ESSENCE OF NOTHING. 



41. The ideal zero is absolute unity, or monas ; it is 

 not a singularity, such as one individual thing, or as the 

 number 1 ; but an indivisibility, a numberlessness, in 

 which neither 1 nor 2, neither a line nor a circle can be 

 found; in short, an unity without distinction, an homo- 

 geneity, brightness, or translucency, a pure identity. 



42. The mathematical monas is eternal. It succumbs 

 to no definitions of time and space, is neither finite nor 

 infinite, neither great nor small, neither quiescent nor 

 moved ; but it is and it is not all this. That is the con- 

 ception of eternity. 



Mathematics is thus in possession of an eternal prin- 

 ciple. 



43. Since all the sciences are equivalent to mathe- 

 matics, nature must also possess an eternal principle. 



The principle of nature, or of the universe, must be 

 of one and the same kind with the principle of mathe- 

 matics. For there cannot be two kinds of monades, nor 

 of eternities, nor of certainties. The highest unity of the 

 universe is thus the Eternal. The Eternal is one and the 

 same with the zero of mathematics. The Eternal and 

 zero are only denominations differing in accordance with 

 their respective sciences, but which are essentially one. 



44. The Eternal is the nothing of Nature. 



As the whole of mathematics emerges out of zero, so 

 must everything which is a Singular have emerged from 

 the Eternal or nothing of Nature. 



The origin of the Singular is nothing else than a mani- 

 festation of the Eternal. Thereby unity, brightness, 

 homogeneity are lost, and converted into multiplicity, 

 obscurity, diversity. 



Unity posited manifoldly is an expansion without ter- 

 mination, but one that always remains the same. 



Realization or manifestation is an expansion of the 

 Eternal. 



FORMS OF NOTHING. 



45. The first form of the expansion or manifestation of 

 the mathematical monas, or of is + - . The + is 



