CHAPTER VI. 



ON THE KINETIC OR MECHANICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 



It was a favourite idea witli the philosophers of antiquity i- 

 that every thing is in motion, that rest is to be found '""tionin 

 nowhere in nature, and that the entire process of life and i''"'''*op'^>- 

 sensation in particular is Ijrought about by the communi- 

 cation and transference of minute movements of a purely 

 mechanical kind. Out of the deep conviction that every- 

 thing around us and in us is in a perpetual flux — a doc- 

 trme which is usually fathered upon Heraclitus of Ephe- 

 sus ^ — two distinct problems resulted, and occupied the 

 thinkers of antiquity : the problem of explaining the 

 apparent rest and permanency of many observable pheno- 



^ Tlie doctrine of Heraclitus (b.c. 

 500; is placed by Zeller (' Philo- 

 sophie der Griechen,' vol. i.) in 

 direct o])po.sition to that of the 

 Eleatic School (Parmenides, Zeno) 

 and of Pythagorais. The Eleatics 

 argued from the unity of all exist- 

 ence to the impossibility of the mul- 

 tiplieity and the change of things. 

 Heraclitus sets out from the concep- 

 tion that everything is in continual 

 motion and flow {Ki.vii(T%ai, iv Kivr\aii 

 tlvai). Our knowledge of Herac- 

 litus is derived mainly from refer- 

 ences in tlie writings of Plato and 

 Ari8t<jtle. K very full account i'^ 



given by Zeller, and by E. Pfleiderer 

 ( ' Die Philosophic des Heraklit von 

 Ephesus,' Berlin, 1S8C), who sums 

 up the fundamental idea in the 

 beautiful versesof i;oethe(Gedichte, 

 " Eins und Alles ") :— 



" Uiul uiMZUscliiifft'ii (las Gfschall'iie 

 Daiiiit sicli's niclit zuiii .Starien wall'ne, 

 Wiikt fwigts, UlifiiHii^;f.s Thuii. 

 Und was iiiclit war, nun will es werdeu, 

 Zu reincn .Sinmen, farbij,'en Erden. 

 In keineni Fallo darl' I's rulin. 



Es soil sicli regen, scliatletid liandtdn, 

 Erst sich gcstalteii, dann verwandk-n ; 

 Nur sclieinbar stclit's Monieute still. 

 Uas Ewige regt sich fort in Allen : 

 Denn Alles muss in Niclits zerfullen, 

 Wenn es im Sein V>eharren will." 



