THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 57 



c blind necessity 5 could, therefore, be assigned by De- 

 mocritus as the active cause of the continual mutations 

 taking place in the material world. Such a spiritless 

 conception of the Universe was, however, resisted by 

 Anaxagoras. He too, like his predecessors, believed 

 that in the ordinary course of things nothing was 

 created and nothing was destroyed there was only a 

 continual flux and mutation. But the necessity of a 

 moving force, hitherto almost neglected, was fully 

 realized by him. 'The mythical powers of love and 

 hate, the blind necessity of the mechanical theory, 

 explained nothing; or at least, whatever they explained, 

 they certainly explained not the existence of design in 

 the process of nature. It was consequently seen to 

 be necessary that this notion of design should be 

 identified with that of the moving power. This 

 Anaxagoras accomplished by his idea of a world- 

 forming intelligence (vovs) that was absolutely sepa- 

 rated and free from matter and that act^d on design 1 / 

 Although the function of the vovs was, therefore, essen- 

 tially that of a mere mover or re-arranger of the in- 

 finitely minute particles of things into definite shapes 

 and forms, which were thus abstracted from an original 

 chaotic intermixture, still Anaxagoras did endow it 

 with the attribute of thinking with the power of 

 acting in accordance with design. c ln the case of 

 organized beings more especially, we have the presence 



1 Schwegler's ' Handbook of the History of Philosophy,' translated 

 by Stirling, p. 28. 



