THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 139 



radical extirpation of caprice, and the absolute reliance 

 upon law in nature, there grew, with the growth of 

 scientific notions, a desire and determination to sweep 

 from the field of theory this mob of gods and demons, 

 and to place natural phenomena on a basis more con- 

 gruent with themselves. 



The problem which had been previously approached 

 from above, was now attacked from below ; theoretic 

 effort passed from the super- to the sub-sensible. It 

 was felt that to construct the universe in idea, it was 

 necessary to have some notion of its constituent parts 

 of what Lucretius subsequently called the ' First 

 Beginnings.' Abstracting again from experience, the 

 leaders of scientific speculation reached at length the 

 pregnant doctrine of atoms and molecules, the latest 

 developments of which were set forth with such power 

 and clearness at the last meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion. Thought, no doubt, had long hovered about this 

 doctrine before it attained the precision and complete- 

 ness which it assumed in the mind of Democritus, 1 a 

 philosopher who may well for a moment arrest our 

 attention. ' Few great men,' says Lange, a non- 

 materialist, in his excellent ' History of Materialism,' 

 to the spirit and to the letter of which I am equally 

 indebted, ' have been so despitefully used by history as 

 Democritus. In the distorted images sent down to us 

 through unscientific traditions, there remains of him 

 almost nothing but the name of " the laughing philoso- 

 pher," while figures of immeasurably smaller significance 

 spread themselves out at full length before us.' Lange 

 speaks' of Bacon's high appreciation of Democritus for 

 ample illustrations of which lam indebted to my excellent 

 friend Mr. Spedding, the learned editor and biographer 

 of Bacon. It is evident, indeed, that Bacon considered 



1 Born 460 B.C. 



