HISTORY OP THE ATOMIC THEORY. 85 



cause, and did not exist from eternity, and that it has passed 

 from order to disorder, because order is better than disorder. 

 God also has endowed the world with reason, it is an animated 

 being, and not to be destroyed, but by him who made it ; 

 but he will not destroy it, as the good cannot destroy what is 

 beautifully fitted. The world moves by its own life. The 

 elements seem to Plato, to be only forms under which matter 

 exists, and are convertible one into the other. The five 

 forms of matter serve as a base to determine the elementary 

 forms, the pyramid corresponds to fire, the cube to earth, 

 the octahedron to air, the icosahedron to water, whilst the 

 dodecahedron, like the sphere, comprehends like the earth, 

 all the elements. 



These are the expressions of Ritter, but on looking into 

 the original it is not found exactly so, although the mode of 

 reasoning somewhat justifies it. The words are ^^tartj ^1, 

 Kara rov op3^ov Xoyov icai Kara tov liKOTa, to fjilv Trig irvpaiJ.idoc 

 (TTtpwv ytyovog i'l^og, irvpog (TTOi)(iiov kcli (nrtpiuia,*' &c., as in 

 the translation of Davies. " Let it be agreed then that 

 according both to strict probable reasoning the solid form of 

 pyramid is the element and germ of fire," &c. ; another way 

 of expressing matter dynamically. 



In the Timaeus he says, " First, then, that fire and earth, 

 water and air, are bodies, is evident. * * * * }^q 

 must relate, then, of what kind these most beautiful bodies 

 were that thus came into being, and which, however unlike 

 each other, may yet be produced from each other by disso- 

 lution. By accomplishing this we shall ascertain the truth 

 about the generation of earth and fire, as well as those ele- 

 ments (water and air) which hold an intermediate position, 

 for then we shall allow no one to assert that there are visible 

 bodies more beautiful than these, each of which belongs to a 

 separate class." But this does not seem to have been held 

 firmly, because he says also at 51 Timseus, ** Our plastic 

 Creator, reflecting on all this, then mingled and united 



