II NOTES 109 



In fact, it assumes the existence of two worlds, one 

 good and one bad ; the latter created by the evil 

 power for the purpose of damaging the former. The 

 existing cosmos is a mere mixture of the two, and the 

 ' last judgment ' is a root-and-branch extirpation of 

 the work of Ahrimun. 



Note 12 (p. 69). 



There is no snare in which the feet of a modern 

 student of ancient lore are more easily entangled, 

 than that which is spread by the similarity of the 

 language of antiquity to modern modes of expression. 

 I do not presume to interpret the obscurest of Greek 

 philosophers ; all I wish is to point out, that his 

 words, in the sense accepted by competent inter- 

 preters, fit modern ideas singularly well. 



So far as the general theory of evolution goes there 

 is no difficulty. The aphorism about the river ; the 

 figure of the child playing on the shore ; the kingship 

 and fatherhood of strife, seem decisive. The 63os dvo> 

 KUTCO fitrj expresses, with singular aptness, the cyclical 

 aspect of the one process of organic evolution in 

 individual plants and animals : yet it may be a 

 question whether the Heracleitean strife included 

 any distinct conception of the struggle for existence. 

 Again, it is tempting to compare the part played by 

 the Heracleitean ' fire ' with that ascribed by the 

 moderns to heat, or rather to that cause of motion of 

 which heat is one expression ; and a little ingenuity 

 might find a foreshadowing of the doctrine of the 

 conservation of energy, in the saying that all the 



