And indeed we find that the opinions of the ancients concerning this investigation are diametrically opposed to one another. Some maintain that the universe was created and destroyed an endless number of times. Others hold that it was created only once; these are divided into two opinions: some of them think that the universe was created out of something, as, for instance, Plato and the later philosophers who follow his doctrine; while others think that the universe was created out of absolute non-existence, as for instance the early Mutakallimites, like Yahya the grammarian, according to what Ibn Rushd recorded of him in his commentary on the _Metaphysics_. In this theory they were followed by the Mutakallimites. This view was also adopted by the great philosopher, the author of the _Guide_, and by many of the sages of our religion. But there are still others who maintain that the universe is eternal. This is the theory of the philosopher and his followers. It is evident that the cause of their disagreement concerning these doctrines is the variety of objects from which they derived their proofs with regards to the nature of existing things, or because they were compelled by the Torah, or because of these two causes combined. XXXVII. PROFIAT DURAN [Philosopher and grammarian. He is called Maestre Profiat and Efodi, but his Hebrew name was Isaac b. Moses ha-Levi. He was born in the second half of the fourteenth century, and lived for some time in Perpignan. During the persecutions in 1391 he was an ostensible convert to Christianity. He afterwards wrote an epistle entitled _Al Tehi ka-Aboteka_ (Be not like thy Fathers) in which he attacked Christianity in such a manner that the superficial reader may take it as a eulogy on that religion. His best work is his philosophic-critical Hebrew grammar entitled _Ma’aseh Efod_. It is so called because the letters ‏אפד‎ are the initials of ‏דוראן‎ ‏פריפוט‎ ‏אני‎.] The Definition of the Science of Language and Its Branches[225]