Epinomis

daimons and gods alike¹ — to honor and to pray to above all. That he has been the cause for us of all the other good things as well, we would all agree; and that he also gave number, we, at least, say is really so, and moreover that he will also give it, if 977b one is willing to follow along. For if one comes to a right contemplation of him — whether it pleases someone to call him cosmos or olympus or heaven,² let him call him so, but let him follow where, adorning himself with variety and turning the stars within himself through all their courses, he provides seasons and nourishment for all. And the rest of intelligence too, as we would say, along with all number, and the other good things; but this is the greatest, if one receives his gift of numbers and goes through the whole circuit.

And again, going back a little, somehow, in our arguments, let us recall 977c that we thought quite rightly that if we were to take number out of human nature, we would never become intelligent in anything. For the soul of that living being, whichever one lacked reason, would hardly ever any longer take on all virtue; and a living being that did not know two and three, nor odd nor even, and was altogether ignorant of number, could never give an account of the things of which it had acquired only perceptions and memories; 977d but as for the rest of virtue, courage and temperance, nothing prevents it. But one deprived of true reason would never become wise;³ and one to whom wisdom did not belong, the greatest part of all virtue, would no longer ever become completely good, and so happy. Thus there is every necessity to lay down number as a foundation; but why this is necessary, the account of it would be still longer than all that has been said. But the present account too will be rightly said: that of what are called the other crafts as well, which we went through just now, allowing them all to be 977e crafts, not even one remains, but all of them are abandoned altogether, when someone does away with arithmetic.