THE GREEK ATTITUDE 



original sphere. These changes continue without end 

 and follow each other periodically. 



When he turns to the organic world, he declares 

 that while the earth was developing, plants sprang 

 into being, and after them animals appeared. At first 

 separate parts, such as arms, or torsos, or heads, or 

 feet, formed themselves. Afterwards, by the action 

 of love, some of these united together; but, since they 

 joined as they chanced to meet, the first combina- 

 tions were mostly monstrosities such as the centaur 

 with the head of a man affixed to the body of a horse. 

 These mixed monsters were dominated by hate or re- 

 pulsion and fell apart; only gradually did the proper 

 parts of each existing animal become joined to form 

 the permanent type. To these ideas, he added the 

 Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration of souls: 

 "Before this I was born once a boy, and a maiden, 

 and a plant, and a bird, and a darting fish in the sea." 



Nowhere in the preserved portions of the writings 

 of Empedocles, nor in the ancient references to him, 

 is there a statement that he had grasped the idea of 

 evolution. He says the inorganic world was formed 

 first; after that plants appeared, and then imper- 

 fect monsters changed into the animals which he 

 knew. Each rises directly from the earth and there is 

 no hint that he had any conception of prehistoric 

 forms or of any succession of real plants and animals 

 modified to make new forms. 



It is a mystery why the evolutionists take comfort 



