I O AN TI CI PA TION AND INTER PRE TA TION OF NA TURE. 



trace the rise and fall of certain ideas ; even our 

 present thought leaders having their remote paral- 

 lels in the past. For even amidst our present 

 wealth of facts the impassable boundaries of human 

 thought seem to confine us to unconscious revivals 

 of Greek conceptions. There are many observers, 

 but few who can strike out into the absolutely 

 virgin soil of novel suggestion. 



The special phases of Evolution development 

 may accordingly be marked off in the following 

 manner: — 



The Anticipation of Nature : Greek Evolution. 



I. 640 B.C.-1600 A.D. 



Greek Evolution in Christian Theology ; in Arabic 



Philosophy. 



The rise, decline, revival, and final decline of the 

 Greek Natural History and Greek conception of 

 Evolution. Of this period were Thales, Anaxi- 

 mander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, 

 Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Aristotle,-^ 

 Epicurus, Lucretius, Gregory, Augustine, Bruno, 

 Avempace, Abubacer. 



The Interpretation of Nature : Modern Evo- 

 lution. 



II. 1600-1800 A.D. 



Philosophical Evolution. 



Emancipation of Botany and Zoology from Greek 

 traditions. 



