A
HISTORY OF SCIENCE
BY
HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D.
ASSISTED BY
EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, M.D.

IN FIVE VOLUMES
VOLUME I.

THE BEGINNINGS OF SCIENCE




BOOK I.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

CHAPTER II. EGYPTIAN SCIENCE

CHAPTER III. SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

CHAPTER IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALPHABET

CHAPTER V.  THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCIENCE

CHAPTER VI. THE EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY

CHAPTER VII. GREEK SCIENCE IN THE EARLY ATTIC PERIOD

CHAPTER VIII. POST-SOCRATIC SCIENCE AT ATHENS

CHAPTER IX. GREEK SCIENCE OF THE ALEXANDRIAN OR HELLENISTIC 
PERIOD

CHAPTER X. SCIENCE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD

CHAPTER XI. A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE AT CLASSICAL SCIENCE

APPENDIX


A HISTORY OF SCIENCE

BOOK I

Should the story that is about to be unfolded be found to lack
interest, the writers must stand convicted of unpardonable lack
of art. Nothing but dulness in the telling could mar the story,
for in itself it is the record of the growth of those ideas that
have made our race and its civilization what they are; of ideas
instinct with human interest, vital with meaning for our race;
fundamental in their influence on human development; part and
parcel of the mechanism of human thought on the one hand, and of
practical civilization on the other. Such a phrase as
"fundamental principles" may seem at first thought a hard saying,
but the idea it implies is less repellent than the phrase itself,
for the fundamental principles in question are so closely linked
with the present interests of every one of us that they lie
within the grasp of every average man and woman--nay, of every
well-developed boy and girl. These principles are not merely the
stepping-stones to culture, the prerequisites of knowledge--they
are, in themselves, an essential part of the knowledge of every
cultivated person.

It is our task, not merely to show what these principles are, but
to point out how they have been discovered by our predecessors.
We shall trace the growth of these ideas from their first vague
beginnings. We shall see how vagueness of thought gave way to
precision; how a general truth, once grasped and formulated, was
found to be a stepping-stone to other truths. We shall see that
there are no isolated facts, no isolated principles, in nature;
that each part of our story is linked by indissoluble bands with
that which goes before, and with that which comes after. For the
most part the discovery of this principle or that in a given
sequence is no accident. Galileo and Keppler must precede Newton.
Cuvier and Lyall must come before Darwin;--Which, after all, is
no more than saying that in our Temple of Science, as in any
other piece of architecture, the foundation must precede the
superstructure.

We shall best understand our story of the growth of science if we
think of each new principle as a stepping-stone which must fit
into its own particular niche; and if we reflect that the entire
structure of modern civilization would be different from what it
is, and less perfect than it is, had not that particular
stepping-stone been found and shaped and placed in position.
Taken as a whole, our stepping-stones lead us up and up towards
the alluring heights of an acropolis of knowledge, on which
stands the Temple of Modern Science. The story of the building of
this wonderful structure is in itself fascinating and beautiful.



I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

To speak of a prehistoric science may seem like a contradiction
of terms. The word prehistoric seems to imply barbarism, while
science, clearly enough, seems the outgrowth of civilization; but
rightly considered, there is no contradiction. For, on the one
hand, man had ceased to be a barbarian long before the beginning
of what we call the historical period; and, on the other hand,
science, of a kind, is no less a precursor and a cause of
civilization than it is a consequent. To get this clearly in
mind, we must ask ourselves: What, then, is science? The word
runs glibly enough upon the tongue of our every-day speech, but
it is not often, perhaps, that they who use it habitually ask
themselves just what it means. Yet the answer is not difficult. A
little attention will show that science, as the word is commonly
used, implies these things: first, the gathering of knowledge
through observation; second, the classification of such
knowledge, and through this classification, the elaboration of
general ideas or principles. In the familiar definition of
Herbert Spencer, science is organized knowledge.

