GREEK SCIENCE IN EARLY ATTIC PERIOD 



mingled with it would prevent it from having power 

 over anything in the same way that it does now that it 

 is alone by itself. For it is the most rarefied of all 

 things and the purest, and it has all knowledge in re- 

 gard to everything and the greatest power; over all 

 that has life, both greater and less, nous rules. And 

 nous ruled the rotation of the whole, so that it set it in 

 rotation in the beginning. First it began the rotation 

 from a small beginning, then more and more was in- 

 cluded in the motion, and yet more will be included. 

 Both the mixed and the separated and distinct, all 

 things nous recognized. And whatever things were 

 to be, and whatever things were, as many as are now, 

 and whatever things shall be, all these nous arranged 

 in order; and it arranged that rotation, according to 

 which now rotate stars and sun and moon and air and 

 aether, now that they are separated. Rotation itself 

 caused the separation, and the dense is separated from 

 the rare, the warm from the cold, the bright from the 

 dark, the dry from the moist. And when nous began 

 to set things in motion, there was separation from 

 everything that was in motion, all this was made dis- 

 tinct. The rotation of the things that were moved 

 and made distinct caused them to be yet more dis- 

 tinct." 8 



Nous, then, as Anaxagoras conceives it, is " the most 

 rarefied of all things, and the purest, and it has knowl- 

 edge in regard to everything and the greatest power; 

 over all that has life, both greater and less, it rules." 

 But these are postulants of omnipresence and om- 

 niscience. In other words, nous is nothing less than 

 the omnipotent artificer of the material universe. It 



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