ng symbol that could be selected in manifested
nature.

But what was the Fire of Heracleitus, the Obscure ([Greek: ho
skoteinos]), as Cicero, with the rest of the ancients, called him,
because of his difficult style? What was the Universal Principle of the
"weeping philosopher," the pessimist who valued so little the estimation
of the vulgar ([Greek: ochloloidoros])? It certainly was no common
"fire," certainly no puerile concept to be brushed away by the mere
hurling of an epithet.

Heracleitus of Ephesus (_flor. c._ 503 B.C.) was a sincerely religious
man in the highest sense of the word, a reformer who strongly opposed
the degenerate polytheism and idolatry of his age; he insisted on the
impermanence of the phenomenal universe, of human affairs, beliefs and
opinions, and declared the One Eternal Reality; teaching that the Self
of man was a portion of the Divine Intelligence. The object of his
enquiry was Wisdom, and he reproached his vain-glorious countrymen of
the city of Diana with the words: "Your _knowledge_ of many things does
not give you _wisdom_."

In his philosophy of nature he declared the One Thing to be Fire, but
Fire of a mystical nature, "self-kindled and self-extinguished," the
vital quickening power of the universe. It was that Universal Life, by
participation in which all things have their being, and apart from which
they are unsubstantial and unreal. This is the "Tree of Life" spoken of
by Simon.

In this Ocean of Fire or Life--in every point or atom of it--is inherent
a longing to manifest itself in various forms, thus giving rise to the
perpetual flux and change of the phenomenal world. This Divine Desire,
this "love for everything that lives and breathes," is found in many
systems, and especially in the Vedic and Phoenician Cosmogony. In the
_Rig Veda_ (x. 129), it is that Kama or Desire "which first arose in It
(the Unknown Deity)," elsewhere identified with Agni or Fire. In the
fragments of Phoenician Cosmogony, recovered from Sanchuniathon, it is
called Pothos ([Greek: pothos]) and Eros ([Greek: eros]).

In its pure state, the Living and Rational Fire of Heracleitus resides
in the highest conceivable Heaven, whence it descends stage by stage,
gradually losing the velocity of its motion and vitality, until it
finally reaches the Earth-stage, having previously passed through that
of "Water." Thence it returns to its parent source.

In this eternal flux, the only repose was to be found in