271 
by necessity. 3. The only existing things are the atoms and 
empty space, all else is mere opinion.” Then, after specifying 
more minutely the action of the atoms in their combinations, 
Tyndall remarks, on the authority of Lange, that “ the great 
enigma, i.e. ‘ the exquisite adaptation of one part of an organism 
to another part, and to the conditions of life/ more especially 
the construction of the human body, Democritus made no 
attempt to solve.” And then he adds, what appears difficult 
to understand, “ Thus, more than two thousand years ago, the 
doctrine of ‘ survival of the fittest/ which, in our day, not on 
the basis of vague conjecture, but of positive knowledge , has 
been raised to such extraordinary significance, had received at 
all events partial enunciation.” * 
44. Tyndall might have added, in place of regarding this 
theory as a precursor of Danvinism, that Democritus’ theory 
of “from nothing comes nothing,” which probably gave rise 
to the well-known proverb, eoc nihilo nihil fit, only forestalled 
the curious speculation propounded by Professor Oken, of 
Zurich, who explained his cosmological ideas at the commence- 
ment of the present century in the following way : — “ The 
highest mathematical idea, or the fundamental principle of 
all mathematics, is that zero = 0. Zero is itself nothing. 
Mathematics are based upon nothing, and, consequently, arise 
out of nothing. The eternal is the nothing of nature. There 
exists nothing but nothing ; nothing but the Eternal. Man is 
God wholly manifested. God has become man. Zero has 
become +. For God to become real, Pie must appear under 
■ Address delivered before the British Association at Belfast, by John 
Tyndall, F.R.S., President, pp. 4, 5. It is a curious fact that so distinguished 
a man as Professor Tyndall should have made such a lapse as he has done in 
discoursing on the Atomic philosophy. He represents Empedocles as “ noticing 
a gap in the doctrine of Democritus ” ; whereas the former was at the height 
of his fame B.C. 444, when Democritus was a lad of sixteen, and who only 
became a philosopher after his extensive travels in Egypt, Chaldaja, and other 
countries, many years later, dying B.C. 357. Professor Tyndall’s view of 
“ matter ” appears to resemble very closely that of the Stoics as represented 
by Athenagoras. (See his Plea for the Christians, ch. xxii.) Professor 
Tyndall’s boast concerning what he terms “ the impregnable position of 
science,” that “ all religious theories, schemes, and systems, which embrace 
notions of cosmogony, or which otherwise reach into the domain of science, 
must, in so far as they do this, submit to the control of science, 
and relinquish all thought of controlling it ” [Belfast Address, p. 61) — has 
been singularly contradicted by experimental results. When we recollect the 
innumerable variations of what some men call “ science,” and others more 
correctly “ pseudo-science,” and compare them with the unvarying testimony 
of the Bible, we may console ourselves with this well-established axiom — tha 
not a single fact of science fully ascertained has ever yet been proved to be in 
opposition to a single statement of Scripture rightly understood. 
