82 MEMOIR OF DR. D ALTON, AND 



conceives all the elements to have existed in infinitely small 

 parts. " All things were together, infinite in number and in 

 smallness,* and this smallness was infinite, and all being 

 together, nothing was distinct because of its smallness." All 

 was put in motion by a mind which governed all, and the 

 elements attained differences of character by the preponder- 

 ance of one or other. The small particles are in constant 

 motion. There are of these particles endless numbers of 

 every character ; so a piece of gold consists of endless pieces 

 of gold, so also silver, copper, blood, bones, flesh, water, 

 fire, and earth, consist of infinitely small portions of these 

 substances.f To effect this he adds, that everything was 

 found in everything, because, as the animal grows from its 

 food, the parts of the animal must be contained in its food. 

 A kind of reasoning which, in one sense, is undeniable, but 

 no proper account is taken of the formation of compound 

 bodies, although his ideas of mixed and simple elements 

 might have been supposed to lead him to this mode of reason- 

 ing, without the invention of homoiomereia (or homeomeria), 

 the name given to this notion of every body being formed of 

 particles like to it. 



In this we find a want of discrimination in separating 

 metals from organic substances, the changes of which seem 

 much more allied to transformations, but we find in him 

 philosophy obtaining a view of mind and matter as distinct, 

 and the existence of a ruling power, God, introduced into 

 science. But even here there was some difficulty in obtain- 

 ing an idea of power without matter, and that is made like 

 an ether, which, however, has an undefined meaning, although 

 it seems generally to refer to a more refined kind of air, 

 expanded into force and intelligence. 



It is by no means intended to expound the various philo- 

 sophies of the ancients, and so from Parmenides we can only 



• Tiedemann, p. 251. f Page 1316. 



