A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



about alone with no foreheads." 1 ' This chaotic con- 

 dition, so the poet dreamed, led to the union of many 

 incongruous parts, producing "creatures with double 

 faces, offspring of oxen with human faces, and chil- 

 dren of men with oxen heads." But out of this chaos 

 came, finally, we are led to infer, a harmonious ag- 

 gregation of parts, producing ultimately the perfected 

 organisms that we see. Unfortunately the preserved 

 portions of the writings of Empedocles do not enlighten 

 us as to the precise way in which final evolution was 

 supposed to be effected; although the idea of endless 

 experimentation until natural selection resulted in 

 survival of the fittest seems not far afield from certain 

 of the poetical assertions. Thus: "As divinity was 

 mingled yet more with divinity, these things (the va- 

 rious members) kept coming together in whatever way 

 each might chance." Again: "At one time all the 

 limbs which form the body united into one by love 

 grew vigorously in the prime of life ; but yet at another 

 time, separated by evil Strife, they wander each in 

 different directions along the breakers of the sea of life. 

 Just so is it with plants, and with fishes dwelling in 

 watery halls, and beasts whose lair is in the mountains, 

 and birds borne on wings." 17 



All this is poetry rather than science, yet such imag- 

 inings could come only to one who was groping towards 

 what we moderns should term an evolutionary con- 

 ception of the origins of organic life ; and however gro- 

 tesque some of these expressions may appear, it must be 

 admitted that the morphological ideas of Empedocles, 

 as above quoted, give the Sicilian philosopher a secure 

 place among the anticipators of the modern evolutionist. 



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