"(Numbers) are in the (Monad) causally because it subsists as the beginning of all numbers, and in it all are one and simply indivisible, that is, in a universal and multiple mode, in the reason only, but not in act and operation; nor is the one an aggregate of many, but one deriving from its singularity (which is) both simple and multiple, so that both all numbers are in it all at once and simple, as in their cause, and it itself is understood (to be) in them all multiplied by an ineffable distribution, as their substance. For it is the cause and the substance of all numbers, and while it does not relinquish the stability of its own nature it pours itself out as multiplicity into all; and they subsist in it eternally because their beginning in it is not in time. For there was not (ever) unity without the manifold reasons of all the numbers. For who among men of clear intelligence would say that the Monad had had a beginning when he knows that it extends into infinity? For how can an infinite progression arise out of a finite beginning? For the infinite proceeds from the infinite [but nothing infinite from the finite]."
