Quantity, for example, admits of both continuity and limitation, for every quantitative measure is circumscribed by certain limits proper to itself.
The person who looks at a cubit or at the number ten knows that its perfection consists in the fact that it has both a beginning and an end. But in the case of virtue we have learned from the Apostle that its one limit of perfection is the fact that it has no limit.
For that divine Apostle, great and lofty in understanding, ever running the course of virtue, never ceased straining toward those things that are still to come.
Coming to a stop in the race was not safe for him. Why?
Because no Good has a limit in its own nature but is limited by the presence of its opposite, as life is limited by death and light by darkness. And every good thing generally ends with all those things which are perceived to be contrary to the good.
St Gregory of Nyssa
