194 THE METAPHYSICS OF EVOLUTION. 



tinctlons of chemical properties. In short, it has no 

 qualities that could render it in any way percep- 

 tible ; in the words of Empedocles, — 



V 9 



OVT009 OUT eTTioepKTa Tao avopacriv, out eiraKOua-Ta, 

 ouT€ VOW irepiXriTrTa^^ 



and if it could actually exist, its existence could not 

 be known. 



And so the transition of matter into, and gener- 

 ation out of, prothyle, would have every appearance 

 of a couple of miracles, of a passing into nothing, 

 and of a generation out of nothing. For let us sup- 

 pose that we were somehow able to be present when 

 this unperceivable prothyle developed some proper- 

 ties. What we should experience would be that at 

 one moment nothing appeared to exist, and that at 

 the next so^nething came Into being. And similarly 

 In the case of the destruction of formed matter with 

 definite qualities ; it would appear simply to vanish 

 away. Even, therefore, if we could be present at the 

 evolution of prothyle, we should be none the wiser, 

 and any explanation would appear more probable 

 than the miraculous generation of something out of 

 nothing. 



Thus it seems to have been a mere delusion that 

 prompted us to trace the origin of things out of 

 what has no meaning, no qualities, and no reality 

 apart froin that which it develops into. In tracing 

 the universe back to prothyle the Historical Method 

 has reduced It to a fantastic and irrational nonen- 

 tity, without form and without qualities, which differs 

 from all other nothings only by its mysterious capa- 

 city to develop Into everything, 



1 Thus it is neither to be seen by men, nor to be heard, nor t< 

 be grasped by thought. 



