Fragments of Parmenides 23

 

More on the Way of Opinion, the confused perceptions of mortals:

Now that all things have been named light and night, and the names which belong to the power of each have been assigned to these things and to those, everything is full at once of light and dark night, both equal, since neither has anything to do with the other. . . . 

For just as thought stands at any time to the mixture of its erring organs, so does it come to men; for that which thinks is the same, namely, the substance of the limbs, in each and every man; for their thought is that of which there is more in them. . . .

Thus, according to men's opinions, did things come into being, and thus they are now. In time they will grow up and pass away. To each of these things men have assigned a fixed name.

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The Way of Opinion . . . 

Here shall I close my trustworthy speech and thought about the truth.

Henceforward learn the beliefs of mortals, giving ear to the deceptive ordering of my words. 

Mortals have made up their minds to name two forms, one of which they should not name, and that is where they go astray from the truth.

They have distinguished them as opposite in form, and have assigned to them marks distinct from one another. 

To the one they allot the fire of heaven, gentle, very light, in every direction the same as itself, but not the same as the other. 

The other is just the opposite to it, dark night, a compact and heavy body. 

Of these I tell you the whole arrangement as it seems likely; for so no thought of mortals will ever outstrip you. 

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Since, then, it has a furthest limit, it is complete on every side, like the mass of a rounded sphere, equally poised from the centre in every direction; for it cannot be greater or smaller in one place than in another. 

For there is no nothing that could keep it from reaching out equally, nor can anything that is be more here and less there than what is, since it is all inviolable. For the point from which it is equal in every direction tends equally to the limits. 

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The thing that can be thought and that for the sake of which the thought exists is the same; for you cannot find thought without something that is, as to which it is uttered. And there is not, and never shall be, anything besides what is, since fate has chained it so as to be whole and immovable. 

Wherefore all these things are but names which mortals have given, believing them to be true—coming into being and passing away, being and not being, change of place and alteration of bright color.

 

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And thus it remains constant in its place; for hard necessity keeps it in the bonds of the limit that holds it fast on every side. 

Wherefore it is not permitted to what is to be infinite; for it is in need of nothing; while, if it were infinite, it would stand in need of everything. 

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Moreover, it is immovable in the bonds of mighty chains, without beginning and without end; since coming into being and passing away have been driven afar, and true belief has cast them away. It is the same, and it rests in the self-same place, abiding in itself.

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Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike, and there is no more of it in one place than in another, to hinder it from holding together, nor less of it, but everything is full of what is.

Wherefore it is wholly continuous; for what is, is in contact with what is.

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How, then, can what is be going to be in the future?

Or how could it come into being?

If it came into being, it is not; nor is it if it is going to be in the future.

 
Thus is becoming extinguished and passing away not to be heard of.

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Our judgment thereon depends on this: "Is it or is it not?" 

Surely it is adjudged, as it needs must be, that we are to set aside the one way as unthinkable and nameless, for it is no true way, and that the other path is real and true. 

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I shall not let you say nor think that it came from what is not; for it can neither be thought nor uttered that anything is not.  

And, if it came from nothing, what need could have made it arise later rather than sooner? 

Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at all. 

Nor will the force of truth suffer anything to arise besides itself from that which is not. 

Wherefore, justice does not loose her fetters and let anything come into being or pass away, but holds it fast.

IMAGE: Frederick Hart, Ex Nihilo, Washington National Cathedral (1984)

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Nor was it ever, nor will it be; for now it is, all at once, a continuous one. 

For what kind of origin for it will you look for? 

In what way and from what source could it have drawn its increase?

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One path only is left for us to speak of, namely, that It is. 

In this path are very many tokens that what is is uncreated and indestructible; for it is complete, immovable, and without end. 

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For this shall never be proved, that the things that are not are; and do you restrain your thought from this way of inquiry.

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I hold you back from this first way of inquiry, and from this other also, upon which mortals knowing nothing wander two-faced; for helplessness guides the wandering thought in their breasts, so that they are borne along stupefied like men deaf and blind. 

Undiscerning crowds, who hold that it is and is not, the same and not the same, and all things travel in opposite directions!

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It needs must be that what can be spoken and thought is; for it is possible for it to be, and it is not possible for what is nothing to be. This is what I bid you ponder. 

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For you can not know what is not—that is impossible—nor utter it; for it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be.

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Come now, I will tell you—and do you hearken to my saying and carry it away—the only two ways of search that can be thought of. 

The first, namely, that It is, and that it is impossible for it not to be, is the way of belief, for truth is its companion. 

The other, namely, that It is not, and that it must needs not be—that, I tell you, is a path that none can learn of at all. 

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It is all one to me where I begin; for I shall come back again there. 

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. . . The Way of Truth

Look steadfastly with your mind at things far away as if they were at hand. You cannot cut off what is from holding fast to what is, neither scattering itself abroad in order, nor coming together.

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But restrain your thought from this way of inquiry, nor let habit by its much experience force you to cast upon this way a wandering eye, or sounding ear or tongue.

But judge by argument the much disputed proof uttered by me.

There is only one way left that can be spoken of. . . .