Greek Atomists. 207 



to the condition of matter. To avoid the trouble of 

 rewriting, the author may take some few points of interest 

 from a work of his own long out of print. 1 



Sketch of Atomic Theories before D alt on. 



Thales held the earth to be living, and believed that all 

 things grew from water. He was born about 580 years before 

 Christ, but Van Helmont was born in 1557 A.D., or 2,158 

 years later, and he proved to his satisfaction that the 

 growth of all things from water was real ; and how few 

 people can prove that it is not true ! 



Anaximenes believed that the principle of all things 

 was in the air, which comprehended fire, water, and earth, 

 and that all that is in the earth is merely the result of 

 change in one and the same thing. But to perform these 

 wonders strange mystic powers require to be given to air and 

 water, and these have not been explained by the theorists. 



Fire had an advocate in Heraclitus, of Miletus, who 

 says that fire produces air, and causes those changes in the 

 atmosphere which produce water, whilst by its action on 

 the earth it produces land also, which is raised from the sea. 

 But then this fire was a mystic power, as the air and the 

 water had become mystic ; explanations entirely wanting. 

 We get a very meagre account of Anaximander from 

 Diogenes Laertius, who says that the principle of all things 

 was the infinite, which must be true ; but he gives no further 

 definition, and we are left to think that he saw pretty far 

 into the difficulties, but not into a mode of clearing them. 



Pythagoras made points to congregate, and called the 



1 See pp. 74-76. Life of Dalton and History of the Atomic Theory up to 

 his Time. Printed by the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 

 1856; publishers Bailliere & Co., London. Ideas of matters up to the time 

 of Lucretius and onwards. 



