120 PROFESSOR H. LANGHORNE ORCHARD, M.A., B.SC, ON 



P Dyad, the Great and Little." The One* has no parts, and is 

 g supreme over everything, whether in the visible or in the invisible 



world : The One is also The Good and Absolute Eternal Truth, 

 ^ Source of all Life and Beauty. In " Parmenides," with a dialectic 



ability always acute and generally profound, the important 

 ^ question : " Does The One exist ? " receives, after rigorous 

 ^ investigation, the answer : " If One is not, nothing is." Since 



0 then something certainly exists, One exists. Plato's scheme of 

 ^ investigation may be formulated thus : — 



1. If The One is, what consequences follow to The One and 



1 that which is not The One ? 



I 2. If The One is not, what consequences follow to The One 

 J and that which is not The One ? 



M 3. If The Not One is, what consequences follow to The Not 

 ^ One and that which is The One ? 



^- 4. If The Not One is not, what consequences follow to The 

 ^. Not One and that which is The One ? 



P Since The One has no parts (by reason of oneness), it results 

 that The One is without beginning, middle, or end ; therefore, 

 in regard to space, is infinite, and, in regard to time, is self- 

 existent and eternal. Also The One is unchangeable ; for if it 

 changed it would be no longer the same as before, and therefore 

 would cease to be The One. We conclude then that The One 

 is Supreme, Good, Absolute Eternal Truth, Source of all Life 

 and Beauty ;t and is Infinite, Eternal, without beginning or end, 

 Unchangeable, and Self -existent. By Him the universe was 

 created, the efficient cause being His will, according to purpose 

 and plan embodied in the archetypal Ideas. (The One is, 

 therefore, a Person.) 



Since The One exists. The One is identical with The One 

 Q Being. The One Being (idea) contains two ideas, or (in Platonic 

 I phrase; two parts,''' namely, oneness and being. Each of these 

 ^" two parts has itself two parts, for it partakes of oneness (because 

 S» contained in The One), and of existence (because contained in 

 0 Being). Similarly, each of these last two parts has two parts, 

 g and whatever becomes a part, however small, possesses the 

 ^ two parts — oneness and being — perpetually. The successive 



* Aristotle recognised four modes of Oneness, viz., those of an 

 Individual, a Universal, a Whole, a Continuity. Waddell remarks that 

 to say " One " involves the mental act of numeration, i.e., of reckoning 

 Plurality. ** One " and Many " involve each other. 



t Of Whom the teneficent Sun is a type. 



