HI8T0BT OF THE ATOMIC THEORY. 103 



mystic style introduced into religion and philosophy. The 

 same condition of mind would produce both, according to the 

 subject to which it was applied, and that condition seems to 

 have a historical as well as natural connection. 



Albertus Magnus followed closely the reasoning of Avi- 

 cenna. He was born in 1 193, a few years earlier than Roger 

 Bacon. Some of his opinions on matter shew distinctly their 

 origin. He says,* "That matter and power are the prin- 

 ciples of each body is clear from the reasoning ; for having 

 taken away all the accidental forms, we arrive at length at a 

 substantial form, which being removed by the intellect, there 

 remains a something very occult, which is the first matter." 

 (Tandem venitur ad formam substantialem qua adhuc abstracta 

 per intellectum ; remanet quoddam valde occultum quod est 

 prima materia.) He says also, cap. iii., " Matter has a natural 

 appetite for form." He discusses whether the metals are gene- 

 rated, and decides by a peculiar reasoning that the materia 

 prima is not generated, but created, " because if it were 

 generated it would be from some other matter, therefore 

 matter would contain other matter, and so on without end ; 

 therefore the first matter is not generated, but created. 

 Creation means to make out of nothing." But the elements 

 may be generated, and Albertus Magnus easily changes one 

 into the other. " The generation of one is the corruption of 

 the other, and e converso* From the generation of one then 

 follows the corruption of the other." f 



That the four elements held their ground we see from no 

 one more clearly than Roger Bacon, born 1214. We see 

 there, too, the opinion that the original matter, yle, has none 

 of the qualities of a body, but is matter in the abstract. His 

 words are : — 



" Elementa sunt quatuor, ignis, aqua, aer, terra, modi id est 



• In the portion of his work on natural philosophy, entitled " Physicorum," 

 cap. 2. ^ 



t His chapter, De Oeneratione Elementorum- 



