the harmony
that occasionally resulted from one portion of the Fire in its descent
meeting another in its ascent. All this took place under Law and Order,
and the Soul of man being a portion of the Fire in its pure state, and
therefore an exile here on Earth, could only be at rest by cultivating
as the highest good, contentment ([Greek: euarestaesis]), or
acquiescence to the Law.

The author of the _Philosophumena_ professes to give us some additional
information on this philosopher who "bewailed all things, condemning the
ignorance of all that lives, and of all men, in pity for the life of
mortals," but the obscure philosopher does not lend himself very easily
to the controversial purposes of the patristic writer. Heracleitus
called the Universal Principle ([Greek: ton hapanton archae])
Intellectual Fire ([Greek: pur noeron]), and said that the sphere
surrounding us and reaching to the Moon was filled with evil, but beyond
the Moon-sphere it was purer.[97]

The sentences that the author quotes from Heracleitus in Book IX, are
not only obscure enough in themselves, but are also rendered all the
more obscure by the polemical treatment they are subjected to by the
patristic writer. Heracleitus makes the ALL inclusive of all Being and
Non-Being, all pairs of opposites, "differentiation and
non-differentiation, the generable and ingenerable, mortal and immortal,
the Logos and Aeon, and the Father and Son," which he calls the "Just
God." This ALL is the "Sadasat-Tatparam yat" of the _Bhagavad Gita_,
inclusive of Being (Sat), Non-Being (Asat), and That Which transcends
them (Tatparam yat).[98]

This Logos plays an important part in the system of the Ephesian sage,
who says that they who give ear to the Logos (the Word or Supreme
Reason) know that "All is One" ([Greek: hen panta eidenai]). Such an
admission he calls, "Reflex Harmony" ([Greek: palintropos harmoniae]),
like unto the Supernal Harmony, which he calls Hidden or Occult, and
declares its superiority to the Manifested Harmony. The ignorance and
misery of men arise from their not acting according to this Harmony,
that is to say, according to (Divine) Nature ([Greek: kata phusin]).

He also declares that the Aeon, the Emanative Deity, is as a child
playing at creation, an idea found in both the Hindu and Hermetic
Scriptures. In the former the Universe is said to be the sport (Lila) of
Vishnu, who is spoken of in one of his incarnations as Lilavatara,
descending on