aclitus we might
naturally infer that he was a Hylopathean Atheist. Such an hypothesis
would not, however, be truthful or legitimate. On a more careful
examination, his system will be found to stand half-way between the
materialistic and the spiritual conception of the Author of the
universe, and marks, indeed, a transition from the one to the other.
Heraclitus unquestionably held that all substance is material, for a
philosopher who proclaims, as he did, that the senses are the only
source of knowledge, must necessarily attach himself to a material
element as the primary one. And yet he seems to have _spiritualized_
matter. "The moving unit of Heraclitus--the Becoming--is as immaterial
as the resting unit of the Eleatics--the Being."[418] The Heraclitean
"_fire_" is endowed with _spiritual_ attributes. "Aristotle calls it
psyche--soul, and says that it is asomatotaton, or absolutely
incorporeal ("De Anima," i. 2. 16). It is, in effect, the common ground
of the phenomena both of mind and matter it is not only the animating,
but also the intelligent and regulating principle of the universe; the
Zynos Logos, or universal Word or Reason, which it behooves all men to
follow."[419] The psychology of Heraclitus throws additional light upon
his theological opinions. With him human intelligence is a detached
portion of the Universal Reason. "Inhaling," said he, "through the
breath the Universal Ether, which is Divine Reason, we become
conscious." The errors and imperfections of humanity are consequently to
be ascribed to a deficiency of the Divine Reason in man. Whilst,
therefore, the theory of Heraclitus seems to materialize mind, it may,
with equal fairness, be said to spiritualize matter.

[Footnote 418: Zeller's "History of Greek Philosophy," vol. i. p. 57.]

[Footnote 419: Butler's "Lectures," vol. i. p. 297, note.]

The general inference, therefore, from all that remains of the doctrine
of Heraclitus is that he was a Materialistic Pantheist. His God was a
living, rational, intelligent Ether--a soul pervading the universe. The
form of the universe, its ever-changing phenomena, were a necessary
emanation from, or a perpetual transformation of, this universal soul.

With Heraclitus we close our survey of that sect of the physical school
which regarded the world as a living organism.

The second subdivision of the physical school, _the Mechanical_ or
_Atomist theorists_, attempted the explanation of the universe by
analo