Mathematical philosophy, a study of fate and freedom; lectures for educated laymen, by Cassius J. Keyser.

THE GROUP CONCEPT 229
In his Philosophie der Griechen (Vol. III, 2nd edition)
Zeller, speaking of the speculations of the Stoics, says:
Out of the original substance the separate things are
developed according to an inner law. For inasmuch as
the first principle, according to its definition, is the
creative and formative power, the whole universe must
grow out of it with the same necessity as the animal
or the plant from the seed. The original fire, according
to the Stoics and Heraclitus, first changes to " air "
or vapor, then to water; out of this a portion is precipitated as earth, another remains water, a third
evaporates as atmospheric air, which again kindles the
fire, and out of the changing mixture of these four
elements there is formed,-from the earth as center,the world.... Through this separation of the elements
there arises the contrast of the active and the passive
principle: the soul of the world and its body.... But
as this contrast came in time, so it is destined to cease;
the original substance gradually consumes the matter,
which is segregated out of itself as its body, till at the
end of this world-period a universal world conflagration
brings everything back to the primeval condition....
But when everything has thus returned to the original
unity, and the great world-year has run out, the formation of a new world begins again, which is so exactly
like the former one that in it all things, persons and
phenomena, return exactly as before; and in this wise
the history of the world and the deity... moves in an
endless cycle through the same stages.
A similar view of cosmic history is present in the
speculations of Empedocles, for whom a cycle consists of
four great periods: Predominant Love-a state of complete aggregation; decreasing Love and increasing Hate;
predominant Strife-complete separation of the elements;
decreasing Strife and increasing Love. At the end of this
fourth period, the cycle is complete and is then repeated