406 THE VITAL FORCE; 



by the tyrant, whose presence he avoided, and by the lower classes 

 of the people, whom he met gladly, and often with friendly help. 



Exhausted with fatigue, he was reposing on his couch, when the 

 newly-arrived picture was brought to him by the command of Dio- 

 nysius. Care had been taken to bring, at the same time, a faithful 

 copy of the " Rhodian Genius," and the philosopher desired the two 

 paintings to be placed side by side before him. After having re- 

 mained for some time with his eyes fixed upon them, and absorbed 

 in thought, he called his scholars together, and spoke to them in the 

 following terms, in a voice which was not without emotion :< 



" Withdraw the curtain from the window, that I may enjoy once 

 more the view of the fair earth animated with living beings. During 

 sixty years I have reflected on the internal motive powers of nature, 

 and on the differences of substances : to-day, for the first time, the 

 picture of the Rhodian Genius leads me to see more clearly that 

 which I had before only obscurely divined. As living beings are 

 impelled by natural desires to salutary and fruitful union, so the 

 raw materials of inorganic nature are moved by similar impulses. 

 Even in the reign of primeval night, in the darkness of chaos, ele- 

 mentary principles or substances sought or shunned each other in 

 obedience to indwelling dispositions of amity or enmity. Thus the 

 fire of heaven follows metal, iron obeys the attraction of the load- 

 stone, amber rubbed takes up light substances, earth mixes with 

 earth, salt collects together from the water of the sea, and the acid 

 moisture of the Stypteria (atvittrfiia, vypa), as well as the flocculent 

 salt Trichitis, love the clay of Melos. In inanimate nature, all things 

 hasten to unite with each other according to their particular laws. 

 Hence no terrestrial element (and who would dare to include light 

 among the number of such elements?) is to be found anywhere in 

 its pure and primitive simple state. Each as soon as formed tends 

 to enter into new combinations, and the art of man is needed to dis- 

 join and present in a separated state substances which you would 

 seek in vain in the interior of the earth, and in the fluid oceans of 

 air or water. In dead, inorganic matter, entire inactivity and repose 

 reign so long as the bonds of affinity continue undissolved, so long 

 as no third substance comes to join itself to the others. But even 



