THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL RHYTHM 



the history of this idea of endless repetition, which 

 delighted Heraclitus, the Stoics, the Pythagore- 

 ans, Empedocles, Virgil (in his fourth eclogue), 

 Nietzsche, and many more. 1 



But it is plain that this idea, haunt us as it may, 

 cannot be prevented from arousing a sense of 

 futility. Surely all is vanity, if it expresses the 

 whole truth. What, for instance, could be more 

 disheartening than its partial expression in a 

 passage that occurs near the end of the twelfth 

 book of Aristotle's Metaphysics : "Every art and 

 every philosophy having probably been found out 

 many times up to the limits of what is possible and 

 again destroyed"? For myself, I am the rather 

 attracted by the conception of the world-drama 

 expressed in Lotze's Microcosmos : "The series of 

 cosmic periods, . . . each link of which is bound 

 together with every other; . . . the successive order 

 of these sections shall compose the unity of an 

 onward-advancing melody." 



The question, however, in science and philosophy 

 is not what we would prefer to believe, but what, 

 if anything at all, it is compatible with intellectual 

 honesty and the philosophic temper to believe. 

 Doubtless there are many serious and thoughtful 

 men who will say that this question can affect no 

 practical issue, and that our duty is merely to 

 "work while it is called to-day." Nevertheless, 



1 A living poet and essayist, Mrs. Alice Meynell, has a fine es- 

 say in this vein, entitled "The Rhythm of Life." 



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