Now it is patent enough, at first glance, that the veriest savage
must have been an observer of the phenomena of nature. But it may
not be so obvious that he must also have been a classifier of his
observations--an organizer of knowledge. Yet the more we consider
the case, the more clear it will become that the two methods are
too closely linked together to be dissevered. To observe outside
phenomena is not more inherent in the nature of the mind than to
draw inferences from these phenomena. A deer passing through the
forest scents the ground and detects a certain odor. A sequence
of ideas is generated in the mind of the deer. Nothing in the
deer's experience can produce that odor but a wolf; therefore the
scientific inference is drawn that wolves have passed that way.
But it is a part of the deer's scientific knowledge, based on
previous experience, individual and racial; that wolves are
dangerous beasts, and so, combining direct observation in the
present with the application of a general principle based on past
experience, the deer reaches the very logical conclusion that it
may wisely turn about and run in another direction. All this
implies, essentially, a comprehension and use of scientific
principles; and, strange as it seems to speak of a deer as
possessing scientific knowledge, yet there is really no absurdity
in the statement. The deer does possess scientific knowledge;
knowledge differing in degree only, not in kind, from the
knowledge of a Newton. Nor is the animal, within the range of its
intelligence, less logical, less scientific in the application of
that knowledge, than is the man. The animal that could not make
accurate scientific observations of its surroundings, and deduce
accurate scientific conclusions from them, would soon pay the
penalty of its lack of logic.

What is true of man's precursors in the animal scale is, of
course, true in a wider and fuller sense of man himself at the
very lowest stage of his development. Ages before the time which
the limitations of our knowledge force us to speak of as the dawn
of history, man had reached a high stage of development. As a
social being, he had developed all the elements of a primitive
civilization. If, for convenience of classification, we speak of
his state as savage, or barbaric, we use terms which, after all,
are relative, and which do not shut off our primitive ancestors
from a tolerably close association with our own ideals. We know
that, even in the Stone Age, man had learned how to domesticate
animals and make them useful to him, and that he had also learned
to cultivate the soil. Later on, doubtless by slow and painful
stages, he attained those wonderful elements of knowledge that
enabled him to smelt metals and to produce implements of bronze,
and then of iron. Even in the Stone Age he was a mechanic of
marvellous skill, as any one of to-day may satisfy himself by
attempting to duplicate such an implement as a chipped
arrow-head. And a barbarian who could fashion an axe or a knife
of bronze had certainly gone far in his knowledge of scientific
principles and their practical application. The practical
application was, doubtless, the only thought that our primitive
ancestor had in mind; quite probably the question as to
principles that might be involved troubled him not at all. Yet,
in spite of himself, he knew certain rudimentary principles of
science, even though he did not formulate them.

Let us inquire what some of these principles are. Such an inquiry
will, as it were, clear the ground for our structure of science.
It will show the plane of knowledge on which historical
investigation begins. Incidentally, perhaps, it will reveal to us
unsuspected affinities between ourselves and our remote ancestor.
Without attempting anything like a full analysis, we may note in
passing, not merely what primitive man knew, but what he did not
know; that at least a vague notion may be gained of the field for
scientific research that lay open for historic man to cultivate.


It must be understood that the knowledge of primitive man, as we
are about to outline it, is inferential. We cannot trace the
development of these principles, much less can we say who
discovered them. Some of them, as already suggested, are man's
heritage from non-human ancestors. Others can only have been
grasped by him after he had reached a relatively high stage of
human development. But all the principles here listed must surely
have been parts of our primitive ancestor's knowledge before
those earliest days of Egyptian and Babylonian civilization, the
records of which constitute our first introduction to the
so-called historical period. Taken somewhat in the order of their
probable discovery, the scientific ideas of primitive man may be
roughly listed as follows:

1. Primitive man must have conceived that the earth is flat and
of limitless extent. By this it is not meant to imply that he had
a distinct conception of infinity, but, for that matter, it
cannot be said that any one to-day has a conception of infinity
that could be called definite. But, reasoning from experience and
the reports of travellers, there was nothing to suggest to early
man the limit of the earth. He did, indeed, find in his
wanderings, that changed climatic conditions barred him from
farther progress; but beyond the farthest reaches of his
migrations, the seemingly flat land-surfaces and water-surfaces
stretched away unbroken and, to all appearances, without end. It
would require a reach of the philosophical imagination to
conceive a limit to the earth, and while such imaginings may have
been current in the prehistoric period, we can have no proof of
them, and we may well postpone consideration of man's early
dreamings as to the shape of the earth until we enter the
historical epoch where we stand on firm ground.

