C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Thought and Existence

Translation of Thomas Davidson

ONE and the same are thought and that whereby there is thinking;

Never apart from existence, wherein it receiveth expression,

Shalt thou discover the action of thinking; for naught is or shall be

Other besides or beyond the Existent; for Fate hath determined

That to be lonely and moveless, which all things are but a name for,—

Things that men have set up for themselves, believing as real,—

Birth and decay, becoming and ceasing, to be and to not-be,

Movement from place to place, and change from color to color.

But since the uttermost limit of Being is ended and perfect,

Then it is like to the bulk of a sphere well rounded on all sides,

Everywhere distant alike from the centre: for never there can be

Anything greater or anything less, on this side or that side;

Yea, there is neither a non-existent to bar it from coming

Into equality, neither can Being be different from Being,

More of it here, less there, for the All is inviolate ever.

Therefore, I ween, it lies equally stretched in its limits on all sides.