whole. It is multiplied, therefore, not into parts, but into itself. For this reason, some have called it "concord," others "piety," and others "friendship," because it is so joined that it cannot be cut into parts. One is therefore the beginning and end of all things, having neither beginning nor end itself. Nothing is before one, and nothing is after one. One is the beginning of all things, and all things exist up to one, and beyond it there is nothing. All things that exist desire this "one," because all things proceeded from one; and so that they may all be the same, it is necessary to participate in that one. And just as all things proceeded from one into many, so all things that strive to return to that one from which they proceeded must cast off their multitude. Unity, therefore, is referred to the highest God, who, while being one and innumerable himself, nevertheless creates innumerable things from himself and contains them within himself. There is one God, one world for one God, one sun for one world, and also one phoenix in the world, one king among the bees, one leader in the flocks, one ruler in the herds; many other living things likewise venerate unity.