Chapter IV.—Heraclitus; His Universal Dogmatism; His Theory of Flux; Other Systems.

But Heraclitus, a natural philosopher of Ephesus, surrendered himself to universal grief, condemning the ignorance of the entire of life, and of all men; nay, commiserating the (very) existence of mortals, for he asserted that he himself knew everything, whereas the rest of mankind nothing.50    Proclus, in his commentary on Plato’s Timæus, uses almost the same words: “but Heraclitus, in asserting his own universal knowledge, makes out all the rest of mankind ignorant.”  But he also advanced statements almost in concert with Empedocles, saying that the originating principle of all things is discord and friendship, and that the Deity is a fire endued with intelligence, and that all things are borne one upon another, and never are at a standstill; and just as Empedocles, he affirmed that the entire locality about us is full of evil things, and that these evil things reach as far as the moon, being extended from the quarter situated around the earth, and that they do not advance further, inasmuch as the entire space above the moon is more pure. So also it seemed to Heraclitus.

[4] Ἡράκλειτος δὲ φυσικὸς φιλόσοφος ὁ Ἐφέσιος τὰ πάντα ἔκλαιεν, ἄγνοιαν τοῦ παντὸς βίου καταγινώσκων καὶ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, ἐλεῶν τε τὸν τῶν θνητῶν βίον: αὑτὸν μὲν γὰρ ἔφασκεν τὰ πάντα εἰδέναι, τοὺς δὲ ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους οὐδέν. καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ σχεδὸν σύμφωνα τῷ Ἐμπεδοκλεῖ ἐφθέγξατο, στάσιν καὶ φιλίαν φήσας [τὴν] τῶν ἁπάντων ἀρχὴν εἶναι, καὶ πῦρ νοερὸν τὸν θεόν, συμφέρεσθαί τε τὰ πάντα ἀλλήλοις καὶ οὐχ ἑστάναι. καὶ ὥσπερ ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς πάντα τὸν καθ' ἡμᾶς τόπον ἔφη κακῶν μεστὸν εἶναι καὶ μέχρι μὲν σελήνης τὰ κακὰ φθάνειν ἐκ τοῦ περὶ γῆν τόπου ταθέντα, περαιτέρω δὲ μὴ χωρεῖν, ἅτε καθαρωτέρου τοῦ ὑπὲρ τὴν σελήνην παντὸς ὄντος τόπου, οὕτω καὶ τῷ Ἡρακλείτῳ ἔδοξεν.