ent matter in the form of smoke and vapour. The
primal fire, according to Heracleitus, transmutes itself into air, air
into water, and water into earth. This he calls "the downward path."
To it corresponds "the upward path," the transmutation of earth into
water, water to air, and air to fire. All transformation takes place
in this regular order, and therefore, says Heracleitus, "the upward
and the downward path are one."

Fire is further specially identified with life and reason. It is the
rational element in things. The more fire there is, the more life, the
more movement. The more dark and heavy materials there are, the more
death, cold, and not-being. The soul, accordingly, is fire, and like
all other fires it continually burns itself out and needs
replenishment. This it obtains, through the senses and the breath,
from the common life and reason of the {79} world, that is, from the
surrounding and all-pervading fire. In this we live and move and have
our being. No man has a separate soul of his own. It is merely part of
the one universal soul-fire. Hence if communication with this is cut
off, man becomes irrational and finally dies. Sleep is the half-way
house to death. In sleep the passages of the senses are stopped up,
and the outer fire reaches us only through breath. Hence in sleep we
become irrational and senseless, turning aside from the common life of
the world, each to a private world of his own. Heracleitus taught also
the doctrine of periodic world-cycles. The world forms itself out of
fire, and by conflagration passes back to the primitive fire.

In his religious opinions Heracleitus was sceptical. But he does not,
like Xenophanes, direct his attacks against the central ideas of
religion, and the doctrine of the gods. He attacks mostly the outward
observances and forms in which the religious spirit manifests itself.
He inveighs against the worship of images, and urges the uselessness
of blood sacrifice.

With the Eleatics he distinguishes between sense and reason, and
places truth in rational cognition. The illusion of permanence he
ascribes to the senses. It is by reason that we rise to the knowledge
of the law of Becoming. In the comprehension of this law lies the duty
of man, and the only road to happiness. Understanding this, man
becomes resigned and contented. He sees that evil is the necessary
counterpart of good, and pain the necessary counterpart of pleasure,
and that both together are necessar