6 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



and asked instead what all things really are now." 

 For the early notions of the Greeks about nature, 

 being an inheritance from their barbaric ancestors, 

 were embodied in myths and legends bearing strong 

 resemblance to those found among the uncivilized 

 tribes of Polynesia and elsewhere in our day. For 

 example, the old nature-myth of Cronus separating 

 heaven and earth by the mutilation of Uranus occurs 

 among Chinese, Japanese, and Maoris, and among 

 the ancient Hindus and Egyptians. 



The earliest school of scientific speculation was 

 at Miletus, the most flourishing city of Ionia. Thales, 

 whose name heads the list of the " Seven Sages," 

 was its founder. As with other noted philosophers 

 of this and later periods, neither the exact date of his 

 birth nor of his death are known, but the sixth 

 century before Christ may be held to cover the period 

 when he " flourished." 



That " nothing comes into being out of nothing, 

 and that nothing passes away into nothing," was the 

 conviction with which he and those who followed 

 him started on their quest. All around was change; 

 everything always becoming something else; " all in 

 motion like streams." There must be that which is 

 the vehicle of all the changes, and of all the motions 

 which produce them. What, therefore, was this per- 

 manent and primary substance? in other words, of 

 what is the world made? And Thales, perhaps 

 through observing that it could become vaporous, 

 liquid, and soHd in turn; perhaps — if, as tradition 



