Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/198

Rh I have already illustrated this unity at considerable length, I must now therefore deal with it very shortly. Stated abstractly, the conception is this: According to Heraclitus, a state of being is itself a state of not-being, that is, it is even in being gone as soon as come; which state of not-Being is itself another state of Being, which other state of Being is itself a state of not-Being, which state of not-Being is itself another state of Being; and so on. Viewed in this way, we must say of the universe, that at every instant it both is and is not; it is, there can be no doubt about that; but then the changes in the universe are so continuous that it also is not; that is to say, it is not this definite universe which we conceived we had laid hold of, but another; which other again is not—is not this definite universe, but another; and so on. We can never catch it. Take our former illustration. A thing is in the state A; how is it to come out of that state and get into the state B? We saw that on Eleatic principles that problem admitted of no solution. "What is Heraclitus's answer? Heraclitus's answer is, that the thing is already out of the state A; that in the very act of being in that state it is out of it. The two moments, the moment of being in it and the moment of being out of it, are one, and constitute one indivisible conception, the conception of Becoming; and then, just as the being in the state and the being out of it are one, so the being out of it and being in another state, the state B, is one; and so on the process goes. It is