This endless process of transition, or ever-repeated act of generation and destruction in one, was represented by Herakleitus under a variety of metaphors and symbols--fire consuming its own fuel--a stream of water always flowing--opposite currents meeting and combating each other--the way from above downwards, and the way from below upwards, one and the same--war, contest, penal destiny or retributive justice, the law or decree of Zeus realising each finite condition of things and then destroying its own reality to make place for its contrary and successor. Particulars are successively generated and destroyed, none of them ever arriving at permanent existence:[83] the universal process of generation and destruction alone continues. There is no Esse, but a perpetual Fieri: a transition from Esse to Non-Esse, from Non-Esse to Esse, with an intermediate temporary halt between them: a ceaseless meeting and confluence of the stream of generation with the opposite stream of destruction: a rapid and instant succession, or rather coincidence and coalescence, of contraries. Living and dead, waking and sleeping, light and dark, come into one or come round into each other: everything twists round into its contrary: everything both is and is not.[84] [Footnote 83: Plato, Kratylus, p. 402, and Theætet. p. 152, 153. Plutarch, De [Greek: Ei] apud Delphos, c. 18, p. 392. [Greek: Potamô=| ga\r ou)/k e)stin e)mbê=nai di\s tô=| au)tô=| kath' Ê(ra/kleiton, ou)de\ thnêtê=s ou)si/as di\s a(/psasthai kata\ e(/xin; a)ll' o)xu/têti kai\ tachei metabolês skidnêsi kai\ pa/lin suna/gei, _ma=llon de\ ou)de\ pa/lin ou)de\ u(/steron, a)ll' a(/ma suni/statai kai\ a)polei/pei, pro/seisi kai\ a)/peisi. O(/then ou)d' ei)s to\ ei)=nai perai/nei to\ gigno/menon au)tê=s_, tô=| mêde/pote lê/gein mêd' i(/stasthai tê\n ge/nesin, a)ll' a)po\ spe/rmatos a)ei\ metaba/llousan--ta\s prô/tas phthei/rousan gene/seis kai\ ê(liki/as tai=s e)pigignome/nais]. Clemens Alex. Strom. v. 14, p. 711. [Greek: Ko/smon to\n au)to\n a(pa/ntôn ou)/te tis theô=n ou)/t' a)nthrô/pôn e)poi/êsen; a)ll' ê=n a)ei\ kai\ e)/stai pu=r a)ei/zôon, a(pto/menon me/tra kai\ a)posbennu/menon me/tra]. Compare also Eusebius, Præpar. Evang. xiv. 3, 8; Diogen. L. ix. 8.] [Footnote 84: Plato, Sophist. p. 242 E. [Greek: Diaphero/menon ga\r a)ei\ xumphe/retai]. Plutarch, Consolat. ad Apollonium c. 10, p. 106. [Greek: Po/te ga\r e)n ê(mi=n au)toi=s ou)k e)/stin o( tha/natos? kai\ ê(=| phêsin Ê(ra/kleitos, tau)to/ t' e)/ni zô=n kai\ tethnêko/s, kai\ to\ e)grêgoro\s kai\ to\ katheu=don, kai\ ne/on kai\ gêraio/n; ta/de ga\r metapeso/nta e)kei=na e)sti, ka)kei=na pa/lin metapeso/nta tau=ta]. Pseudo-Origenes, Refut. Hær. ix. 10, [Greek: O( theo\s ê(me/rê, eu)phro/nê--chei/môn, the/ros--po/lemos, ei)rê/nê--ko/ros, li/mos], &c.]