42 AMONG THE GREEKS. 



created or ordered by reason. He adopted the 

 older views as to the origin of animals and plants 

 directly from the terrestrial slime. His main indi- 

 rect contribution to the s ub-structu re of Ev olution 

 was his perception of the principle of the adaptation 

 of single structures and organs to certain purposes, 

 — an important step in advance, for Empedocles' 

 notion of adaptation extended only to organisms as 

 a whole. 



Anaxagoras (500-428 B.C.) took a further step. 

 According to Plato and Aristotle, this philosopher 

 was the first to attribute adaptations in Nature to 

 Intelligent Design, and was thus the founder of 

 Teleology. He also was the first to trace the 

 origin of animals and plants to pre-existing germs 

 in the air and ether. That the idea of Design was 

 only developed in his mind to a very limited extent 

 is shown in his history of the Universe. All things 

 existed, in some form, from the beginning. There 

 were the germs, seeds, or miniatures of plants, ani- 

 mals, and minerals intermingled in the mass of 

 matter. These germs had to be separated from the 

 mass and arranged under the direction of Mind or 

 Reason. The original chaos was heated ; it divided 

 into cold mist and warm ether. Water, earth, and 

 minerals were formed from the former. The germs 

 of plants were floating in the air; then they were 

 carried down by the rains, and produced vegetation. 

 The germs of animals, including those of man, were 

 in the ether ; they were fructified by the warm and 



