Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-12-22


Perhaps the most important among these
Ionian natural philosophers was Anaximander
He assumes that outof inflnity of matter through
eternal revolution numerous world-bodies came
into being as fQndensations Of the air, and that
the earth, too, as one Of these world bodies is
sued out OF state originally fluid and afterward
aeriform. He consequently anticipated the
fundamental conception, valid at this day, of the
natural develepmens of the world, which 2, 400
years subsequently, In 1755. our greatest
German philosopher, Emmanuel Kant, in his
Universal History of Nature and Theory of the
Heavens, universally established. As here in
the genealogical kingdom, Anaximander ap-
pears as foreruaner of Kant and Laplace. so also
at the same time In the biological kingdom he
prophetically prehRures Lamarck and Darwin
For according to him the earliest living crea-
lures on this globe originated in water through
the operation OF the sun. From these creatures
later on, were developed the land inhabting
plants and animals. which left the water and
adapted themselves to live on dry land. Man,
likewise, has gradually worked himself up from
animal organism, and, in reality, from fish-like
aquatic animals.
If here to our SURPRISE we find clearly enun-
ciated some OF the most important fundamental
conceptions Of our current theory of develop
ment. recognize it still more distinctly in its
integrity one hundred years later in Heracltes
the principle that great uninterrupted process
OF Development pervades the whole universal
world; that all forms are involved In an everlast-
ing current, and that struggle is ''the father of
all things" Seeing that nowhere in the world
exists absolute rest, and that all standing still
Is but apparent. we are compelled everywhere
to assume perpetual change of matter con-
slant variation of form. That is only possible.
however, through the fact that one form thrusts
out the other. and that the new violently usurps
fhNy ltnn n<>ff hn
the universal struggle for existence"
This principle of nature set forth by Heracli-
ties, that everlasting movement or the struggle
among all things is the fundamental agent of
the world. received much deeper interpreta-
ton a little later in EmpedocIes of Aurigent in
Sicily. He too. assumes an uninterrupted change
of phenomena. but finds the universal funda-
mental cause OF the everlasting universal strug-
gle In the two counteracting principles Of hate
and love. or. as our modern physics expresses it,
Of the attraction and repulsOn of parts As the
mixture of bodies is effected by love, so is their
separation by hate. If In the present day we
regard the attraction and repulsion of atoms as
the ultimate ground Of all phenomena, we find,
them this fundamental proposition OF our
modern doctrine of atoms already antici-
pated in EmpedOces. 1t is however, still more
remarkable that Empedocles makes the purpo-
sive forms OF organisms come into existence
through the accidental conjunction of counter
acting forces. Out of this great struggle the
living lorms now existing nave Issued vlctOri-
ously because they were best prepared for the
battle, and therefore most capable of life Here
we have not only the fundamental conception
of Darwin's theory Of selection forestaled, but
also the solution Of the great riddle indicated
How can organic forms constituted for par
tlcuar purpose come into existence in purely
mechanical way without the cooperation of q
final cause acting with a particular purpose?"-
the same riddle the solution of which we account
to be Darwin's highest philosophical merit.
Among the great philosophers of classical an
tlquity the three we have already named An
aximander. Heraclites and Empedocles are I'M
doubtedly those who have most clearly enuncl-
atedthe most important elements Of the monistic
theory of nature now prevalent But besides
these we find other contemporaries of theirs who
held similar conceptions of development such
as 1haes, AnAximenes. DemOcrtus Aristotle
Lucretius, etc.-Prof Hacked