How then can we conceive the infinite? By making abstraction of form
by thought. How will it be conceived? We may conceive of the infinite
as simultaneously being the contraries, and not being them. It will
have to be conceived as being simultaneously great and small; for the
infinite becomes both of these.[6] It may also be conceived as both
being moved, and being stable[7]; for the infinite becomes these two
things also. But before the infinite becomes these two contraries,
it is neither of them in any determinate manner; otherwise, you
would have determined it. By virtue of its nature, the infinite is
these things therefore in an indeterminate and infinite manner;
only on this condition will it appear to be these contrary things.
If, by applying your thought to the infinite, you do not entice
it into a determination, as into a net, you will see the infinite
escaping you, and you will not find anything in it that would be a
unity; otherwise, you would have determined it. If you represented
to yourself the infinite as a unity, it would seem to you manifold;
if you say that it is manifold, it will again make game of you; for,
all things do not form a manifold where no one thing is one. From
still another standpoint, the nature of the infinite is movement, and
according to another nature, stability; for its property of being
invisible by itself constitutes a movement which distinguishes it from
intelligence[8]; its property of not being able to escape, of being
exteriorly embraced, of being circumscribed within an unescapable
circle constitutes a sort of stability. Movement therefore cannot be
predicated of infinity, without also attributing stability to it.