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Dr. Ciid\rorth obfen-es, that tlioiiglv adopteJ by Epicurus, 

 it has been commonly alcribed to Dcmocritus, who was 

 prior both to Arillotle and Plato ; but Laertius reprefeiits 

 Leucippus, who was fomewhat lenior to Dcmocritus, as the 

 firft inventor of it. Arillotle, who often mentions this phi- 

 lofophy, commonly afcribes it to Leucippus and Democritus 

 jointly. Pluto refers its original to Protagoras, who was 

 an auditor of Democritus. " However", fays the learned 

 Cudworth (ubi fupra p. 1 2.), " we are of opinion, that nei- 

 ther Democritus, nor Protagoras, nor Leucippus, was the 

 firft inventor of this philofophy ; and our reafori is, bccaufe 

 they were all three of them athcills (though Protagoras 

 alone was baniflicd for that crime by the Athenian") ; and 

 we cannot think that any athciils could be the mventors of 

 it ; much lefs that it was the genuine fpawn and brood of 

 atheifin itfelf, as fome conceit, becaufc however thefe 

 atheilts adopted it for themfelves, endeavouring to ferve 

 ' their turns of it, yet if rightly underllood, it is the moll ef- 

 feftual engine againft atheifm that can be." This learned 

 writer alleges alfo hiftorical probability for the opinion 

 that this philofophy was much more ancient than cither 

 Democritus or Leucippus. To this purpofe he obfervcs, 

 that Pofidonius, as u-e learn from Empiricus and Strabo, 

 avowed it for an old tradition, that the tirll inventor of this 

 atomical philofophy was one Mofchus, a Phoenician, who 

 according to Strabo, hved before the Trojan war, and who 

 has been fuppofed by fome perfons to be the lame with 

 Mofes the Jewilh lawgiver. SeeMoscHUs. 



Dr. Cudworth further maintains, that Pythagoras, who is 

 thought to have converfed at Sidon with the Jewirti philofo- 

 phers, priells, and potts, that were the fucceflbrs of Mofes, to 

 have borrowedmany things from the Jews,andto have tranfla- 

 tcd them into his philofophy, was not unacquainted with the 

 atomical phyfiology ; and he therefore concludes, that the phi- 

 lofophy of Democi-jtus was Pythagorean; and the philofophy 

 of Pythagoras, Democritical or atomical. Accordingly, he 

 alleges the authority of Ecphantus, a famous Pythagorean, 

 and other tcftimonies, to prove that the Monads of Pytha- 

 goras were nothing elfe but corporeal atoms. In or- 

 der to reconcile Ariftotle with himfelf, and to preferve the 

 credit of Laertius, both of whom afcribe this philofophy to 

 Democritus and Leucippus, as its firft authors, Cudworth 

 fuggefts, that although the atomical phyfiology was in ufe 

 long before Democritus and Leucippus, yet thefe two with 

 their confederate atheifts, of whom Protagoras feems to have 

 been one, were undoubtedly the lirft " that ever made this 

 phyfiology to be a complete and entire philofophy by itfelf, 

 fo as to derive the original of all things in the whole univerfe 

 from fenfckfs atoms, that had nothing but figure and motion, 

 together with vacuum, and made up fuchafyftem of it, as from 

 whence it would follow there could not be any God, not fo 

 much as a corporeal one." The atomical philofophy, accord- 

 ing to this learned writer, exifted before and without athe- 

 ifm ; and Democritus and Leucippus are to bo regarded 

 as the firft inventors or founders of the atomical philofophy 

 " atheized and adulterated." Confequently, there have 

 been two forts of atoniifts in the world ; the one atheiftical, 

 the other religious. The firft and moft ancient atomifts, 

 holding incorporeal fubftancc, uled that phyfiology in a 

 way of fubordination to theology and metaphyfics. The 

 others, allowing no other fubftance but body, made fenfelefs 

 atoms and figures, without any mind and' underftanding, 

 (i. e. without any God) to be the original of all things ; 

 which latter is that, that was vulgarly known by the name of 

 atomical philofophy, of which Democritus and Leucippus 

 were the fource. Dr. Cudworth has fhewn, by a variety 

 of citations from ancient writers, that the atomifts before 



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Democritus did generally join theology and incorporcalifm 

