gence of the pure concept of _absolute being_ as
the final object of knowledge. The philosopher aims to discover that
which is, and so turns away from that which is not or that which ceases
to be. The negative and transient aspects of experience only hinder him
in his search for the eternal. It was the great Eleatic insight to
realize that the outcome of thought is thus predetermined; that the
answer to philosophy is contained in the question of philosophy. The
philosopher, in that he resolutely avoids all partiality, relativity,
and superficiality, must affirm a complete, universal, and ultimate
being as the very object of that perfect knowledge which he means to
possess. This object is known in the history of these philosophies as
the _infinite_ or _absolute_.[309:3]

[Sidenote: The Eleatic Conception of Being.]

Sect. 149. The Eleatic reasons somewhat as follows. The philosopher
seeks to know what is. The object of his knowledge will then contain as
its primary and essential predicate, that of being. It is a step further
to _define_ being in terms of this essential predicate.

Parmenides thinks of being as a power or strength, a positive
self-maintenance to which all affirmations refer. The remainder of the
Eleatic philosophy is the analysis of this concept and the proof of its
implications. Being must persist through all change, and span all
chasms. Before being there can be only nothing, which is the same as to
say that so far as being is concerned there is no before. Similarly
there can be no after or beyond. There can be no motion, change, or
division of being, because being will be in all parts of every division,
and in all stages of every process. Hence being is "uncreated and
indestructible, alone, complete, immovable, and without end."

The argument turns upon the application to being as a whole of the
meaning and the implications of _only being_. Being is the affirmative
or positive. From that _alone_, one can derive only such properties as
eternity or unity. For generation and decay and plurality may belong to
that which is _also_ affirmative and positive, but not to that which is
affirmative and positive _only_. The Eleatic philosophy is due, then, to
the determination to derive the whole of reality from the bare necessity
of being, to cut down reality to what flows entirely from the assertion
of its only known necessary aspect, that of being. We meet here in its
simplest form a persistent rationalistic