Come now, I will tell thee—and do thou 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 <<5>> it must needs not be,—that, I tell thee, is a path that none can learn of at all. For thou canst 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.[435] R. P. 114. (6) It needs must be that what can be thought and spoken of is; for it is possible for it to be, and it is not possible for what is nothing to be.[436] This is what I bid thee ponder. I hold thee back from this first way of inquiry, and from this other also, upon which mortals knowing naught wander <<5>> 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, in whose eyes it is, and is not, the same and not the same,[437] and all things travel in opposite directions![438] R. P. 115. (7) For this shall never be proved, that the things that are not are; and do thou restrain thy thought from this way of inquiry. R. P. 116. (8) One path only is left for us to speak of, namely, that _It is_. In it are very many tokens that what is is uncreated and indestructible; for it is complete,[439] immovable, and without end. 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 wilt <<5>> thou look for? In what way and from what source could it have drawn its increase? I shall not let thee 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? <<10>> Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at all. Nor will the force of truth suffer aught to arise besides itself from that which is not.[440] Wherefore, Justice doth not loose her fetters and let anything come into being or pass away, but holds it fast. Our judgment thereon depends on this: “_Is it_ <<15>> 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. How, then, can what _is_ be going to be in the future? Or how could it come into being? If it came into <<20>> 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. R. P. 117.