80 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



gressive theory, which is probably the oldest of all theories, is 

 not sufficiently related to the chemical characters of bodies. 



After finding force and intelligence given to matter, we find 

 Pythagoras going to quite the opposite extreme, and making, 

 to all appearance, the origin of all things to be in numbers. 

 Tiedemann says, " In these early days of philosophy, the 

 abstract was not separate from the concrete, there were, 

 it is true, different names for them, but the different meanings 

 were not distinct.* Pythagoras took his abstract and general 

 ideas of objects for the objects themselves, and converted 

 general ideas into substances." Although the Pythagoreans 

 gave much of the work of the world to fire, they had no 

 distinct ideas on the elements.! In harmony with this kind 

 of reasoning, they produced everything from points which 

 seem to have been mathematical, and again, all things were 

 produced from God, because they were produced from 

 numbers, the first of which is "one." J This one is the 

 highest God, and of Him our minds are portions. 



It is a question whether we can even now in all stages 

 separate the concrete from the abstract. The principle 

 of the Pythagoreans is in reality a pure dynamical theory 

 of matter where there are mathematical points and surfaces 

 forming the limit of bodies. " All things are composed of 

 points or unities of space which form together a number." 

 The use of the word number introduces a difficulty into 

 the conception of the subject, but leads us at once to the 

 conception of force, whatever may be its origin. Their 

 love of music led them to infuse harmony into all nature, 

 and their love of mathematics led them to see in it 

 order and numerical arrangement. They gave the highest 

 place to one ; they attached particular virtues to the small 

 numbers up to five, apparently for mathematical reasons; 

 they admired seven as the origin of seven chords and planets; 



•Tiedemann, Vol. I., p. 96. f Page 97. % Ritter, Vol. I., p. 325. 



