THE GREEK ATTITUDE 



The Epicureans were materialistic monists without 

 any reservations. They accepted and made more pre- 

 cise the atomic theory of Democritus. The earth and 

 all the visible stars form but one of an infinite num- 

 ber of worlds, whose stuff is nothing but minute, in- 

 divisible, and eternal atoms which combine and sepa- 

 rate according to natural law. Gods may exist, but, in 

 agreement with many modern evolutionists, when 

 they have created the atoms and have instituted phys- 

 ical law, their further intervention is unnecessary for 

 the explanation of phenomena. Our knowledge of the 

 Epicurean philosophy is mostly derived from the De 

 Rerum Natura of Lucretius. In Book V, there is a 

 highly poetic account of the creation which is the 

 nearest approach to a doctrine of evolution in any 

 classical writer. All forms of life spring directly from 

 the earth ; they appear as a succession from lower to 

 higher species, but there is no suggestion of a muta- 

 tion from one species to another. 



The Stoics were also materialistic monists but of 

 a less thoroughgoing type. They were very like 

 Huxley in believing that the spiritual world exists as 

 well as the material, but the facts and laws of the lat- 

 ter were to them, and to him, so much more compre- 

 hensible and certain that it was better to explain all 

 phenomena of life as if they were mechanical. Mat- 

 ter and force are the only realities and are the two 

 ultimate principles. But as matter is entirely inert 

 all phenomena must be due to an active principle, 



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