HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. 571 



unique substance, and in demonstrating that the principle " nothing 

 comes of nothing" could not be applied to experience and observa- 

 tion without giving" rise to manifest contradictions. Xenophanes 

 identified God, the universe, reality, in the unity of the being, 

 attributing to it omnipotence and intelligence. Parmenides admitted 

 the same idea, but applied rather to the universe than the Deity, 

 to the existence than the cause. Melissus perceived this consequence, 

 and Zeno developed its bearings, namely, that the simplicity of the sole 

 being did not allow of its occupying space. Thus, the more deter- 

 minate this idea became the more rigorous the deductions from it; 

 it by degrees lost every attribute, and, from abstraction to abstrac- 

 tion, at last vanished as a conception devoid of sense and value. 

 These philosophers form the heads of the metaphysical school. We 

 will now turn our attention to Heraclitus. There remain to us but 

 some faint outlines of his opinions, which, however, carry with them 

 the evidence of a grand character and sublime conception. 



He seems to have directed his attention peculiarly to the investi- 

 gation of the laws of the universe. He affirms "that all nature is 

 governed by immutable laws : the very phenomena which appear 

 most discordant arise out of and contribute to the harmony of the 

 whole. Thus the different beings, whatever may be their variety, 

 united in the same place, form one whole and tend to the same end." 

 Heraclitus thus avoided the reckon which Xenophanes split, compre- 

 hending how unity and diversity may be assimilated, and penetrating 

 the principle on which the great problem hinges. Destiny, according 

 to Heraclitus, is only this great harmony, or rather its principle ; not 

 a blind power, but the general law imposed upon the universe by the 

 supreme Intelligence. 



" All things are subject to a continual change ; the torrent rolls on 

 incessantly, but in the midst of these revolutions nature moves with 

 an equable step. The operations of attraction and repulsion com- 

 bine and separate the indivisible and elementary particles (^rjy^uara); 

 an endless and universal activity sets these great springs, condensa- 

 tion and evaporation, in motion ; we cannot then so properly say that 

 things are in existence as that they pass through an existence. This 

 indefatigable source of reproduction is, according to his theory, fire, 

 which causes expansion, penetrates all recesses, dissolves, volatilizes, 

 and transforms. Not fire, such as it appears to our senses, but an 

 ethereal exhalation or vapour an immaterial, intelligent, luminous, 

 and igneous power : in short, a soul. 



Heraclitus explains more distinctly than the other Eleatic philoso- 

 phers the distinction between the two worlds : the one invisible and 

 only accessible to the reason, the other physical and perceptible to 

 the senses. He says that the human soul, inasmuch as it is endowed 

 with reason, is an emanation of the universal soul, that it is united 

 to another animated substance, which we have in common with other 

 animals of a different nature, and material- He asserted that the 

 same could not be conceived but by the same, which opinion led him 

 to reject the evidence of the senses and trust entirely to reason. He, 

 however, admitted the senses as open channels by which we might 



