345 



Note C. — " It is remarkable that the most primitive philosophy of any 

 with which we are acquainted, that philosophy which the most distinguished 

 of the Greeks borrowed from, too often without acknowledgment, from which 

 Plato adopted his Ideas and Aristotle his First Matter, affords, even in the 

 imperfect and disguised condition in which it has come down to us, a nearer 

 approximation to the principles of modern science than the doctrines of the 

 Grecian schools that succeeded it ; as if, according to the conjecture of some 

 writers, there really had existed amongst the priests of Egypt, or in more 

 eastern climes, although carefully concealed from the vulgar, an insight into 

 the mysteries of nature such as almost rivalled that of the present day, but 

 of which lore a few scattered fragments only have been preserved by the 

 blind reverence of the periods succeeding, when all knowledge had been 

 lost of their purport, or of the relation they might have borne to the 

 scientific structure of which they constituted a part." — Daubeny, on the 

 Atomic Theory, p. 25, 



Note D. — Sir W. Thomson deduces from a number of considerations the 

 following as an approximation to the size of atoms : — 



" The four demonstrations that we have given all establish that in liquids 

 and in solids, transparent or translucid, the medium distance of the centres 

 of two molecules contiguous is comprised between l-10,000th and 200,000th 

 part of a millimetre. 



" To form an idea of the manner in which, after what precedes, these 

 bodies are constituted, let us imagine a drop of rain or a globe of glass of 

 the size of a pear, and suppose them enlarged so as to equal the volume of 

 the earth, their atoms being enlarged in the same proportion. The sphere 

 thus obtained would be composed of little si3heres larger than grains of lead 

 (shot) and smaller than cricket-balls or oranges." 



Note E. — Hartmann. In reference to this most advanced school of 

 modern thought the Revue Scientijique remarks : — " We are in the presence 

 of a system x>rofoundly, wisely, elaborated, and lohich criticism is obliged to 

 regard seriously. Is it the commencement of an occidental Buddhism ? Will 

 the European descendants of the Aryan race, like their brothers of the 

 East, aspire to the supreme Nirvana and give themselves as Quietists to 

 ascetism ? (sHmmobiliser dans I'ascetisme). 



Note F. — Oracles of Zoroaster. I raise no question as to the authorship 

 of the Greek verses indicated, but take them as they are, — full of interest from 

 their intrinsic depth of thought. The quotation is exact from " Cory's 

 Ancient Fragments," p. 103. Cory translates "subservient to the persuasive 

 counsel of the Father." 



