Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​And these are indivisible and unchangeable, if indeed not all things are to be destroyed into non-existence, but are to have the strength to endure in the dissolutions of compounds, being full in nature, as having neither where nor how they will be dissolved. So that it is necessary that the first principles be indivisible natures of bodies. "Moreover, the universe is infinite. For that which is bounded has an extreme point; and the extreme point is observed next to something else; 〈and the universe is not observed next to something else;〉 so that, having no extreme point, it has no limit; and having no limit, it must be infinite and not bounded. "Furthermore, the universe is infinite both in the multitude of bodies and in the magnitude of the void.

​For if the void were infinite and the bodies bounded, the bodies would not remain anywhere, but would be borne scattered throughout the infinite void, having nothing to support or check them by rebounds; and if the void were bounded, the infinite bodies would not have where to be. "In addition to these points, the indivisible and solid constituents of bodies, from which compounds also come into being and into which they are dissolved, are incomprehensible in the differences of their shapes; for it is not possible that so many differences should arise from the same comprehended shapes. And in each shaping, those that are similar are simply infinite, but in their differences they are not simply

​infinite, but only incomprehensible, 〔for he says further on that division does not occur to infinity; and he says this because qualities change, if one is not also simply going to expand them to infinity in sizes〕. "And the atoms move continuously throughout eternity—〔and he says further on that they move at equal speed, since the void offers the same yield both to the lightest and to the heaviest〕—and some of them diverge to a great distance from one another, while others retain their vibration on the spot, whenever they happen to be confined by intertwining or enclosed by intertwining atoms.

​For both the nature of the void, which demarcates each atom, brings this about, being incapable of providing support; and the solid hardness inherent in them produces the rebound in collision, to whatever extent the intertwining allows recovery from the collision. And of these movements there is no beginning, the atoms and the void being eternal. 〔And he says further on that there is no quality belonging to the atoms except shape, size, and weight; and that color changes depending on the position of the atoms, as he says in the Twelve Elementary Expositions; and that not every size belongs to them, for at any rate an atom has never been seen by sense-perception.〕

"Now, this much utterance provides a sufficient outline for reflections concerning the nature of things, if all these points are remembered. "Moreover, worlds are infinite, both those like this one and those unlike it. For since the atoms are infinite, as has just been demonstrated, they are carried even to the furthest distance. For such atoms, from which a world might come into being or by which it might be made, have not been used up, neither upon a single world nor upon a finite number of them, neither upon all such as this one nor upon all such as are different from it. So that there is nothing that will stand in the way of the infinity of worlds.

"Furthermore, there are outlines having the same shape as solid bodies, far surpassing phenomenal objects in thinness. For it is not impossible either that such combinations should come to be in the surrounding space, or that aptitudes for the fabrication of cavities and thinnesses should occur, or that effluences should occur which preserve the sequential position and motion which they held in solid bodies; and these outlines we call images. Moreover, motion through the void, occurring without any encounter with resisting bodies, accomplishes every comprehended length in an unimaginable time. For resistance and non-resistance assume the likeness of slowness and swiftness.