HISTORY OF THE ATOMIC THEORY. 77 



land grows from it, the islands lift their heads out of water, 

 and the continents repose on great waters. 



The rising of the world from oceans was a theme in the 

 still earlier cosmogonies of the east. 



If all the solid things spring from water, and if water may 

 pass into air as it seems to do in evaporating, then all things 

 spring from water. 



This idea is scarcely dead. Van Helmont believed he 

 proved by experiment that plants grow from water, and 

 without correct analyses, we should be obliged to decide in 

 the same way. 



Anaximenes believed the principle of all things to be found 

 in the boundless air. We may reason thus with him, partly in 

 his own words, and partly in ours. The world is limited, the 

 land and water have a definite termination, the air alone is 

 boundless. The air sometimes condenses from itself fierce 

 winds, black clouds, rain, snow, and solid hail; these again are 

 found on the earth as water, and are found to contain the solid 

 world, and although this may rest in the water, the water itself 

 rests in the infinite expanse of air. We breathe air, and live by 

 doing so; when we cease, life ceases; the life and soul are air, 

 which becomes in this way, not only the spirit which moves 

 all things, but the source from which all things are produced, 

 a living principle to the world as a whole, as well as to us.* 

 " He believed in four principle degrees in the qualities of air, 

 which responded to the common opinions of four elements ; 

 from these degrees, fire, air, water, and earth, were formed all 

 the other properties of natural things.**t 



Diogenes, of Apollonia, believed also in " air being the origin 

 of all things, but requires a greater variety of this element. 

 For one is not the same as the other, for there are many 

 varieties of air and many considerations; some is warmer, 

 some colder, some drier, some moister, some calmer, some 



• Ritler, Vol. I., p. 182. f Page ^W- 



