THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



The essence of each kind of material substance is 

 thus immutable; creation means, not to bring sub- 

 stance into existence out of nothing, but to separate 

 and to sort a mixture already existing by giving it 

 motion. In a fragment preserved for us, Anaxagoras 

 explains his idea in this manner: "When mind had 

 once set things in motion, it [mind] began to with- 

 draw from all that was moving; and whatever mind 

 set in motion, all this was differentiated. During this 

 process of motion and differentiation, the rotation 

 caused the things to be much more differentiated."^ 

 He answers the argument for mutation by saying, 

 how can hair come from anything else than hair, or 

 flesh from anything but flesh'?" Thus the World Mind 

 or nous of Anaxagoras is somewhat like the Jehovah 

 of the Jews, a spiritual power creating the world ac- 

 cording to a design. It is distinguished absolutely 

 from matter and has supreme power over matter, 

 which remains chaotic until directed motion is given 

 to its inertia, neither by fate nor by chance ; and the 

 ordered world is created according to the precon- 

 ceived plan of its creator and ruler. This is a com- 

 plete dualistic philosophy, in that organic and inor- 

 ganic bodies are essentially different because to the 

 former is added a principle of life or mind. While 



5 This translation of an obscure and possibly corrupt passage of 

 Anaxagoras in whicli he attempts to explain his idea of the creation 

 is taken from Diel's Vorsokratiker with Heidel's interpretation that 

 the mind withdrew from the motion it caused. The translation as 

 given by Fairbanks, op. cit., p. 243, is not so satisfactory. 



6 Fairbanks, op.cit., p. 245. 



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