II NOTES 109 



In fact, it assumes the existence of two worlds, one 

 good and one bad ; the latter created by the evil 

 power for the purpose of damaging the former. The 

 existing cosmos is a mere mixture of the two, and the 

 last judgment is a root-and-branch extirpation of 

 the work of Ahriman. 



Note 12 (p. 69). 



There is no snare in which the feet of a modern 

 student of ancient lore are more easily entangled, 

 than that which is spread by the similarity of the 

 language of antiquity to modern modes of expression. 

 I do not presume to interpret the obscurest of Greek 

 philosophers ; all I wish is to point out, that his 

 words, in the sense accepted by competent inter 

 preters, fit modern ideas singularly well. 



So far as the general theory of evolution goes there 

 is no difficulty. The aphorism about the river ; the 

 figure of the child playing on the shore ; the kingship 

 and fatherhood of strife, seem decisive. The 6805 avia 

 Kara) fitr] expresses, with singular aptness, the cyclical 

 aspect of the one process of organic evolution in 

 individual plants and animals : yet it may be a 

 question whether the Heracleitean strife included 

 any distinct conception of the struggle for existence. 

 Again, it is tempting to compare the part played by 

 the Heracleitean fire with that ascribed by the 

 moderns to heat, or rather to that cause of motion of 

 which heat is one expression ; and a little ingenuity 

 might find a foreshadowing of the doctrine of the 

 conservation of energy, in the saying that all the 



