478 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. 



modern discoveries ; as for instance, the weight of the atmosphere. 

 Following the traces of his precursors in science, he began with the 

 axiom " Nothing comes of nothing." Hence he deduced that all 

 which is results from that which has been ; that there were certain 

 immutable, indivisible, eternal elements ; that these elements are of 

 various natures, and contain in themselves the germ of what apper- 

 tains afterwards to their compounds. 



All these elements mixed and eonfounded formed chaos. This 

 chaos was motionless, dead as it were, and enveloped in a boundless 

 ether, so that there existed no void. 



It was necessary then that there should exist some cause independ- 

 ent of this chaos which might give its elements form and motion. 

 This cause is the supreme intelligence ; for intelligence alone can be 

 a principle of order, and all that is good and fitting emanates from it 

 alone. 



This intelligence must embrace all ; the past, the present, and the 

 future. Its power is immeasurable ; its activity spontaneous. It is 

 pure and free from all mixture, therefore it is independent of all sub- 

 jection or influence, therefore it is infinite and eternal. 



Some doubts have arisen as to whether he established an absolute 

 distinction between matter and spirit ; it being supposed by some 

 that the substance of his divinity was the ether. But there seems to 

 be no good foundation for these misgivings, as he expressly places the 

 air and ether under the agency of the supreme intelligence. And his 

 not using the word God to name his first cause, is sufficiently ex- 

 plained by the base purposes to which that sacred word was then 

 prostituted. 



The following trite sentences will end our sketch of Anaxagoras's 

 system of "philosophy. " Three principal acts show the power of the 

 first cause: First, it impresses motion; Secondly, it collects the ele- 

 ments proper for co-organization ; Thirdly, it decomposes existing 

 bodies, in order to form new ones from their wrecks. This intelli- 

 gence penetrates all, governs all, presents itself in all things. It is it- 

 self the principle of life." We have no account of the moral doctrines 

 of Anaxagoras, but the course of his life affords examples superior to 

 any maxims in their utility. Possessed of a competent fortune, he 

 preferred the study of science to the enjoyment of it, and courage- 

 ously endured the persecutions of fanaticism which attended the con- 

 tinuance of his favourite pursuits. 



After Anaxagoras, the names of two more Ionian philosophers oc- 

 cur ; Diogenes, of Apollonia, and Archelaus, of Miletum, both of 

 whom taught at Athens. But as they rather confused than refined 

 on the doctrines he had disseminated, it is not necessary to enter into 

 any further detail of them or their opinions, the more particularly as 

 they seem not to have been men of any very remarkable ability. We 

 shall here then take leave of the Ionian school of philosophy, making 

 this remark to conclude, That the first ideas of the formation of the 

 universe were derived from the analogy of the industrious arts, with 

 this exception, the workman and the matter he laboured on were sup- 

 posed to be co-existent, that the latter was inherent in the former. 

 Thales, the Ionian, was the first who expressly separated these ideas, 

 and to him is due all the honour of founding the new school. 



