60 THE WORLD MACHINE 



minds. This was largely fruit from the application of exact, 

 that is to say mathematical, methods of reasoning. To it, one 

 set of phenomena in especial must have powerfully contributed. 

 This was the regularity of recurrence in eclipses. When our 

 knowledge of a given set of phenomena is so certain that we 

 may rise to the prediction of future events, there comes a con- 

 sciousness of certitude which can be inspired in no other way. 

 The art of eclipse predictions was known among the earliest of 

 the Greek philosophers of whom we have authentic report. 

 The successful issue of a venture of this sort made Thales seem 

 to the simple mortals about him a god-like intelligence. In a 

 larger sense than that in which it was conceived by the marvelling 

 lonians this expressed a literal truth ; for among the attributes 

 which we may conceive of divinity surely a knowledge of the 

 past and of the future must be one. The same story is told of 

 Democritus of Abdera. Both of them had dwelt long in Egypt. 

 Doubtless it was from the Egyptian priesthood that both of 

 them had borrowed their art. It was certainly known among 

 the Chaldeans hundreds of years before. 



We know, too, that mathematical methods were very early 

 applied in physical investigations, notably to that of sound. 

 Whewell gives high credit to Plato as having been among the 

 first to teach that phenomena were capable of numerical treat- 

 ment, as opposed to the empty definitions of philosophers like 

 Aristotle. In this he was but a disciple of Pythagoras, and 

 Pythagoras in turn had drunk of the founts of ancient know- 

 ledge, that is to say, of Egypt. 



Of far greater moment was the application of geometry to 

 the determination of the figure, and eventually the measure of 

 the earth. It was the first step in a true knowledge of the 

 cosmos that is to say, towards a rational conception of the 

 world. It carried the mind into regions the feet of man could 

 never traverse, that his eyes might never see. 



How, thus hobbled, could he attain to a certainty that all 

 the after flood of years would not disturb ? 



