f the _Nothing_ as a _background_ or _contrasting_ element, that the
_Something_ has an independent or cognizable existence. If there were no
blank space, for instance, there could be no Moon, relatively, or so far
as our ability to perceive it is concerned. For the Moon is, in this
illustration, a _Something_ which is visible to us, and of which we have
a knowledge, only by reason of the fact that it is surrounded by and
contrasted with that which is _not_ Moon, and which, in reference to the
particular aspect under consideration is, therefore, a _Nothing_; though
it in turn may be a _Something_ or main object of attention in some
other view or conception, where some other factor shall be the Nothing.

That this Relationship of Antithesis and Rank existed, as between the
Constituents of some Thoughts or Things, was known from the earliest
times, and gave rise to the terms _Positive_ and _Negative_, expressive
of it. But Hegel was the first--of modern Philosophers, at least--to
point out its necessarily _Universal_ and fundamental character, and to
assume it as the starting-point in the development of all Philosophy and
Science.

So far as concerns the investigation of the Universe from the
_Philosophical_ point of view (which is the less precise and definite
aspect), Hegel is right in affirming that the first discrimination of
all Thought and Being is that between _Something_ and _Nothing_. But he
is wrong in regarding the starting-point or first differentiation of
_Science_, as being identical with that of _Philosophy_. Science
considers, primarily and predominantly, the more exact and rigorous
relations of Phenomena; and the existence of an _exact_ and _definite_
point of departure in Thought and Being, more fundamental, from the
Scientific or rigorously precise point of view, than that of Hegel, is
the initiatory proposition of UNIVERSOLOGY.

A full explanation of the nature of this Starting-point is not, however,
in place here. And as the discrimination into _Something_ and _Nothing_
serves all the purposes of our present inquiry, a single word respecting
the character of the Universological Point of Departure in question is
all that it is now necessary to say concerning it.

This Starting-point of Thought and Action has reference to the Ideas of
_Oneness_ (Primitive Unity) and _Twoness_ (Plurality). These conceptions
give rise to _two_ Primordial Principles, which form the basis of the
development of UNIVERSOLO