16 



PYTHAGOREAN DOCTRINES. 



[Ch. II. 



animals. 



first human beings and some previously exis 

 Anaximander evidently took for granted that 

 created in an adult or fully developed state, and in so doing 



1 -1 IT I "I • "I J ___! J J f* . _ _ I 



man 



made at least some 



time, to the modern 



But 



none of the above passages warrant the conclusion that the 

 Greek philosopher had anticipated the Lamarckian theory of 

 progressive development. Yet H. Bitter, writing in 1819,* 

 represents him as having taught that after the first imperfect 

 and short-lived creatures had been engendered in slime, an 



* 



the lower to the higher grades of 

 was formed ; and Cuvier, usually 

 so accurate, but who seems never in this instance to have 

 consulted the original texts, went a step beyond Bitter, and 

 said in 1841, 'Anaximander pretended that men had been 



trom 

 man 



mammalia 



now are. 

 in times 



system 



adds, ' which we find reproduced 

 own, and even in the nineteenth 



t 



Pythagorean Doctrines. — Pythagoras (580? B.C.), who re- 



more 



Cicero, had visited the East, and conversed with the Persian 

 philosophers, introduced into his own country, on his re- 

 turn, the doctrine of the gradual deterioration of the human 

 race from an original state of virtue and happiness ; but if 

 we are to judge of his theory concerning the destruction and 



from 



more 



must concede it to have been far 

 any known version of the cosmogonies of Oriental or Egyp- 

 tian sects. 



Although Pythagoras is int 



* Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopedia, 

 article Anaximander \ 



f ' Quoiquil en soit, Anaximandre ay- 

 ant admis l'eau comme le second prin- 

 cipe de la Nature, pretendait que les 

 hommes avaient primitivement £te 

 poissons, puis reptiles, puis mammifers 

 et enfin ce qu'ils sont maintenant, nous 

 retrouverons ce systeme duns des temps 

 tres rapproches desnotres et memo dans 



le dix-neuvieme Siecle — Cuvier, Hist. 

 des Sciences Naturelles, tome i. p. 91. 



1841. 



Lamarck and Geoffroy St. Hilaire are 

 evidently here alluded to : they had 

 derived their theory of progressive 

 development from geological data, the 

 former having published his opinions in 

 1801, and G. St. Hilaire in 1828. 



c* 



It] 



1 



t 



tion oi 



inherei 



doctrir 



of geol 

 made t 



may 



to 



} 



about 

 case, 

 ordina: 

 mers, " 

 Saniiai 

 system 

 Let 

 We 1] 



<K 



o 



c, 



and 

 thin o- 



before 



Oil 



alth 



the 



natu r . 

 gold 



et 



l 8 



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