Chapter VI.—Simon’s System Expounded in the Work, Great Announcement; Follows Empedocles.
Now, to express myself briefly, inasmuch as the fire is of this description, according to Simon, and since all things are visible and invisible, (and) in like manner resonant and not resonant, numerable and not subjects of numeration; he denominates in the Great Announcement a perfect intelligible (entity), after such a mode, that each of those things which, existing indefinitely, may be infinitely comprehended, both speaks, and understands, and acts in such a manner as Empedocles602 Emped., ed. Karst. v. 324. speaks of:—
“For earth, indeed, by earth we see, and water by water,
And air divine by air, and fire fierce by fire,
And love by love, and also strife by gloomy strife.”
[11] Τοιούτου δὲ ὄντος, ὡς δι' ὀλίγων εἰπεῖν, κατὰ τὸν Σίμωνα τοῦ πυρός, καὶ πάντων τῶν [μερῶν αὐτοῦ,] ὄντων ὁρατῶν καὶ ἀοράτων, ἐνήχων καὶ [ἀν]ήχων, ἀριθμητῶν καὶ [ἀν]αρίθμων, [φρόνησιν ἐχόντων]_ὧν αὐτὸς ἐν τῇ Ἀποφάσει τῇ μεγάλῃ καλεῖ τελείων νοερῶν_, [οὕτως ὡς] ἕκαστον τῶν ἀπειρά(κι)ς ἀπείρων [μερῶν ἐπιδέχεται] ἐπινοηθῆναι [ὡς] δυνάμενον καὶ λαλεῖν καὶ διανοεῖσθαι καὶ ἐνεργεῖν, οὕτως ὡς, φησίν, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς [λέγει]: γαίῃ μὲν γὰρ γαῖαν ὀπώπαμεν, ὕδατι δ' ὕδωρ, αἰθέρι δ' αἰθέρα [δῖον], ἀτὰρ πυρὶ πῦρ ἀίδηλον, καὶ [στοργῇ] στοργήν, νεῖκος [δ'] ἔτι νείκεϊ λυγρῷ.