[23] Prantl, _Aristoteles’ Physik_, p. 484. [24] Ritter and Preller, p. 11. [25] Since the above remarks were first published, Mr. Wallace, in his work on Epicureanism, has stated that, according to Epicurus, ‘the very animals which are found upon the earth have been made what they are by slow processes of selection and adaptation through the experience of life;’ and he proceeds to call the theory in question, ‘ultra-Darwinian’ (_Epicureanism_, p. 114). Lucretius—the authority quoted—says nothing about ‘slow processes of adaptation,’ nor yet does he say that the animals were ‘made what they are’ by ‘selection,’ but by the procreative power of the earth herself. Picking out a ready-made pair of boots from among a number which do not fit is a very different process from manufacturing the same pair by measure, or wearing it into shape. To call the Empedoclean theory ultra-Darwinian, is like calling the Democritean or Epicurean theory of gravitation ultra-Newtonian. And Mr. Wallace seems to admit as much, when he proceeds to say on the very same page, ‘Of course in this there is no implication of the peculiarly Darwinian doctrine of descent or development of kind from kind with structure modified and complicated to meet changing circumstances.’ (By the way, this is _not_ a peculiarly Darwinian doctrine, for it originated with Lamarck, spontaneous variation and selection being the additions made by the English naturalists). But what becomes then of the ‘slow processes of adaptation’ and the ‘ultra-Darwinian theory’ spoken of just before? [26] By a curious coincidence, the atomic constitution of matter still finds its strongest proof in optical phenomena. Light is propagated by transverse waves, and such waves are only possible in a discontinuous medium. But if the luminiferous ether is composed of discrete particles, so also must be the matter which it penetrates in all directions. [27] Ar. _De Gen. et Corr._, I., viii., 325, b, 5. [28] Eurip. _Frag. Incert. Fab._, CXXXVI. Didot, p. 850. [I am indebted for this version to Miss A. M. F. Robinson, the translator of the _Crowned Hippolytus_.] [29] Curtius, _Griechische Geschichte_, 342-5 (3rd ed.). [30] Zeller, _op. cit._, p. 791. [31] Ar. _De Coelo_, III., iii., 302, a, 28. [32] M. Antoninus, XII., 28. [33] Zeller, _Ph. d. Gr._, III., b, p. 669. [34] Even regulating the calendar by the sun instead of by the moon seems to have been regarded as a dangerous and impious innovation by the more conservative Athenians—at least judging from the half-serious pleasantry of Aristophanes, _Nub._, 608-26. (Dindorf.) [35] σύμβολον δ’ οὔ πώ τις ἐπιχθονίων πιστὸν ἀμφὶ πράξιος ἐσσομένας εὗρεν θεόθεν.—_Ol._, XII., 8-9. [36] _Frag._, 102. [37] _Griechische Geschichte_, ii., 112-3 (3rd ed.). [38] Aristophanes, _Vesp._, 1176. [39] Herod., VII., 204; IX., 64. [40] _Agam._, 750-71. [41] _Ib._, 311. [42] _Ol._, XIII., 17 (Donaldson). CHAPTER II. THE GREEK HUMANISTS: NATURE AND LAW. I.