COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



of rocks and not a goddess. Long after mono- 

 theism had overthrown these crude interpreta- 

 tions, the planets were still supposed to be the 

 abode of controlling archangels. Even Kepler 

 himself, early in the seventeenth century, was 

 inclined to countenance this opinion, as may be 

 seen from a remarkable passage in his " Har- 

 monices Mundi " (p. 252). It was not until 

 Newton that dynamical astronomy became a 

 positive science. Similarly with the phenomena 

 of terrestrial physics. The electric phenomena 

 of storms, the thermal phenomena of conge- 

 lation, the optical phenomena of the rainbow 

 and the mirage, have, within the period known 

 to history, been explained anthropomorphically ; 

 and, as late as the time of Cardan, echoes were 

 by the unlearned interpreted as the voices of 

 mocking demons, and ignes fatui were regarded 

 as malign spirits inhabiting marshes : while in 

 chemistry, both the Arabian alchemists and 

 their European successors — in manipulating 

 some of the more powerful reagents, and es- 

 pecially in the use of explosive or highly com- 

 bustible materials — believed themselves to be 

 forcing unwilling supernatural agents to execute 

 their purposes. Probably the name " spirits," 

 as employed in modern pharmacy, has had 

 some such anthropomorphic origin. 1 



1 [The origin of this use of the term spirits is to be found 

 in the Pneuma-doctrine of the later Greek physicians.] 



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