I02 Science Religion and Reality 



Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, which in their turn contain the four 

 " quaHties," hotness, coldness, dryness, and moisture, in binary- 

 combination. 



((.) The earth is a sphere. It is fixed as the centre of the 

 universe, which is itself spherical. 



[d) The stars and planets move with uniform velocity in 

 concentric circles round the earth. 



[e) Circular movement is the most perfect conceivable and 

 represents the changeless, eternal, and perfect order of the Heavens 

 as contrasted with the mutable, mortal, and imperfect order that 

 prevails on this our earth. 



[f) The universe is finite. 



This system lasted unshaken for 2000 years, roughly from 



350 B.C. to A.D. 1650. But while universally accepted there were 



certain corollaries to it that obtained less wide or more partial 



acceptance. 



6. Later Greek Thought 



By the end of the fourth century B.C. science had reached 

 the zenith of its creative activity in the ancient world. Never- 

 theless much important work was done during the two centuries 

 which followed. This was due to the Alexandrian School, with 

 which names such as those of Euclid, Herophilus, Archimedes, 

 Eratosthenes, are associated. The members of the School, able 

 though they were, give the impression of being epigoni, heirs or 

 successors to a great heritage, an inspiring vision. These men were 

 the successors of the Lyceum and of the Academy in the same 

 way as their royal masters were successors of the Alexandrian 

 Empire. Archimedes stands out perhaps as the great and brilliant 

 exception. 



While, then, much was done by these Hellenistic writers to 

 develop the details of the scientific scheme, we note that already 

 by the end of the fourth century b.c. a complete and coherent 

 scheme of the physical universe had been evolved which was not 

 fundamentally altered by later investigations. That scheme had 

 been set forth in the Aristotelian writings. Now the corner-stone 

 of the Aristotelian scheme, as indeed of nearly all Greek physical 

 philosophy, was the view that substance is not created in the older 

 Hebraic sense. The point is repeatedly raised by Aristotle himself, 

 and is perhaps inherent' in the scientific method of investigating 

 the universe. It is a working hypothesis without which the 



