46 Early Greek Anticipations. 



lution. Equally old is the notion of the essential 

 unity of existence, which is so important a constit 

 uent of our current hypothesis. &quot;When an evo 

 lutionary philosopher tells us one thing can be 

 evolved from another only because all things 

 are at bottom the same, he cannot be accused of 

 speculative innovation, seeing that his dogma was 

 a musty commonplace two thousand five hun 

 dred years ago ! Greek philosophy asserted, e.g., 

 that atoms were the essence of all things, that 

 atoms were the one underlying reality whence 

 all things had issued and whither all things tended 

 to return. But besides these two notions that 

 one thing may become another, and that all things 

 are at bottom the same Greek speculation also 

 furnishes us with a crude anticipation of the bio 

 logical doctrine of the descent of man from some 

 simpler organism. In the sixth century B.C. An- 

 aximander struck out the idea that men were 

 developed not apes but developed fishes, which 

 had come on shore and thrown off their scales. 

 And in the following century Empedocles traced 

 the origin of man through a process much akin 

 to Darwin s struggle for life and survival of the 

 fittest. This vigorous thinker held that, through 

 the action of subterranean fire, there were thrown 

 up shapeless lumps, formed of earth and water, 



