T 11. Anaximander held that the Unlimited is the first-principle and is eternal, without age, and that it encompasses all the worlds; moreover that it is in perpetual activity, and that out of its activity the worlds have originated.
T 9. Those who believed in an unlimited number of worlds(words), as Anaximander and his associates did, regarded them as coming-to-be and passing away throughout unlimited time. There are always some worlds in process of coming to be, others in process of passing away, they hold; such motion being eternal.
(As you read words, they(worlds) do come into being as they are read. Then pass away as you pass them, the next word you are about to read comes into being)
(1) Anaximander,...the successor and pupil of Thales, said that the principle and element of existing things was the apeiron(words) ["unlimited," "infinite," "indefinite"].... He says that it is neither water nor any of the other so-called elements, but instead some other apeiron nature, from which the heavens and the worlds they contain come into being. And the source of coming-to-be for existing things is also that into which their destruction occurs "according to necessity, for they pay penalty and retribution to each other for their injustice according to the arrangement of time(the time they<words> are read)," as he says in these rather poetical terms.
(2) ...there is no beginning to the apeiron...(words are eternal) but it seems itself to be the beginning of the other things(everything comes from words), and to surround all things and guide them all.... And this is the divine, since it is immortal and indestructible(words), as Anaximander says.
(3) [Anaximander says] that the earth(words) stays still thanks to its equilibrium, since whatever is established at the center equidistant from the extremes necessarily cannot move(words are motionless) either up or down or to the sides. And further, since it is impossible for it to move simultaneously in opposite directions, it necessarily stays fixed.
. There is no beginning of the infinite(words), for in that case it would have an end. But it is without beginning and indestructible, as being a sort of first principle; for it is necessary that whatever comes into existence should have an end, and there is a conclusion of all destruction. Wherefore as we say, there is no first principle of this [i.e. the infinite], but it itself seems to be the first principle of all other things and to surround all and to direct all, as they say who think that there are no other causes besides the infinite(words), but that it itself is divine ; for it is immortal and (words are)indestructible, as Anaximandros and most of the physicists say.
Anaximander ... said that the infinite is principle and element of the things that exist.(Do words exist?, Of coarse.) He was the first to introduce this word “principle”. He says that it is neither water nor any other of the so-called elements but some different infinite nature ....(Words have this nature)
Aristotle... for the elements are opposed to each other (for example, air is cold, water moist, and fire hot), and if one of these were infinite the rest would already have been destroyed. But, as it is, they say that the infinite(words) is different from these, and that they come into being from it. (All things originate from words)
Anaximander believed there were “innumerable worlds(words) in the Boundless,” but, though all the worlds are perishable, are there an unlimited number of them in existence at the same time, or does a new world never comes into existence only when the old one has passed away, so that there is never more than one world at a time?(You can only read one word at a time) This is fundamental.
Anaximander’s opinion was that there were gods who came into being, rising and passing away at long intervals, and that these were the innumerable worlds.
(As you read, words rise for a moment, then pass away, then the next comes into being)
Living creatures arose from the moist element as it was evaporated by the sun. Man was like another animal, namely, a fish, in the beginning… At first human beings arose in the inside of fishes, and after having been reared like sharks, and become capable of protecting themselves, they were finally cast ashore and took to land… Originally man was born from animals of another species. While other animals quickly find food by themselves, man alone requires a lengthy period of suckling. Hence, had he been originally as he is now, else he would never have survived.
(Evolution?, I think not.)
