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 1-10, 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 spheres 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 Scientifique remarks : — “ We are in the presence 
of a system profoundly, wisely , elaborated, and which 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 ? {s’ immobiliser dans Vascetisme). 
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.” 
