STRANGER: And, again, the all becomes more than one, for being and the

whole will each have their separate nature.

THEAETETUS: Yes.

STRANGER: But if the whole does not exist at all, all the previous

difficulties remain the same, and there will be the further difficulty,

that besides having no being, being can never have come into being.

THEAETETUS: Why so?

STRANGER: Because that which comes into being always comes into being as

a whole, so that he who does not give whole a place among beings, cannot

speak either of essence or generation as existing.

THEAETETUS: Yes, that certainly appears to be true.

STRANGER: Again; how can that which is not a whole have any quantity?

For that which is of a certain quantity must necessarily be the whole of

that quantity.

THEAETETUS: Exactly.

STRANGER: And there will be innumerable other points, each of them

causing infinite trouble to him who says that being is either one or

two.

Sophist