100 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



of the higher forms sprang directlj^ from the 

 earth, leaving out the germ stage altogether. 



Mutability of Life 



The basic evolution idea among the Greeks 

 had its roots in the notion of the changing rather 

 than of the fixed order of all things, including 

 living things, which came from Heraclitus. The 

 essence of this principle, that everything was in 

 a state of movement, that nothing had reached a 

 state of rest, underlies the later doctrine of the 

 gradually increasing perfection of organisms. 



The essence of the idea of movement as seen 

 in the gradual development of organisms, how- 

 ever, was much earlier, for it originated with 

 Anaximander, upon whose rude notion of the 

 origin of the 'fish-men' Empedocles and other 

 writers built up their theories. Empedocles 

 added to the conception of development a num- 

 ber of important principles. First, he suggested 

 that plant life preceded animal life, and this sug- 

 gestion was taken up and expanded by Aris- 

 totle. Second, he concluded that the present 

 world of life was still formative or incomplete, 

 a modification of the general notion of Hera- 

 clitus. Third, he suggested, with apparently re- 

 markable prevision, that the first organisms were 

 formless masses without distinctions of sex, that 

 afterward the sexes were separated, and that 



