xliv PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



Philosophy, which lies as much outside the scope of the 

 present work as beyond the powers of the writer. Still, 

 Seneca cannot be altogether detached from what pre- 

 ceded him. In order to throw light upon his work, it 

 may be permissible to pass in rapid review a few of the 

 chief sources from which he drew. Our starting-point 

 may be Aristotle. 



Aristotle is with good reason named " the master of 

 those who know " (Dante, H. iv.). He may be said to 

 have summed up the knowledge of the ancient world, 

 at least as far as Greece is concerned, on all subjects. If 

 not the founder of Science any more than of Philosophy, 

 he recapitulated so fully all that went before that he 

 became the fountain-head and source from which all 

 succeeding workers mainly drew. He systematised the 

 existing materials, adding his own criticisms and observa- 

 tions, and illuminating the whole with the strong light of 

 his unrivalled powers. He drew upon many authorities 

 whose works are now lost, the leading names among 

 them being familiar from the Q.N. Thales, Anaximander, 

 Pythagoras, and the rest. The extent and variety of 

 the material may, perhaps, best be understood from a 

 work like Professor Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, to 

 which reference should be made. A reasoned con- 

 secutive account will there be found of the individual 

 contributions made to philosophy (including science) by 

 the early Greek thinkers. Long before Aristotle's time 

 numerous physical theories had been propounded, and 

 had been supported by their authors with great acuteness 

 of argument ; hardly any question had been left unasked 

 that related to matter, motion, or mind. " We may smile, 

 if we please, at the strange medley of childish fancy and 

 true scientific insight. . . . But we shall do well to remem- 

 ber at the same time that even now it is just such hardy 

 anticipations of experience that make scientific progress 

 possible, and that nearly every one of the early inquirers 

 . . . made some permanent addition to the store of posi- 

 tive knowledge, besides opening up new views of the 

 world in every direction " (pp. cit. 29). 



