Plato, Philebus, section 23c

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[23c] in making our beginning.

Protarchus
What kind of a beginning do you mean?

Socrates
Let us divide all things that now exist in the universe into two, or rather, if you please, three classes.

Protarchus
Please tell us on what principle you would divide them.

Socrates
Let us take some of the subjects of our present discussion.

Protarchus
What subjects?

Socrates
We said that God revealed in the universe two elements, the infinite and the finite, did we not?

Protarchus
Certainly.

Socrates
Let us, then, assume these as two of our classes, and a third, made by combining these two.

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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