1 70 Traces of Unity in the 



The etSo<? of Aristotle is independent force or energy, 

 connatural with the First Cause, and becoming manifest 

 to the senses only when it is associated with matter, v\t], 

 The t'&ea of Plato is something which is beyond the 

 senses ordinarily but which, without the addition of any 

 foreign element, V\T) or other, may be revealed to the 

 senses, something which is connatural with the Divine 

 Being, on whom it is dependent for its very existence, 

 something to which the etSwXoi/ stands in the relation of 

 a dead crust or veil, rather than in that of a constituent 

 element. Aristotle talks about vot<? as pure elSos which 

 enters the body at birth and remains in the body until 

 death, but he chiefly concerns himself with the ^rv^n, 

 which in all its higher manifestations is undistinguish- 

 able from mind, and which is no more than a function of 

 that compound of etSo? and v\rj which constitutes living 

 being, %wov. As regards the ^1'%??, which is the whole 

 life of plants and animals, and the greater part of the 

 life of man, the view taken by Aristotle is most cheer- 

 less. It is not lit up by a gleam of immortality. And 

 even as regards the vou? the case is not much better, for 

 this vital principle vaporizes, so to speak, into' formless 

 61609 at death, and so leaves the man to whom it be- 

 longed for a time nowhere. Death, in short, is the end 

 of man no less than that of every other living thing if 

 this system be carried out to its legitimate consequences. 

 Plato, on the other hand, does not concern himself with 

 these differences between vovs and ^v^n, between etSo<? 

 and v\.rj. The t'Sea may be instinct with any and every 

 vital attribute, and this life is unending, because it partici- 

 pates in the life of the Divine Being. Death dissolves 

 the i&<0\ov, or terrestrial body, and sets free the t'Sea, or 

 spiritual body, the action of death being to remove an 

 impediment to the manifestation of life rather than, as 



