PHILOSOPHY AND “ EVOLUTION ” : AN INQUIRY. 119 
Anaximander, the Greek philosopher, expounded his theory, 
which seems an Egyptian in Greek costume. According to 
Anaximander, the earth was a muddy ocean. The solar heat, 
acting on this muddy ocean, caused the mud to swell up, by 
means of the included air, into numerous little bladders. These 
little bladders acquired horny shells and spines ; then somehow 
they became alive ; then they burst their shells and then they 
came on dry land. After this they grew larger, and went on 
somehow to develop into higher forms of life, forms which 
culminated in man. 
Chu-Hi’s theory. — One of the most complete of these theories 
is that connected with Chu-Hi. Chu-Hi was a commentator 
of Confucius, and probably contemporary with Anaximander. 
Here we have anticipated the modern hypothesis of matter and 
force. Assuming in his cosmogony the eternity of matter and 
associated powers, Chu-Hi says 
“ Under the whole heaven there is no primary matter (li) without 
the immaterial principle (ki), and no immaterial principle apart 
from the primary matter.” 
He thinks that, strictly speaking, prior existence belongs to 
the immaterial principle, but that this immaterial principle 
“ is not a distinct and separate thing. It is just contained in the 
centre of the primary matter • so that were there no primary matter 
then this immaterial principle would have no place of attachment.” 
“ Primary matter ” consists of the four elements of wood, 
water, metal, and fire, while the “ immaterial principle ” (which 
is, so to speak, its soul) is no other than the four cardinal 
virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom.* 
“ The primary matter,” says Chu-Hi, “ can concrete and coagulate, 
act and do, but the immaterial principle has neither will nor wish, 
place nor operation • but only where the primary matter is 
collected and coagulated, then the immaterial principle is in the 
midst of it. . . The primary matter can ferment and coagulate, 
collect, and produce things.” 
To Chu-Hi’s system succeeded, some five hundred years after, 
that of the Latin poet Lucretius, who looked upon nature as 
resulting from the co-operation of soil, sun, and rain. 
In our times we are familiar with Tyndall’s fancy that in the 
remote past everything was latent in a “ fiery cloud ” of matter 
* Williams’s Middle Kingdom. 
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