 with their atomical phyfiology ; and he has alfo proved by 

 the moft conclufive rcafoning, that atheifm, fo far from being 

 a natural and necelfai^' appendage to atomifm, is totally dif- 

 tinft from it ; that there is, neither in reafon nor in faft, any 

 inconfiftency betwixt the atomical phyfiology and theology ; 

 and that there is, on thj contrary, a moft natual cognition 

 or alliance between them. Ubi fupra, p. 27, &c. The 

 atomic philofophy of Democritus andlveucipj)us was cultiva- 

 ted and improved by Epicurus, though he would not acknow- 

 ledge that lie had borrowed his hypothefis from any ; and 

 from him it obtained the denomination of the Epicurean 

 pliilofiiphy. See the articles Democritus, Lrucippus, 

 Epicurus, and Epicurean PJi'dofophy. See alfo Cosmo- 

 gony. 



Tlie opinion of Dr. Cudworth with refpcft to the anti- 

 quity of the atomic philofophy has been contefted by fome 

 later writers. The learned bilhop Warburton, in his *' Di- 

 vine Legation of Mofes," admits it as a fettled point, that 

 Democriius and Leucippus were the authors of this phy- 

 fiology : and Brucker (Hift. Philof. by Enfield, vol. i. 

 p. 60.) thinks, that the fingle evidence of Pofidonius, the 

 iloic, who lived fo many ages after the time of Mofchus, 

 to whom Cicero allows little credit, and of whofe authority 

 Strabo and Scxtus Empiricus, who refer to him, intimate 

 fome fufpicion, is too feeble to fupport the whole weight 

 of this opinion. But the circumftance, fays this writer, 

 which moft of all invalidates it, is, that the method of 

 philofophizing by hypothefis or fyftem, which was followed 

 by the Greek philofopheis, was inconliftcnt with the genius 

 and character of the barbaric philolophy, which confifted 

 in fimple aflertion, and relied entirely upon traditional au- 

 thority. He adds, that the part of the hiftory of Pytha- 

 goras vvhich relates to this fubjedl, has been involved in ob- 

 Icurity by the later Platonifts ; and that neither the doftrine 

 of monads, nor any of thofe fyftems which are faid to have 

 been derived from Mofchus, are the fame with the atomic doc- 

 trine of Epicurus. He therefore concludes, that, whatever 

 credit the corpufcular fyftem may derive from other fources, 

 it has no claim to be confidered as the ancient doitrine of 

 the Phoenicians. We incline however to admit the tcftimo- 

 nies and arguments of Dr. Cudworth ; and with the diftinc- 

 tion which he has adopted between the atomic philofophy 

 derived from tradition before tlie time of Democritus and 

 Leucippus, and that fyftem of materialifm and atheifm 

 connccled with it by their fpeculations, and with this re- 

 proach annexed to it tvahfmitted to Epicurus and his fol- 

 lowers, by whom it was again modified, it feems moft pro- 

 bable, that the atomic philofophy was not firft invented by 

 thefe fpeculative philofophers, but derived by tradition 

 from Phoenicia or Egypt. The atomic philofophy has 

 been revived by fome moderns, end particularly by Gaftendi 

 and others, who, rejefting the eternity of atoms and their 

 fortuitous motion, have made it a very intelligible and ratio- 

 nal fyftem. It is now efpoufed and adhered to by a great 

 part of the philofophical world, under the denomination of 

 the CoRPUscuLAR/A/'/p/i/'/y; which fee. It is the philofo- 

 phy of Newton, Locke, and all their follov.'ers ; and it 

 claims regard, among other confiderations, from its being 

 the genuine philofophy of the firft and moft ancient atomifts. 

 The fcholaftic divines among the Mahometans, who are 

 very orthodox as to the creation of the world by God, do 

 alfo admit both atoms and a vacuum ; but their atoms are 

 different from thofe of Leucippus, for they have no magni- 

 tude and are all like one another: and they fnppofe, as that 

 philofopher ought to have done, that every atom of a 

 living body is alive, that every atom of a fenfitivc body is en- 

 dued 



