112 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 
conceptions—conceptions that have been evolved by the 
modern scientist only after the most painstaking and 
_ laborious investigations. 
One of the oldest of the physical conceptions of the unj- 
verse that has come down to us seems to be the theory of the 
four elements—usually attributed to Empedocles, but how 
much older it may be no one can say—and it comes to us 
with the seal of Aristotle upon it. It has often been pointed 
out that if, for the terms air, water, earth, and fire, we 
read—gas, liquid, solid, and energy—as a study of the views 
of those who held the four-element doctrine seems to fairly 
justify—then we have a first proximate analysis of the world 
of matter endowed with energy which is true for us to-day. 
It applies equally to the human body—to the microcosm as 
to the macrocosm—the breath of life, water with the canal 
traffic, the solid flesh and bones, and the inner fires yielding 
heat and other energies. 
The atom as originally conceived, or adopted, by Leucip- 
pus and Democritus, and recorded by Lucretius—differing 
atoms, but all in constant motion—will pass for the atom of 
many a chemist of to-day. The vortex-atom of Lord Kelvin 
even finds a rude prototype in the vortical motion and the 
Homeomeries of Anaxagoras. The Hindus, it is stated, 
bequeath to us the conception of a universal gravitation. 
Many will agree that the Protyl of Crookes has been more 
than once anticipated. 
The principle of the conservation of mass has been stated 
by Democritus—nothing can come from nothing, and 
nothing can be destroyed; and all changes are brought 
about by combinations and separations of atoms. Aristotle’s. 
ether was a fifth element, the idea of which appears to be 
traceable to a much earlier Hindu philosophy. 
If we read further we find an earlier La Place; and the 
more we read the more we are astonished at the remarkable 
anticipations of modern views that these old writings reveal. 
And when we find it stated that air is the origin of all 
things—that all things come from air, and can all pass into 
air again, air standing for gas or vapour—does this not fit in 
with the beliefs of the hour? 
But even assuming for the moment that a fundamental 
physical conception may be reached by the prophetic vision 
of genius, which seems to arrive at its results per saltum, 
without the laborious process of syllogistic reasoning; even 
assuming this, the result may be of little or no value. It 
may, it is true, be a mental seed of great potency and pro 
mise; but, if it lacks a suitable habitat, it may rest a seed. 
