Book 3
1.75
And of all the gods in heaven the earth is the oldest. And it was fashioned to make night and day. And being at the centre it moves round the centre.Cf. Plato, Tim. 40 b, c. And since there are two causes, it must be affirmed, he says, that some things are due to reason and others have a necessary cause,Cf. Plato, Tim. 46 d, e; 47 e; 48 a; 68 e; 69 a. the latter being air, fire, earth and water, which are not exactly elements but rather recipients of form.Cf. Plato, Tim. 49 a sqq.; 50 b-51 b; 52 a, b. They are composed of triangles, and are resolved into triangles. The scalene triangle and the isosceles triangle are their constituent elements.Cf. Plato, Tim. 53 c-55 c.
1.76
The principles, then, and causes assumed are the two above mentioned, of which God and matter are the exemplar. Matter is of necessity formless like the other recipients of form. Of all these there is a necessary cause. For it somehow or other receives the ideas and so generates substances, and it moves because its power is not uniform, and, being in motion, it in turn sets in motion those things which are generated from it. And these were at first in irrational and irregular motion, but after they began to frame the universe, under the conditions possible they were made by God symmetrical and regular.
