82 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



The smallest thing in the universe, then, is still, in its 

 truth, commensurate with the universe itself. The small 

 is not merely included within the great; the great is also 

 included within the small. Each presupposes the other 

 and could not exist without the other. Force regarded 

 as attraction, let us repeat, then, unifies the extended 

 world absolutely, gathers the physical universe into an 

 absolutely indivisible One. 



On the other hand, however, we have also seen that 

 the complementary mode of force, namely, repulsion, puts 

 restraint upon this unifying tendency and gives rise to an 

 infinitude of independent centers within the all-embracing 

 one. And yet this one itself is but the totality of rela- 

 tions between attraction and repulsion. Thus the One, 

 as this totality of relations, itself gives rise to an infini- 

 tude of ones within itself, each of which in turn is essen- 

 tially related to the whole, and thus also to all the other 

 ones. 



Thus the phase of unity finds its necessary comple- 

 ment in an infinite multiplicity which, however, still 

 proves to be but a mode of the unity itself. The appear- 

 ance of multiplicity is but the unfolding of the unity. 

 The qualitative distinctions as they emerge into view 

 prove to already necessarily involve quantitative distinc- 

 tions also. Each center of force is already something 

 definitely opposed to, as well as connected with, every 

 other center of force. And each in comparison with 

 every other is seen to be necessarily a greater, or a less, 

 or an equal, as regards that other. 



