Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/124

Rh on the infinite lawlessness of nature: the  or  in the moral world was a limit imposed on the infinite lawlessness of passion.

13. To get a little further insight into this matter, let us consider the conception of the . This, I conceive, is equivalent to the limited. Now, let us ask what it is, in any case, that is limited? Perhaps you will say that it is the limited that is limited. But that would be an inept answer. What would be the sense of limiting the limited, the already limited? That would be a very superfluous process. Therefore, if the limit is to answer any purpose, it must be applied, not to the limited, but to the unlimited; and this, accordingly, is the way in which the Pythagoreans apply it. The limit is an element in the constitution of the limited; the unlimited being the other element.

14. Here is another way of putting the case. Take any instance of the limited, any bounded or limited thing, a book, for example. No one can say that the book is without limits. The limit, then, is certainly one element in its constitution. But is the limit the only element? Does the book consist of nothing but limits? That certainly cannot be maintained. There is something in the book besides its mere limits. What is that something? Is it the limited? Clearly it is not; because the limited is the total subject of our analysis; and, therefore, to