18
The fact is that we really have no part nor parcel in Being, Cf. Philo, De Iosepho, 125 (chap. xxii.). but everything of a mortal nature is at some stage between coming into existence and passing away, Cf. Diels, Frag. der Vorsokratiker, i. 15, Anaximander, no. 9; Plato, Phaedo, 95 e; von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, ii. 594 (p. 183). and presents only a dim and uncertain semblance and appearance of itself; and if you apply the whole force of your mind in your desire to apprehend it, it is like unto the violent grasping of water, which, by squeezing and compression, loses the handful enclosed, as it spurts through the fingers Cf.Moralia, 1082 a.; even so Reason, pursuing the exceedingly clear appearance of every one of those things that are susceptible to modification and change, is baffled by the one aspect of its coming into being, and by the other of its passing away; and thus it is unable to apprehend a single thing that is abiding or really existent.
18
It is impossible to step twice in the same river are the words of Heracleitus, Cf. Diels, Frag. der Vorsokratiker, i. p. 96, Heracleitus, no. 91. Plutarch refers to this dictum also in Moralia, 559 c. nor is it possible to lay hold twice of any mortal substance in a permanent state; by the suddenness and swiftness of the change in it there comes dispersion and, at another time, a gathering together; or, rather, not at another time nor later, but at the same instant it both settles into its place and forsakes its place; it is coming and going.
