150 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



mocritus, lie struck in with the penetrating thought, 

 linked, however, with some wild speculation, that it lay 

 in the very nature of those combinations which were 

 suited to their ends (in other words, in harmony with 

 their environment) to maintain themselves, while unfit 

 combinations, having no proper habitat, must rapidly dis- 

 appear. Thus, more than 2,000 years ago, the doctrine of 

 the "survival of the fittest," which in our day, not on 

 the basis of vague conjecture, but of positive knowledge, 

 has been raised to such extraordinary significance, had 

 received at all events partial enunciation.* 



Epicurus,' said to be the son of a poor schoolmaster at 

 Samos, is the next dominant figure in the history of the 

 atomic philosophy. He mastered the writings of Democri- 

 tus, heard lectures in Athens, went back to Samos, and 

 subsequently wandered through various countries. He fi- 

 nally returned to Athens, where he bought a garden, and 

 surrounded himself by pupils, in the midst of whom he 

 lived a pure and serene life, and died a peaceful death. 

 Democritus looked to the soul as the ennobling part of 

 man; even beauty, without understanding, partook of ani- 

 malism. Epicurus also rated the spirit above the body; 

 the pleasure of the body being that of the moment, while 

 the spirit could draw upon the future and the past. His 

 philosophy was almost identical with that of Democritus; 

 but he never quoted either friend or foe. One main ob- 

 ject of Epicurus was to free the world from superstition 

 and the fear of death. Death he treated with indifference. 

 It merely robs us of sensation. As long as we are, death 

 is not; and when death is, we are not. Life has no more 



» See "Lange," 2d edit., p. 23. 2 ^^^^ 342 b.o. 



