412 CONSTITUTION OF THE INTELLECT. [CHAP. XXII. 



heaven, declared that the One was God."* Perhaps there are few, 

 if any, of the forms in which unity can be conceived, in the ab- 

 stract as numerical or rational, in the concrete as a passive sub- 

 stance, or a central and living principle, of which we do not 

 meet with applications in these ancient doctrines. The writings 

 of Aristotle, to which I have chiefly referred, abound with allu- 

 sions of this nature, though of the larger number of those who 

 once addicted themselves to such speculations, it is probable that 

 the very names have perished. Strange, but suggestive truth, 

 that while Nature in all but the aspect of the heavens must have 

 appeared as little else than a scene of unexplained disorder, while 

 the popular belief was distracted amid the multiplicity of its gods, 

 the conception of a primal unity, if only in a rude, material form, 

 should have struck deepest root ; surviving in many a thought- 

 ful breast the chills of a lifelong disappointment, and an endless 

 search If 



2ndly. In equally intimate alliance with that law of thought 

 which is expressed by an equation of the second degree, and 

 which has been termed in this treatise the law of duality, stands 

 the tendency of ancient thought to those forms of philosophical 

 speculation which are known under the name of dualism. The 

 theory of Empedocles,t which explained the apparent contradic- 

 tions of nature by referring them to the two opposing principles 



* Etvo<f>dvr] de . . . rig TOV o\ov ovpavbv a7ro/3\6;//a, TO v tlvai <f>t]oi TOV 

 0ov. Ib. 



t The following lines, preserved by Sextus Empiricus, and ascribed to Timon 

 the Sillograph, are not devoid of pathos : 



wf KOI iywv o<j)f\ov TTVKIVOV voov dvTij3o\fj(rai 



(SoXiy d' bc< 

 IT EWV) icai dva^iipi 

 ' OTrirr) yap tftbv voov 

 tiQ 'iv r' O.VTO Tf. TTUV dvkXvero. 



I quote them from Ritter, and venture to give the following version 

 Be mine, to partial views no more confin'd 

 Or sceptic doubts, the truth-illumin'd mind! 

 For, long deceiv'd, yet still on Truth intent, 

 Life's waning years in wand'rings wild are spent. 

 Still restless thought the same high quest essays, 

 And still the One, the All, eludes my gaze. 

 J Arist. Met I. 4. 6. 



