CHAPTER VI. 



ON THE KINETIC OR MECHANICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 



IT was a favourite idea with the philosophers of antiquity 



^ J 



that everything is in motion, that rest is to be found 

 nowhere in nature, and that the entire process of life and 

 sensation in particular is brought 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- 

 trine which is usually fathered upon Heraclitus of Ephe- 

 sus l two distinct problems resulted, and occupied the 

 thinkers of antiquity : the problem of explaining the 

 apparent rest and permanency of many observable pheno- 



i. 



The idea of 



motion in 



ancient 



P hilos P h y- 



1 The doctrine of Heraclitus (B.C. 

 500) is placed by Zeller ('Philo- 

 sophic der Griechen,' vol. i.) in 

 direct opposition to that of the 

 Eleatic School (Parmenides, Zeno) 

 and of Pythagoras. The Eleatics 

 argued from the unity of all exist- 

 ence to the impossibility of the mul- 

 tiplicity and the change of things. 

 Heraclitus sets out from the concep- 

 tion that everything is in continual 

 motion and flow (icivt'iffBa.i, tv itivfifffi 

 tlvai). Our knowledge of Herac- 

 litus is derived mainly from refer- 

 ences in the writings of Plato and 

 Aristotle. A very full account is 



given lay Zeller, and by E. Pfleiderer 

 ( ' Die Philosophic des Heraklit von 

 Ephesus,' Berlin, 1886), who sums 

 up the fundamental idea in the 

 beautiful verses of Goethe (Gedichte, 

 " Eins und Alles ") : 



" Und umzuschaffen das Geschaffne 

 Damit sich's nicht zum Starren waffne, 

 Wirkt ewiges, lebendiges Thun. 

 Und was nicht war, nun will es werden, 

 Zu reinen Sonnen, farbigen Erden. 

 In keinem Falle darf es ruhn. 



Es soil sich regen, schaffend handeln, 

 Erst sich gestalten, dann verwandlen; 

 Nur scheinbar steht's Momente still. 

 Das Ewige regt sich fort in Allen : 

 Denn Alles muss in Nichts zerfallen, 

 Wenn es im Sein beharreu will." 



