Whence came this more or less novel doctrine? Was it wholly original with the sage of Clazomeniæ? Leucippus, the founder of “the materialistic” atomic theory, was a contemporary of Anaxagoras, and both lived after the time of Pythagoras, and may have been indebted either to him or to suggestions from India for their fundamental physical conceptions, finding them, indeed, fully accordant with the primary postulates of the older Ionian physicists--Anaximines (524-508 B. C.), Anaximander (611-547 B. C.) and Thales (624?-548? B. C.). All of these believed that all elements are but compounds or transformations of one primitive element. It is natural to inquire here how such “suggestions from India” could have reached Greece. Professor Gompertz, while he does not discuss the possible Indian origin of the atomic theory, would have an answer to this question. He admits that the Greeks “owe to the Orient the elements of material civilization” and much of their science, art and religion to older civilizations. How were these transferred to Greece? This question, he recalls, brings up a striking parallel from the literary history of mediæval Europe. “Practically the entire fairy-lore of the Occident is derived from India. No one,” he goes on to say, “disputes this assertion today”; yet, on the other hand, “no one as yet can give a completely clear account of the ways and means by which its journey was accomplished” (“Greek Thinkers,” Page 95). FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: “Studies in the History and Method of Science,” edited by Dr. Charles Singer, Oxford, 1917.] [Footnote 2: “The History of European Philosophy,” Page 105, New York, 1917.] [Footnote 3: Cf. Nauck, A., _Porphyrii Opusculati Selecta_, ed. 2, Leipsic, 1886; and _Iamblichi De Vita Pythagorica Liber_, ed. Nauck, Petrograd, 1884; Chaignet, “_Pythagore et la Philosophie Pythagoricienne_,” Paris, 1873. See also Cantor, “_Vorlesungen uber die Geshichte der Mathematik_,” I, 124 ff.] [Footnote 4: Thus laying the foundation for the true heliocentric theory, introduced by Aristarchus of Samos about 280 B. C.--a theory accepted and developed by Seleucus of Seleucia in Babylonia, but rejected in the following century by the greatest of the Greek astronomers, Hipparchus of Nicæa, discoverer of the “precession of the equinoxes,” and author of a catalogue of 1000 fixed stars.] [Footnote 5: Burnet, Professor John, “Greek Philosophy,” Vol. I, ¶70, Page 87, London, 1914. See also, by the same author, “Early Greek Philosophy,” 2 ed., ¶¶138 sq.] CHAPTER II THE MATERIALISTIC ATOMISTS: LEUCIPPUS AND DEMOCRITUS SOURCES OF OUR INFORMATION