[3] i.e. Not capable of parts.
[4] Dr. Young, in his Night Thoughts.
[5] See book the second, of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.
[6] Ennead vi. lib. vii.
[7] In his commentary on the 2d, 12th, and 13th books of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, page 60. A Latin translation only of this invaluable work is extant; but I have fortunately a copy in my possession, with the version every where corrected by the learned Thomas Gale, and with large extracts from the Greek.
[8] See Proclus on Plato’s Theology, p. 226.
[9] Ennead vi. lib. 6.
[10] In giving monadic number a subsistence in opinion, I have followed the distribution of Proclus, in the conclusion of his comment on a point; and, I think, not without sufficient reason. For since monadic numbers are more immaterial than geometrical lines and figures, they must have a more immaterial subsistence. But as they are correspondent to matter, they cannot reside in the essential reasons of the soul; nor can they subsist in the phantasy, because they are superior to geometrical figures. It remains, therefore, that we must place them between διάνοια or cogitation, and the phantasy; and this middle situation is that of opinion. For cogitation, which Plato defines, in his Sophista, to be an inward discourse, without voice, is an energy of the rational soul, extending itself from propositions to conclusions. And, according to Plato, in the same place, opinion is the silent affirmation, or negation of διάνοια, or thought. Hence, says he, “opinion is the conclusion of cogitation; but imagination, the mutual mixture of sense and opinion.” So that opinion may, with great propriety, be said to contain monadic number, to which it bears the proportion of matter. And hence the reason is obvious, why the Pythagoreans called the duad opinion.
Ἄτροπον, ἀκαμάτον Δεκάδα κλείουσιν μιν ἁγιὴν,