[108] Lucretius, i. 731.
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Carmina quin etiam divini pectoris ejus
Vociferantur, et exponunt præclara reperta: Ut vix humanâ videatur stirpe creatus. |
[109] Empedokles, Frag. v. 77-83, ed. Karsten, p. 96:
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φύσις οὐδενός
ἐστιν ἁπάντων θνητῶν, οὐδέ τις οὐλομένου θανατοῖο τελευτὴ, ἀλλὰ μόνον μίξις τε διάλλαξίς τε μιγέντων ἐστι, φύσις δ’ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὀνομάζεται ἀνθρώποισιν.... |
Φύσις here is remarkable, in its primary sense, as derivative from φύομαι, equivalent to γένεσις. Compare Plutarch adv. Koloten, p. 1111, 1112.
[110] Emp. Fr. v. 55. Τέσσαρα τῶν πάντων ῥιζώματα.
Construction of the Kosmos from these elements and forces — action and counter action of love and enmity. The Kosmos alternately made and unmade.
From the four elements — acted upon by these two forces, abstractions or mythical personifications — Empedokles showed how the Kosmos was constructed. He supposed both forces to be perpetually operative, but not always with equal efficacy: sometimes the one was predominant, sometimes the other, sometimes there was equilibrium between them. Things accordingly pass through a perpetual and ever-renewed cycle. The complete preponderance of Love brings alternately all the elements into close and compact unity, Enmity being for the time eliminated. Presently the action of the latter recommences, and a period ensues in which Love and Enmity are simultaneously operative; until at length Enmity becomes the temporary master, and all union is for the time dissolved. But this condition of things does not last. Love again becomes active, so that partial and increasing combination of the elements is produced, and another period commences — the simultaneous action of the two forces, which ends in renewed empire of Love, compact union of the elements, and temporary exclusion of Enmity.[111]
[111] Zeller, Philos. der Griech., vol. i. p. 525-528, ed. 2nd.
Empedoklean predestined cycle of things — complete empire of Love — Sphærus — Empire of Enmity — disengagement or separation of the elements — astronomy and meteorology.