Eureka - Video Two

Eureka - Text w/ commentary

https://www.belladeflor.com/s/Eureka-Video-Two-with-Commentary-by-Bella-DeFlor.pdf

EUREKA Video Script

Infinity: The Word Beyond Words

This video focuses on one of the most mysterious words in all of human language: Infinity.

It sounds vast and celestial—like “God” or “Spirit.” But Edgar Allan Poe challenges us to pause and ask what this word actually does—and what it fails to do.

If you’re just joining me, this is the second video in my series on Eureka, Poe’s final and most enigmatic work. Eureka is not a story or theory in the traditional sense—it’s part cosmology, part metaphysics, and a poetic exploration of the origin of the universe, the nature of God, and the hidden unity behind all things.

In the first video, Poe questions logic—not to destroy it, but to remind us that the deepest truths do not require proof. He also tells us that the universe began in a perfect unity: completely whole and unfractured.

Who I Am

I’m Bella DeFlor, and I’m deconstructing Eureka in chronological order. You’ll find a direct link in the comments with the section of Eureka I’m discussing today, along with my personal annotations. You can follow me @IsabelEthereal on all platforms.

I’m currently working on my first mythical fantasy series and dedicating my life to researching and sharing the kind of wisdom I wish had been taught in schools. If you’d like to support this work—or simply gift me a coffee—you can Venmo me @IsabelEthereal.

Infinity vs. Finitude

Poe writes that infinity is not an idea—it’s an attempt at an idea. A reach toward something we cannot define. It’s a word we use when we hit the limits of comprehension.

We accept infinite space without questioning it. But is that truth, or intellectual laziness?

Poe argues that the mind finds infinity easier to accept because it’s formless and boundless. In contrast, the finite requires precise definition, boundaries, and clarity.

Just because something is harder to imagine doesn’t make it less true. Difficulty isn’t a measure of truth—it reflects our mind’s limitations.

So let’s define the terms:

• Infinity: No beginning, no end, no limit. It cannot be measured. It simply is.

• Finitude: Has boundaries. Measurable. Begins and ends. Exists within space and time.

According to Poe, both infinity and finitude are equally impossible to fully conceive. Favoring one over the other just because it’s easier leads to shallow understanding.

Challenging the First Cause

Poe also challenges the concept of the First Cause, often associated with God.

We accept the idea of a divine beginning because our minds can’t tolerate infinite regress. But Poe asks—if there’s a beginning, shouldn’t there be an end?

We’re being asked to believe in an infinite universe with a starting point—a paradox. True infinity has no origin. So if we want to understand the cosmos, we must stop confusing infinity with finite beginnings.

He writes:

“I cannot conceive Infinity, and am convinced that no human being can.”

Infinity isn’t a comprehension—it’s a mirage of thought. Not a staircase without an end, but an exhaustion mistaken for insight.

Even the finite is no easier. Both concepts are beyond our grasp. We don’t know them—we believe in them through intuition, not reason.

The Divine Limit of Thought

Poe places these ideas in what he calls a “nebula”—not to be solved, but gazed upon. And he warns us: some thinkers mistake obscurity for depth. True wisdom comes from self-awareness, not self-deception.

He’s not asking us to imagine “absolute infinity of space.” That’s impossible. Instead, he speaks of an expanse shaped by the energy of imagination—space not as defined by science, but by mind.

Even then, we carry the baggage of old thought—astronomy, logic, geometry. We mistake the visible for the real.

He references Pascal’s famous line:

“A sphere of which the center is everywhere, and the circumference nowhere.”

Poe says it’s poetic—but not a real definition. Because no matter where we go in space, we still find stars. There’s no final edge.

One Particle, One Origin

Then Poe makes a radical move. He says: Let’s begin at the Godhead. Not out of dogma, but because if we want to speak of origins, we must begin where thought cannot reach.

He quotes Baron de Bielfeld:

“We know absolutely nothing of the nature or essence of God… To comprehend what He is, we would have to be God ourselves.”

The divine isn’t a thought—it’s the limit of thought.

And Poe makes one absolute proposition:

Matter was created in a single instant, by a single force, as a single form.

Spirit—not matter—was first. And from pure Will, Matter emerged out of nothing. He doesn’t argue this logically. He says:

Intuition simply knows.

The first creation was One Particle. Literal. Not metaphorical.

Diffusion, Not Explosion

From this single particle, everything emerges—stars, atoms, bodies, even thoughts.

Poe calls it:

“Absolutely unique… not indivisible, but undivided—and only divisible by the Will that made it.”

Creation isn’t explosion. It’s diffusion. The One radiates outward. Every atom carries a memory of that unity. A homesickness. A longing to return.

This is the root of attraction, cohesion, and motion.

The universe expands, but its atoms do not forget. They are siblings, not strangers. What is the universe, then?

Not chaos.

Not cold randomness.

But unity, choosing to become many—with a vow to return.

But the return must be delayed. Otherwise, the universe would collapse.

The Sacred Pause

What holds separation in place?

Repulsion—the sacred delay. It allows form, time, and difference to unfold. It is not opposition to unity, but its guardian.

Eventually, Poe says, repulsion will dissolve. And all will return to Oneness.

And what is this repulsion?

Electricity.

Repulsion is what we experience as electricity, magnetism, heat. Electricity only occurs when bodies approach and are not the same—when difference flickers before reunion.

It is Spirit trembling in tension.

And Poe makes a further claim:

Electricity is also consciousness.

Consciousness is what happens when Spirit resists reunion just long enough to become awareof its own separation.

Thought is not random—it is spiritualized difference.

We are atoms held apart long enough to remember we were once One.

Modern Science and Poe’s Vision

All of this…

Doesn’t it sound like the Big Bang Theory?

A single origin.

A cosmic expansion.

A universe born from one act.

But Poe wrote this in 1848. The Big Bang theory emerged nearly a century later.

Yet no one names Poe as a precursor to that vision.

And maybe they should.

Closing

Thank you for reading.

You’ll find this section of Eureka on my website and linked in the comments.

Follow me @IsabelEthereal for more on literature, spirituality, metaphysics, and consciousness.

Always think critically.

Question loudly.

And remember:

Echoes are not evidence.

There is more to unveil.

And I’ll be back soon.