SCIENCE. 



In Empedocles we find for the first time a confused per- 

 ception of attraction and resistance in the sympathy and 

 conflict which are the determining causes of the union 

 and disunion of the elements. 



Up to this time we have an irreconcilable antithesis 

 between the Eleatic conception and that of Heraclitus. 

 On one side, by exceeding the data of experience and 

 elevating to the highest degree abstracts of material 

 things, we find existence robbed of all determination and 

 unchangeable. On the other, we have existence and 

 non-existence bound together by means of the Future, 

 from which springs the change and perpetual vicissitude 

 of all things. But there is no fixed law for the Future of 

 Heraclitus ; it is merely the result of experience, nothing 

 more. Why, therefore, does existence change ? Why 

 are forms produced only to be again dissolved into some- 

 thing else ? An attempted explanation was given, as we I 

 have seen by Empedocles; sympathy and resistance at- 

 tract and repulse the four radicals of all things, and all 

 forms are produced by the attraction which the repul- 

 sion afterward disunites and destroys. This is a pro- 

 found conception, but yet somewhat obscure and unde- 

 cided. 



It was the Atomical school which took gigantic strides 

 along this path, finally reaching those massive theories 

 which even to-day we must look upon with admiration. 

 Its founders were Lucippus and Democritus,but the latter 

 is undoubtedly the most celebrated. We will go over 

 the most important points in his doctrine, as they are re- 

 lated by Fiorentino. 



" Existence is not a unity, but a combination and an 

 infinite one, composed of many minute and invisible 

 bodies which move about in space, unite and produce 

 life, then separate, and cause death. They are capable of 

 union and disunion, but never of change, and just as they 

 are in the beginning, so they will always remain. 



" We can distinguish in atoms form, order and position 

 which are the primitive qualities which serve to produce 

 others. All atoms' are not equal ; all have a downward 

 tendency, but the lighter rise above the heavier pro- 

 ducing a rotatory motion which extends and forms bodies." 



Atoms, moreover, are impenetrable,, and as Units can- 

 not be divided. They are consequently distinct one 

 from the other, well defined and unconfused. This ne- 

 cessitates the interposition of something which tends to 

 keep them separate. It can be nothing more than the 

 opposite of the mass, vacuum, which causes interceding 

 intervals between the atoms and holds them apart. With- 

 out vacuum, no motion could be possible, as the mass can 

 receive nothing more in itself, or be augmented in any 

 way, because this can only be obtained by the introduc- 

 tion of new atoms in the vacuum. We have, therefore, 

 two contending agencies — existence (atoms) and non- 

 existence (space), which go to represent objective posi- 

 tiveness. The final and most important of atomic 

 theories bears the stamp of unconscious and unintelli- 

 gible natural necessity. Motion can be determined by no 

 cause. It is as eternal as the atom itself and is a part of 

 its nature. It is easy to understand therefore, however 

 far it may depart from the truth, the opinion of those fol- 

 lowers of Democritus who attribute the origin of the 

 world to chance. 



By the atomical theory we have reconciled therefore, 

 the unchangeableness of existence with the perpetual 

 transformation of things ; transformations which have 

 nothing to do with the substance, but which spring from 

 special arrangements of the atoms determined by motion. 

 We shall shortly see how the fundamental doctrines of 

 the atomical school have been reproduced in our modern 

 mechanical one after a lapse of four centuries. 



The Grecian mind was not satisfied with the mechani- 

 cal explanation of future existence. We consequently 

 see brought to light for the first time by Anaxagoras, an 

 immaterial principle Nous— an intelligence apart from all 

 matter, maker of the world. In short, an agentwith a definite 



purpose. This intelligence, although motionless itself, is 

 the cause of movement, and the formation of the pan- 

 spermia or onicomeria, as Aristotle calls it, is the result of 

 its action. This is the systematic and beautiful origin of 

 the world. 6 



This intelligence, however, is not a personal god, be- 

 cause it possesses no action in itself and its operation de- 

 velops solely in the motion and order of matter. Plato 

 and Aristotle are quite right when they blame Anax- 

 agoras for holding to the mechanical doctrine while hav- 

 ing an instinctive perception of the final cause. 



The Nous of Anaxagoras, as Schwegler has observed, 

 closes the period of anti-Socratic realism, that is to say 

 the conception of natural positiveness as represented by 

 ancient Grecian philosophy. Anaxagoras embraced the 

 principles belonging to the preceding schools which he 

 attempted to reconcile, but he made apparent for the 

 first time an ideal principle, which being accepted by 

 Socrates, afterwards expressed the new and adverse cur- 

 rent of Grecian thought. 



Atomism reappeared with Epicurus, not presenting, 

 however, any novel determination, except that the atoms 

 did not all descend in a direct line giving rise to a whirl- 

 ing motion, as Democritus affirms, but proceeded each 

 separately in its own way guided by a kind of free will. 



Throughout the long period of ideal speculation which 

 succeeded ancient Grecian philosophy, investigation in 

 regard to cosmic positiveness being looked upon as a 

 matter of secondary importance or else neglected alto- 

 gether, naturally made no progress whatever Thus we 

 come to the Sixteenth century, during which a single 

 voice in England was raised to deplore the false road 

 upon which human thought had traveled for so long, 

 agitated and confused by empty and useless discussions. 

 Logic seemed to aim towards the " strengthening of 

 error rather than the search for truth." " And this," 

 said Bacon, "can proceed from nothing but the fact that 

 scientific research is alienated from its true source — na- 

 ture and experience — to which it must return if any- 

 thing is to be achieved." Although many errors crept 

 into the facts accumulated by Bacon among his percep- 

 tions of great truths, he, nevertheless, rendered an im- 

 mense service to science by recalling it to experiment 

 and to the inductive method. About the same time, 

 a great Italian, Galileo, not only proclaimed the system, 

 but applied it, gathering much more fruit from his enter- 

 prise than did the English philosopher. 



This was one of the grandest moments known to the 

 human mind. In this period, which we call the Renais- 

 sance, while man, no longer satisfied with the narrow 

 boundaries of the old world, discovered new paths while 

 in search of other lands, human conscience oppressed by 

 centuries of overbearing slavery advanced towards re- 

 formation. Then speculation, shattering its scholastic 

 fe'ters, opened a new field for research, and resolved to 

 cultivate it by fresh methods. Later we shall see the 

 abundant fruit which grew, not so much from the field 

 of abstract speculation as from that of natural investiga- 

 tion. 



Rene des Cartes here broke in with past traditions, en- 

 deavored to make the research over again from the be- 

 ginning, and commenced to exclude all supposition and 

 to entertain doubts about everything. But the new struc- 

 ture of facts which he built upon Thought was precisely 

 the contrary of his method. Positiveness according to 

 des Cartes is represented by three substances — God, 

 Mind and Matter. Thought is the attribute and essence 

 of mind ; extension is the attribute of matter. Here, 

 then, is cosmic positiveness reduced to nothing more 

 than expanse, while in our opinion it is the very opposite. 

 Expanse is merely a relation, and it annuls the absolute 

 condition of existence reducing it to a simple rapport. 



6 The panspermic theory affirms that the germs or elements of all 

 things exist in the earth, and only require a particular combination of 

 circumstances to bring them forth. — Translator. 



