“The highest mathematical idea, or the fundamental principle of all mathematics, is the zero == 0.
“Zero is in itself nothing. Mathematics is based upon nothing, and consequently arises out of nothing.
“Real and ideal are no more different from each other than ice and water: both of these, as is well known, are essentially one and the same, and yet are different, the diversity consisting in the form. Every real is absolutely nothing else than a number.
“The Eternal is the nothing of nature.
“There is no other science than that which treats of nothing.
“There exists nothing but nothing—nothing but the Eternal.
“Every thing in the world is endowed with life; the world itself is alive, and continues only, maintains itself by virtue of its life.
“Man is God wholly manifested. God has become man, zero has become + —. Man is the whole of arithmetic, compacted, however, out of all numbers; he can, therefore, produce numbers out of himself.
“Animals are men who never imagine. They are beings who never attain to consciousness concerning themselves. They are single accounts; man is the whole of mathematics.
“Arithmetic is the truly absolute or divine science. Theology is arithmetic personified.