24 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of philosophy " have not troubled themselves to verify this or any other 



of the guesses of their predecessors. Chu remarks : " Heaven and earth, 



with all they contain, are nothing but transformations of one primitive 



force." And in another place, not quoted by Dr. Martin : 



The primary matter in its evolutions hitherto, after one season of fullness 

 has experienced one of decay; and after a period of decline it again flourishes, 

 just as if things were going on in a circle. There never was a decay without 

 a revival. 



To be sure, here is the idea of transformation, but scarcely that of 

 equivalence and conservation. Conservation implies quantitative rela- 

 tions, and such are certainly not expressed here or in the high-spun 

 theories of the context, just as they are lacking in the common affairs 

 of the people. The action and reaction of impact are expressed, but 

 the statement contains no hint of the principle of conservation of 

 momentum. And besides there is evident confusion, perhaps in the 

 translation only, between " force " and " energy." 



Can any proper conception of the ether and of the conservation of 

 energy be ascribed to a man (and he, the best of their philosophers) 

 who in the same connection in which occur the other passages already 

 given, writes: 



Primary matter consists, in fact, of the four elements of metal, wood, water 

 and fire, while the immaterial principle is no other than the four cardinal virtues 

 of benevolence, righteousness, prosperity and wisdom. The great extreme, a 

 principle centered in nothing, and having an infinite extent, is the immaterial 

 principle of the two powers, the four forms and the eight changes of nature; 

 we can not say that it does not exist, and yet no form or coporeity can be 

 ascribed to it. From this point is produced the one male and the female prin- 

 ciple of nature, which are called the dual powers; the four forms and eight 

 changes also proceed from this, all according to a certain natural order, irre- 

 spective of human strength in its arrangement. But from the time of Confucius 

 no one has been able to get hold of this idea. 



And we might add, nor is it likely any one ever will. 



6. Evolution. — Dr. Martin suggests that the fundamental idea of 

 evolution was entertained by early Chinese sages. He quotes from 

 Mencius : 



The study of nature has for its object to get at the causes of things. In 

 causes the ground principle is advantage. [The italics are ours.] Though 

 Heaven is high and sun and stars are far away, if we could find out the causes 

 of their phenomena, we might sit still and calculate the solstice of a thousand 

 years. 



In this word, written 400 b.c.^ Dr. Martin seems to find an indica- 

 tion that Mencius knew how to set about the study of nature, and 

 though not going so far as to say that in the word "advantage" we 

 have an anticipation of Darwin's principle, he believes that this obscure 

 hint, if followed up, might have led to Darwin's doctrine. But alas f 

 the author of the quotation and all his followers for these two thousand 



