ABSTRACT
As the story passes from past to future its form must change. In passing through the present the story loses its contemplative character and becomes an instrument to facilitate action. At the dawn of European thought there stands a dark oracular figure, Heraclitus (540-475 BC), whose vision is at once more ancient and more universal than the European. Plato took on himself to fulfil the Socratic method of teaching, but it was not enough for him to remain, like his teacher, a humble seeker of truth. Kepler's intense adoration of the one God sustained his long search for the concealed numerical harmony that must, he felt, lie hidden beneath the apparent irregularities of the motions of the heavenly bodies. Kepler felt that he was guided by the finger of God; Descartes proclaimed the complete autonomy of conscious reason.
