1\1 ItOUL'C'l'IUN'. 11 



labor, ol' which the limits are here delined, arises Ironi tlie 

 siibhme consciousness of striving toward the infinite, and of 

 graspin<^r alJ that is revealed to us amid the boundless and 

 inex.hau;>liblc lullness of creation, development, and being. 



This active striving, -which has existed in all ao:es. must 

 frequently, and muler various forms, have deluded men into 

 the idea that they had reached the goal, and discovered the 

 principle Avhich could explain all that is varia])le in the or- 

 ganic world, and all the phenomena revealed to us by sen- 

 suous perception. After men had lor a long time, in accord- 

 ance with the earliest ideas of the Hellenic people, vener- 

 ated the agency of spirits, embodied in human forms, =* in the 

 creative, changing, and destructive processes of nature, the 

 germ of a scientiHc contemplation developed itself in the 

 physiological fancies of the Ionic school. The first principle 

 of the origin of things, the first principle of all phenomena, 

 was referred to two causesf — either to concrete material prin- 

 ciples, the so-called elements of Nature, or to processes of 

 rarefaction and condensation, sometimes in accordance with 

 mechanical, sometimes with dynamic views. The hypothe- 

 sis of four or live materially differing elements, which was 

 probably of Indian origin, has continued, from the era of the 

 didactic poem of Empedocles down to the most recent times, 

 to imbue all opinions on natural philosophy — a primeval evi- 

 dence and monument of the tendency of the human mind 

 to seek a generalization and simplificatioii of ideas, not only 

 with reference to the forces, but also to the qualitative na- 

 ture of matter. 



In the latter period of the development of the Ionic phys- 

 iology, Anaxagoras of Clazomense advanced from the postu- 

 late of simply dynamic forces of matter to the idea of a spirit 

 independent of all matter, uniting and distributing the homo- 

 geneous particles of which matter is composed. The world- 

 arranging Intelligence {yovc;) controls the continuously pro- 

 gressins, formation of th^ world, and is the primary source 



* In the memorable passage {Metaph., xii., 8, p. 1074, Bekker) in 

 which Aristotle speaks of " the relics of an eaiHer acquired and subse- 

 quently lost wisdom,'' he refers with extraordinary freedom and sig- 

 nificance to the veneration of physical foi'ces, and .of gods in human 

 forms: "much," says he, "has been mythically added for the persuu' 

 sion of the midtiUide, as also on account of the laws and for other useful 

 ends." 



t The important difference in these philosophical directions rpoTroi, 

 is clearly indicated in Arist., Pliya. Auscidt., 1, 4, p. 187, Bekk. (Cora* 

 pare Brandis, in the Rhein. Museum fi'ir Philologie. Jahrg. iii., s. 105.) 



