Cosmos, Vol. 5

everlasting dying: a saying that reminds me of that of Dante in the Purgatorio (XXXIII, 54):

Of life, which is a race toward death. original: "Del viver, ch’è un correre alla morte."

The physical life process of the individual consists in the transition from Being to Non-being; in a movement like a stream, a flowing. Even the sun is always new, caught in the steady process of extinguishing and igniting itself. Every flame, like the solar flame, has its Being in its Becoming. See The Philosophy of Heraclitus the Dark of Ephesus Heraclitus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher known for his doctrine of change being central to the universe. presented by Ferd. Lassalle 1858 Vol. I. pp. 157—163, Vol. II. pp. 104 to 110. In this book, the author also shows the remarkable influence of Heraclitus the Dark on Hippocrates' On Regimen original: "de diaeta"; see Lassalle Vol. I. pp. 165—171. Hegel (History of Philosophy, edited by Michelet, Vol. I. 1833 p. 333) says: "it is a great thought of Heraclitus to pass from Being to Becoming." Aristotle also recognizes that all Becoming and Perishing, all change, develops through opposites by means of so-called deprivation privation; the absence of a quality that is normally present (Aristotle and his Academic Contemporaries by Aug. Brandis in the History of Philosophy Part II. Section 2. 1857 pp. 704 and 716). Even according to the ancient sayings (Gathas) of the Bactrian Zoroaster (translated by Martin Haug I. p. 101) "the entire content of earthly life is the opposition of Being and Non-being."

⁴ (p. 7.) Empedocles is designated by Aristotle, according to a passage in the 1st book of the Metaphysics (I, 4 p. 985, a 32; as well as I, 3 p. 984, a 8), as the actual originator of the specific fourfold number of elements (roots of things): a fourfold number that, in such numerical certainty, was foreign to the Milesians Anaximander and Anaximenes (Brandis Part I. 1835 p. 196).

⁵ (p. 7.) In order to explain the qualitative changes or the transitions of character in Becoming, Anaxagoras—censured by Aristotle—assumed instead of the fourfold number of primary substances "an immeasurable variety of simple, qualitatively determined, mutually distinct primary substances (seeds of things): so that opposites could develop from opposites." According to the account of Simplicius, the Clazomenian Anaxagoras of Clazomenae censures the Hellenes because of the common view of Becoming