'For by earth,' he says,
we see earth, by water water,
By ether godlike ether, by fire wasting fire,
Love by love, and strife by gloomy strife.
But-and this is the point we started from this at least is
evident, that on his theory it follows that strife is as much the
cause of existence as of destruction. And similarly love is not
specially the cause of existence; for in collecting things into the
One it destroys all other things. And at the same time Empedocles
mentions no cause of the change itself, except that things are so by
nature.
But when strife at last waxed great in the limbs of the
Sphere,
And sprang to assert its rights as the time was fulfilled
Which is fixed for them in turn by a mighty oath.
This implies that change was necessary; but he shows no cause of
the necessity. But yet so far at least he alone speaks consistently;
for he does not make some things perishable and others imperishable,
but makes all perishable except the elements. The difficulty we are
speaking of now is, why some things are perishable and others are not,
if they consist of the same principles.
Let this suffice as proof of the fact that the principles cannot
be the same. But if there are different principles, one difficulty
is whether these also will be imperishable or perishable. For if
they are perishable, evidently these also must consist of certain
elements (for all things that perish, perish by being resolved into
the elements of which they consist); so that it follows that prior
to the principles there are other principles.
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