^ 



^//■^, 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



57 



^ that --. 



W 



7 



eha 



\ 



IS still ; 



Ver' 



) 



ani^ 



'blind necessity' could, therefore, be assigned by De- 

 mocritus as the active cause of the continual mutations 

 taking place in the material world. Such a spiritless 



liverse was, however, resisted by 



U 



appreciate | 

 ^^e best a.; 



' ^^ our kno^; 



Anaxagoras. 



of things nothing was 



t the 



conce'^^'' 



! 



ertained, let 

 li moderns'^" 



Dctrines te: 



the nature od 

 the views cvt! 

 ranged. Ace 

 gardcd as tlie; 



He too, like his predecessors, believed 

 that in the ordinary course 

 created and nothing was destroyed — there was only a 

 continual flux and mutation. But the necessity of a 

 moving force, hitherto almost neglected, was fully 

 realized by him. ^The mythical powers of love and 

 hate, the blind necessity of the mechanical theory, 

 explained nothing; or at least, whatever they explained. 



they certainly explained not the existence of design in 

 the process of nature. It was cons::quently seen to 

 be necessary that this 

 identified with that of the 



notion of design should b 



moving- 



power 



This 



Anaxagoras accomplished by his 



idea of a world- 



d accordinjt forming intelligence [yovs) that was absolutely sepa- 



^-t of organic 

 ; accounted fc 



,r suppo 



sitioi 



ideup 



of tb' 



5 



or am'- 



\ 



:n size, 



to 



be 1 



indi* 



rated and free from matter and that acted on design^.' 

 Although the function of the vov^ was, therefore, essen- 

 tially that of a mere mover or re-arranger of the in- 

 finitely minute particles of things into definite shapes 

 and forms, which were thus abstracted from an original 

 chaotic intermixture. 



still Anaxagoras did endow it 



with the attribute of thinking 



to be 

 form 



able tof 



the 



i 



y 



virtue 



of 



— with the power of 

 acting in accordance with design. <In the case of 

 organized beings more especially, we have the presence 



1 Schwegler^s ' Handbook of the History of Philosophy/ translated 

 by Stirling, p. 28. . 



:.if 



pre 



desti*" 



