THALES TO LUCRETIUS 



from Theophrastus, the famous pupil of Aristotle, 

 born at Eresus in Lesbos, 371 B.C.). Perhaps, 

 following Professor Burnet's able guidance through 

 the complexities of definitions, the term BOUNDLESS 

 best expresses the 'one eternal, indestructible sub- 

 stance out of which everything arises, and into 

 which everything once more returns ' ; in other words, 

 the exhaustless stock of matter from which the waste 

 of existence is being continually made good. 



Anaximander was the first to assert the origin of 

 life from the non-living, i.e. ' the moist element as 

 it was evaporated by the sun/ and to speak of man 

 as * like another animal, namely, a fish, in the 

 beginning.' This looks well-nigh akin to prevision 

 of the mutability of species, and of what modern 

 biology has proved concerning the marine ancestry 

 of the highest animals, although it is one of many 

 ancient speculations as to the origin of life in slimy 

 matter. And when Anaximander adds that ' while 

 other animals quickly find food for themselves, man 

 alone requires a prolonged period of suckling/ he 

 anticipates the modern explanation of the origin of 

 the rudimentary family through the development of 

 the social instincts and affections. The lengthening 

 of the period of infancy involves dependence on 

 the parents, and evolves the sympathy which lies at 

 the base of social relations (cp. Fiske's Outlines of 

 Cosmic Philosophy , ii. 344, 360). 



In dealing with speculations so remote, we have 

 to guard against reading modern meanings into 

 writings produced in ages whose limitations of 

 knowledge were serious, and whose temper and 

 standpoint are wholly alien to our own. For 



