That all is generated needs no proof; there can be only one Maker
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Nous — καὶ ὅτι πάντα ταῦτα γεννητά, ὦ φίλτατε Ἑρμῆ, οὐκ ἔτι ἐμοῦ χρῄζεις μαθεῖν· καὶ γὰρ σώματά ἐστι καὶ ψυχὴν ἔχει καὶ κινεῖται. ταῦτα δὲ εἰς ἓν συνελθεῖν ἀδύνατον χωρὶς τοῦ συνάγοντος. δεῖ οὖν σέ τινα εἶναι τοῦτον καὶ τοιοῦτον πάντως ἕνα. διαφόρων γὰρ καὶ πολλῶν οὐσῶν τῶν κινήσεων καὶ τῶν σωμάτων οὐχ ὁμοίων, μιᾶς δὲ κατὰ πάντων ταχύτητος τεταγμένης, ἀδύνατον δύο ἢ πλείους ποιητὰς εἶναι. μία γὰρ ἐπὶ πολλῶν οὐ τηρεῖται τάξις· ζῆλος δὲ τοῖς ἀσθενεστέροις παρέψεται τοῦ κρείττονος καὶ ἐριοῦσι. καὶ εἰ ἕτερος ἦν ὁ ποιητὴς τῶν μεταβλητῶν ζώων καὶ θνητῶν, ἐπεθύμησεν ἂν καὶ ἀθανάτους ποιῆσαι, ὥσπερ καὶ ὁ τῶν ἀθανάτων θνητούς. φέρε δὴ εἰ καὶ δύο εἰσί, μιᾶς οὔσης τῆς ὕλης καὶ μιᾶς τῆς ψυχῆς, παρὰ τίνι ἂν αὐτῶν ἡ χορηγία τῆς ποιήσεως;
And that all these are generated, O dearest Hermes, you no longer need to learn from me; for they are bodies and have soul and are moved. But for these to come together into one is impossible without the gatherer. There must then be someone, this one, and such a one, altogether one. For the motions being diverse and many, and the bodies not alike, but one speed ordained over all, it is impossible for there to be two or more makers. For one order is not kept over many; and jealousy would attend the weaker toward the stronger, and they would quarrel. And if the maker of the changeable and mortal living beings were another, he would have desired to make immortals too, just as the maker of the immortals would mortals. Come now, if there are even two, one being the matter and one the soul, with which of them would be the supply of making?
Nous: that all these are generated, dearest Hermes, you need no longer learn from me — for they are bodies, and have soul, and are moved. But these cannot come together into one without a gatherer. So there must be someone, this one, and altogether one. For the motions being diverse and many, and the bodies unlike, yet one speed ordained over all, it is impossible for there to be two or more makers: one order is not kept over many; jealousy would attend the weaker toward the stronger, and they would quarrel. And if the maker of the changeable, mortal living beings were another, he would have desired to make immortals too, as the maker of the immortals would mortals. And come now — if there are even two, one being the matter and one the soul, with which of them would be the supply of making?
Having shown the world alive and ensouled, Nous now argues from that composition to a single Maker — a compact piece of natural theology. The visible things 'are bodies, and have soul, and are moved (σώματά ἐστι καὶ ψυχὴν ἔχει καὶ κινεῖται)': three ingredients that do not of themselves cohere. 'For these to come together into one is impossible without the gatherer (χωρὶς τοῦ συνάγοντος)' — a composite needs a composer, and the composer of a unified world must himself be 'altogether one (πάντως ἕνα).' The argument is that unity in the effect points back to unity in the cause.
Then comes the polemic against dualism, the treatise's target. Motions are many and bodies unlike, 'yet one speed ordained over all (μιᾶς… ταχύτητος τεταγμένης)' — the single ordered rhythm of the cosmos betrays a single ordering will, and 'it is impossible for there to be two or more makers.' Two proofs follow, one logical, one psychological. Logically, 'one order is not kept over many (μία… ἐπὶ πολλῶν οὐ τηρεῖται τάξις)' — divided rule cannot maintain a single order. Psychologically, and more pointedly, 'jealousy would attend the weaker toward the stronger, and they would quarrel (ζῆλος… καὶ ἐριοῦσι)' — rivals cannot both be supreme, and ζῆλος and ἔρις (Empedocles' Strife) would fracture the world. A God who must share is no God.
The last strokes sharpen the reductio. If a separate god made the mortal, changeable animals, 'he would have desired to make immortals too,' and vice versa — each maker would covet the other's domain, and the neat division could not hold. And the final question exposes the incoherence of the crudest dualism, matter-versus-soul: 'if there are even two, one the matter and one the soul, with which of them would be the supply of making (ἡ χορηγία τῆς ποιήσεως)?' Neither matter nor soul, taken as a rival principle, can be the source of productive power; that belongs to the one Maker alone — which §8 will name.
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