PERFECTION NOT REST. 44 1 



more erroneous or more fatal to all true philosophy 

 than the idea that Rest is the only possible alter- 

 native to Work. 



The conception of Rest stands, it is true, in an- 

 tithesis to Becoming, as much as the conception 

 of Being. But its analogue is Not-Being rather 

 than Being ; it is beneath, rather than above, Be- 

 coming. 



And this becomes evident if we suppose that, 

 one by one, a being rests or ceases from all its 

 activities. As it ceased to affect the rays of light, 

 it would become invisible ; as it ceased to resist 

 penetration, it would become intangible ; as it ceased 

 to produce vibrations in the air, it would become 

 inaudible ; as it ceased to attract other bodies, it 

 would cease to be material, etc., until, with the 

 cessation of its last activity, the last quality that 

 distinguished it from nothing, would pass away, 

 and it would vanish utterly. And thus we see that 

 qualities are activities, and that existence without 

 qualities is impossible, and so that existence de- 

 pends on activity, and that non- activity is tanta- 

 mount to non-existence. 



Rest, therefore. Is non-existence, it is the negation 

 of motion or activity, it is not : Being is the per- 

 fection of motion, It is more than motion. And, 

 whereas Rest In our world Is an Illusion, that which 

 seems to exist but does not, Being Is the Ideal, that 

 which ought to exist, but does not yet. Being, as 

 perfect activity, is at the opposite pole to Rest or 

 Not-Being, and they are separated by the whole 

 extent of Becoming, /.^., of the world with its Im- 

 perfect activities. The question therefore arises 

 at which of these the world is aiming, whether at 

 an absorption into Nothingness, or at the consti- 



