Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/267

245 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE, 245 like manner he said of men and gods, " Our life is their death ; their life is our death ;"* that is, he thought that men were gods who hud died, and that gods were men raised to life. Seeking in natural phenomena for the principle of this perpetual motion, Heraclitus supposed it to be jire, though he probably meant, not the fire perceptible by the senses, but a higher and more universal agent. For, as we have already seen, he conceived the sensible fire as living and dying, like the other elements; but of the igneous principle of life he speaks thus: " The unchanging order of all things was made neither by a god nor a man, but it has always been, is, and will be, the living fire, which is kindled and extinguished in regular succession. "f Nevertheless, Heraclitus conceived this continual motion not to be the mere work of chance, but to be directed by some power, which he called EtuapuivT], or fate, and which guided " the way upwards a«d down- wards" (his expression for production and destruction). " The sun (he said) will not overstep its path ; if it did, the Erinnyes, the allies of justice, would find it out.''t He recognised in motion an eternal law, which was maintained by the supreme powers of the universe. In this respect the followers of Heraclitus appear to have departed from the wise example of their teacher ; for the exaggerated Heracliteans (whom Plato in joke calls ol ptovrec, " the runners") aimed at proving a perpetual change and motion in all things. Heraclitus, like nearly all the other philosophers, despised the popular religion. Their object was, by arguments derived from their immediate experience, to emancipate themselves from all traditional opinions, which included not only superstition and prejudices, but also some of the most valuable truths. Heraclitus boldly rejected the whole ceremonial of the Greek religion. " They worship images (he said of his country- men) : just as if any one were to converse with houses."§ Neverthe- less, the opinions of Heraclitus on the important question of the rela- tion between mind and body agreed with the popular religion and with the prevailing notions of the Greeks. The primitive beings of the world were, in the popular creed, both spiritual powers and material substances; and Heraclitus conceived the original matter of the world to be the source of life. On the other hand, one of the most important changes in the history of the human mind was produced by Anaxagoras after the time of Heraclitus, inasmuch as he rejected all the popular Ileracl. Alleg. Horn. c. xxiv. T Koir^tov tov olvtoI utuvtuv ollrl -ti; Qioiv our ctvfywjruv ixor/iiTi)i, aW r,v an xai iir,; itrizovgoi i^iv^wovctv. Plu- tarch, De Exil. c. xi. p. 604. § Ka! aydXuafft revrioitri tufcitrui, ixotov u <tt$ ooftoi} Xitr^r^ivairo. Clemens Alex, Cohort, p. 33.
 * Zufiiv rov xiUoii (uvocrov, r'JrixUfiw Ss TOi tmiim /3/sv. Pliilo. Alleg. leg. p. CO.