HISTORY OF THE ATOMIC THEORY. 93 



which was before. Something, therefore, must necessarily remain 

 unchanged in that fire of theirs, that all things as you see, may 

 not utterly fall to nothing, and that the multitude of objects in 

 the universe may not have to flourish by being reproduced from 

 nothing.* 



f " It would be to no purpose that some (of these elements) should 

 detach themselves and depart, and be assigned to another place, and 

 that some should have their order changed, if they all still retained 

 the nature of fire, for whatever (fire) should produce would be in all 

 forms only fire. But, as I think, it stands thus : — There are certain 

 elementary bodies, whose combinations, movements, order, position, 

 shapes, produce fire, and which, when their order is changed, change 

 their nature ; nor, as I think, are they like to fire, or to any other 

 thing, which has the power of emitting particles to our senses, and 

 aflfecting our touch by its application. 



J " Wherefore those who have thought that fire is the primary 

 matter of all things, and that the whole universe may originate from 

 fire ; and those who have determined that air is the first principle 

 for the production of things; those who have imagined that water can 

 itself form things of itself, and that the earth produces all things, and 

 is changed into all substances of things, appear all to have wandered 

 extremely far from the truth. 



" Also those who couple the elements of things, uniting air with 

 fire, and earth with water, and who think that from these four things 

 all bodies proceed. * * * * § Moreover, if all things were 

 produced from these four bodies, and all things dissolved into these 

 bodies, how can these be called the primary elements of things, rather 

 than, on the other hand, things (called the elements) of them, and 

 a backward computation be made ? 



II And now let us examine the ofioiofiepeia (homeomeria), as the 

 Greeks call it, of Anaxagoras, nor does the poverty of our native 

 tongue allow us to name it in our own language. * * * He 

 thinks that bones are produced from small and minute bones. So 

 likewise flesh is generated from small and minute particles of flesh, 

 and so on. 



• 1. 636-676 t 1- 681. % 1. 706. § 1. 764. | 1. 830. 



