[Footnote 85: Aristot. De Coelo, iii. 1, p. 298, b. 30; Physic. viii. 3, p. 253, b. 9. [Greek: Phasi/ tines kinei=sthai tô=n o)/ntôn ou) ta\ me\n ta\ d' ou)/, a)lla\ pa/nta kai\ a)ei\, a)lla\ lantha/nein tou=to tê\n ê(mete/ran ai)/sthêsin]--which words doubtless refer to Herakleitus. See Preller, Hist. Phil. Græc. Rom. s. 47.]
[Footnote 86: Lassalle, Philosophie des Herakleitos, vol. i. pp. 54, 55. "Andrerseits bieten die sinnlichen Existenzen _graduelle_ oder _Mass-Unterschiede_ dar, je nachdem in ihnen das Moment des festen Seins über die Unruhe des Werdens vorwiegt oder nicht; und diese Graduation wird also zugleich den Leitfaden zur Classification der verschiedenen Existenz-formen bilden."]
[Side-note: Illustrations by which Herakleitus symbolized his perpetual force, destroying and generating.]
The theory of Herakleitus thus recognised no permanent substratum, or Ens, either material or immaterial--no category either of substance or quality--but only a ceaseless principle of movement or change, generation and destruction, position and negation, immediately succeeding, or coinciding with each other.[87] It is this principle or everlasting force which he denotes under so many illustrative phrases--"the common ([Greek: to\ xuno\n]), the universal, the all-comprehensive ([Greek: to\ perie/chon]), the governing, the divine, the name or reason of Zeus, fire, the current of opposites, strife or war, destiny, justice, equitable measure, Time or the Succeeding," &c. The most emphatic way in which this theory could be presented was, as embodied, in the coincidence or co-affirmation of contraries. Many of the dicta cited and preserved out of Herakleitus are of this paradoxical tenor.[88] Other dicta simply affirm perpetual flow, change, or transition, without express allusion to contraries: which latter, however, though not expressed, must be understood, since change was conceived as a change from one contrary to the other.[89] In the Herakleitean idea, contrary forces come simultaneously into action: destruction and generation always take effect together: there is no negative without a positive, nor positive without a negative.[90]
[Footnote 87: Aristot. De Coelo, iii. 1, p. 298, b. 30. [Greek: Oi( de\ ta\ me\n a)/lla pa/nta gi/nesthai/ te/ phasi kai\ rhei=n, ei)=nai de\ pagi/ôs ou)de/n, e(\n de/ ti mo/non u(pome/nein, e)x ou(= tau=ta pa/nta metaschêmati/zesthai pe/phuken; o(/per e)oi/kasin bou/lesthai le/gein a)/lloi te polloi\ kai\ Ê(ra/kleitos o( E)phe/sios]. See the explanation given of this passage by Lassalle, vol. ii. p. 21, 39, 40, founded on the comment of Simplikius. He explains it as an universal law or ideal force--die reine Idee des Werdens selbst (p. 24), and "eine unsinnliche Potenz" (p. 25). Yet, in i. p. 55 of his elaborate exposition, he does indeed say, about the theory of Herakleitus, "Hier sind zum erstenmale die sinnlichen Bestimmtheiten zu bloss verschiedenen und absolut in einander übergehenden Formen eines identischen, ihnen zu Grunde liegenden, _Substrats_ herabgesetzt". But this last expression appears to me to contradict the whole tenor and peculiarity of Lassalle's own explanation of the Herakleitean theory. He insists almost in every page (compare ii. p. 156) that "das Allgemeine" of Herakleitus is "reines Werden; reiner, steter, erzeugender, Prozess". This process cannot with any propriety be called a _substratum_, and Herakleitus admitted no other. In thus rejecting any substratum he stood alone. Lassalle has been careful in showing that Fire was not understood by Herakleitus as a substratum (as water by Thales), but as a symbol for the universal force or law. In the theory of Herakleitus no substratum was recognised--no [Greek: to/de ti] or [Greek: ou)si/a]--in the same way as Aristotle observes about [Greek: to\ a)/peiron] (Physic. iii. 6, a. 22-31) [Greek: ô(/ste to\ a)/peiron ou) dei= lamba/nein ô(s to/de ti, oi(=on a)/nthrôpon ê)\ oi)ki/an, a)ll' ô(s ê( ê(me/ra le/getai kai\ o( a)gô\n, oi(=s to\ ei)=nai _ou)ch' ô(s ou)si/a tis ge/gonen, a)ll' a)ei\ e)n gene/sei ê(\ phthora=|_, ei) kai\ peperasme/non, _a)ll' a)ei/ ge e(/teron kai\ e(/teron_.]]