Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/180

Rh 19. This conception of the universe, as both Being and not-Being, is indeed not easy to master. It is, I believe, the hardest in all metaphysics. Yet the conception is, I conceive, both true and intelligible, if the universe be, as Heraclitus says, a Becoming. Let me repeat the explanation. Let us begin by agreeing that the universe is at every instant in a definite state of Being. But at every instant it is out of that definite state of Being, and is in another definite state of Being, because it is continually varying. Now, in virtue of its being always at any given instant in a definite state of Being, we say that it has Being; while, in virtue of its being out of that definite state of Being in the very instant in which it is in it, we say that it has not-Being. I may return to this conception hereafter. Meanwhile, I leave it to your own reflections, and shall abstain from overlaying with a weight of words, which, instead of rendering it clearer, might only have the effect of rendering it more obscure. The result of our analysis is, that Being and not-Being are the two elements, the two abstract factors, into which Becoming resolves itself when analysed.

20. We have seen in the preceding paragraph that Being and not-Being are the elements or moments of Becoming. In all Becoming these two, according to Heraclitus, are involved. Indeed, in his philosophy he seems to have laid the main stress rather on the negative than on the positive factor in the process.