not its own existence, but only that of the Eternal subjected to an arbitrary repetition; for the act of being and affirming are of one kind. 58. The continuance of Being is a continuous positing of the Eternal, or of nothing, a ceaseless process of becoming real in that which is not. There exists nothing but nothing, nothing but the Eternal, and all individual existence is only a fallacious existence. All individual things are monades, nothings, which have, however, become determined. The Eternal must posit without cessation, for otherwise it would be an actual nothing, while in fact it is an act; but it must incessantly suppress also this position, else it would be only a finite act, or an act which had only one kind of direction, that of affirmation + + + +, and so on, which represents only the half of arithmetic. The totality of the Finite is, therefore, of eternal duration also: the Singular, however, issues forth and disappears like the numbers in arithmetic. The eternal duration of the Finite consists, however, only in ceaseless repetition. Such an Eternal is to be distinguished therefore from the Primary eternal, and is called the Infinite. The totality of finite things is not therefore eternal, but only _infinite_. PRIMARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 59. Two tendencies are present in the primary act, both of which being inseparable are one in kind. It has the tendency to posit, and also to suppress, itself. The unity strives unto binary division or to antagonism, even as the 0 strives to produce + or-. While the primary act itself posits, it does this indeed out of its own strength, and that which it posits is also none other than itself; it itself posits i. e. _actively_; and is itself posited i. e. _passively_; it itself posits itself, is the self-position of itself; for + is nothing else than 0 self-posited. The positing and posited act are of one kind; the latter, however, is the Real, the Finite; the former the Ideal, the Eternal. Both are distinguished from each other through this only, that the Real is the posited, numbered, and consequently determined act; the ideal, however, the positing, consequently numbering and thus undetermined act. While, however, the + is nothing else than 0, it must necessarily bear a relation to it, and thus retrograde into the 0. This retrogression is an act in the reverse direction, or what is indicated in mathematics by negation. The-has been therefore necessarily granted with the +, else the + would not be represented as = to 0. The act of positing is therefore at the same time also an act of negation. So soon as the 0 is or exists, it is = +-. The realization of the Eternal is accordingly a complete antagonism of itself. For 0 is equal to +-, not simply = + or = to-.