A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More

...provides us with very useful insight by testifying that Parmenides ranked the Earth among non-existent things original: "Non-entities". From this, it is manifest that he spoke symbolically, and understood it in the same way that Pherecydes understood "earth" original: χθὼν, meaning the ancient "matter" original: Hyle; the basic, unformed substance of the universe. For who would say that this physical Earth—which is the most solid and palpable entity in the world—is more of a "non-entity" than Fire or Air or the like? But Aristotle (though he sometimes says excellent things) very often triumphs and tramples upon the opinions of the ancient philosophers without any real victory, because he is ignorant of what Clement of Alexandria so clearly teaches us: "That their style of philosophy was Hebrew and enigmatic" original: Ὅτι ὁ τρόπος παρ' αὐτοῖς τῆς φιλοσοφίας Ἑβραϊκὸς καὶ αἰνιγματώδης. Since it is so evident that "Earth" carries a symbolic meaning for Parmenides, there can be no question that "Fire" carries one as well; it is nothing other than "light" original: אור or "heaven" original: Οὐρανὸς, the Ether, and corresponds in meaning to the Light or Heaven mentioned in the Creation of the first day. This is Parmenides's formative or

creative principle original: "Plastical or Demiurgical Principle" (which physical fire cannot be), just as the Earth is the material principle. I have produced such evidence as this to prove that the Pythagorean philosophy refers back to the text of Moses.

Furthermore, that philosophy which Pythagoras received from the Jews was not merely metaphysical, but also physical or mechanical—and of the same nature as Cartesianism. This is proven not only by the motion of the Earth (which is the famous opinion of Pythagoras and implies a vortex around the Sun), but also by the acknowledged atomic philosophy of Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus, who belong to the Italian lineage. Though what they say about "vortices" are either corrupt notions from a decaying school or are only brokenly and confusedly recorded by historians. And yet, I have selected something from the life of Parmenides that is so perfectly agreeable to Cartesian philosophy that nothing could be more so; it is indeed the very heart and marrow of it and, in a way, encompasses everything. It is expressed by the translator of Laërtius as follows:

"The sun itself is both cold and hot" original: Solem ipsum frigidum esse & calidum. This is a monstrous saying by Parmenides unless the meaning is simply this: "The sun is either glowing or extinguished" original: Solem esse vel candentem vel extinctum, alluding to the "sun" original: שמש and the "star" original: כוכב. Nor can it be true (as stated immediately before) that men were generated out of the sun, except in the sense that it becomes extinguished and turns into an Earth or a planet. Indeed, Descartes’s philosophy defines it this far: that this Earth from which man was first made is of such a nature as if it had once been a sun; I dare not define it any further.

16. It is therefore very evident to me that the ancient Pythagorean or Jewish Cabbala consisted of what we now call Platonism and Cartesianism. The latter is, as it were, the Body, and the former the Soul of that philosophy. The unhappy separation of these two has been a great evil to both. The Metaphysicians have grown vain, spinning out needless and useless subtleties and ridiculous falsehoods concerning immaterial beings because they lacked an easier object to exercise their reason upon. Meanwhile, the atomic philosophers have become over-believing in the powers of Matter—nay, I may say, far too impious and impudent in exploding the belief in immaterial beings, in despising the rules and maxims of virtue and morality, and in shamelessly forcing their mechanical guesses upon the world as necessary demonstra-