CHAPTER III 



WATER 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



IT was assuredly not chance that led Thales 

 to found philosophy and science with the 

 assertion that water is the origin of all things. 

 Whether his belief was most influenced by 

 the wetness of animal tissues and fluids, or by 

 early poetic cosmogonies, or by the ever pres- 

 ent importance of the sea to the lonians, 1 

 however vague his conception of water may, 

 indeed must, have been, he at least expressed 

 a conclusion which proceeded from experience 

 and serious reflection. Later, when positive 

 knowledge had already grown to be a sub- 

 stantial basis for speculation, both meteor- 

 ological and chemical views contributed to 

 the decision of Empedocles and Aristotle to 

 include water among the elements. 2 And it 

 is especially worthy of note that of earth, air, 



1 Windelband, "Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft," 

 V. 1. 139. Nordlingen, 1888. 



2 Windelband, I.e.; S. Giinther, " Geschichte der Natur- 

 wissenschaften." Reclam, Leipzig, Vol. I, p. 19. 



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