2. Primitive man must, from a very early period, have observed
that the sun gives heat and light, and that the moon and stars
seem to give light only and no heat. It required but a slight
extension of this observation to note that the changing phases of
the seasons were associated with the seeming approach and
recession of the sun. This observation, however, could not have
been made until man had migrated from the tropical regions, and
had reached a stage of mechanical development enabling him to
live in subtropical or temperate zones. Even then it is
conceivable that a long period must have elapsed before a direct
causal relation was felt to exist between the shifting of the sun
and the shifting of the seasons; because, as every one knows, the
periods of greatest heat in summer and greatest cold in winter
usually come some weeks after the time of the solstices. Yet, the
fact that these extremes of temperature are associated in some
way with the change of the sun's place in the heavens must, in
time, have impressed itself upon even a rudimentary intelligence.
It is hardly necessary to add that this is not meant to imply any
definite knowledge of the real meaning of, the seeming
oscillations of the sun. We shall see that, even at a relatively
late period, the vaguest notions were still in vogue as to the
cause of the sun's changes of position.

That the sun, moon, and stars move across the heavens must
obviously have been among the earliest scientific observations.
It must not be inferred, however, that this observation implied a
necessary conception of the complete revolution of these bodies
about the earth. It is unnecessary to speculate here as to how
the primitive intelligence conceived the transfer of the sun from
the western to the eastern horizon, to be effected each night,
for we shall have occasion to examine some historical
speculations regarding this phenomenon. We may assume, however,
that the idea of the transfer of the heavenly bodies beneath the
earth (whatever the conception as to the form of that body) must
early have presented itself.

It required a relatively high development of the observing
faculties, yet a development which man must have attained ages
before the historical period, to note that the moon has a
secondary motion, which leads it to shift its relative position
in the heavens, as regards the stars; that the stars themselves,
on the other hand, keep a fixed relation as regards one another,
with the notable exception of two or three of the most brilliant
members of the galaxy, the latter being the bodies which came to
be known finally as planets, or wandering stars. The wandering
propensities of such brilliant bodies as Jupiter and Venus cannot
well have escaped detection. We may safely assume, however, that
these anomalous motions of the moon and planets found no
explanation that could be called scientific until a relatively
late period.

3. Turning from the heavens to the earth, and ignoring such
primitive observations as that of the distinction between land
and water, we may note that there was one great scientific law
which must have forced itself upon the attention of primitive
man. This is the law of universal terrestrial gravitation. The
word gravitation suggests the name of Newton, and it may excite
surprise to hear a knowledge of gravitation ascribed to men who
preceded that philosopher by, say, twenty-five or fifty thousand
years. Yet the slightest consideration of the facts will make it
clear that the great central law that all heavy bodies fall
directly towards the earth, cannot have escaped the attention of
the most primitive intelligence. The arboreal habits of our
primitive ancestors gave opportunities for constant observation
of the practicalities of this law. And, so soon as man had
developed the mental capacity to formulate ideas, one of the
earliest ideas must have been the conception, however vaguely
phrased in words, that all unsupported bodies fall towards the
earth. The same phenomenon being observed to operate on
water-surfaces, and no alteration being observed in its operation
in different portions of man's habitat, the most primitive
wanderer must have come to have full faith in the universal
action of the observed law of gravitation. Indeed, it is
inconceivable that he can have imagined a place on the earth
where this law does not operate. On the other hand, of course, he
never grasped the conception of the operation of this law beyond
the close proximity of the earth. To extend the reach of
gravitation out to the moon and to the stars, including within
its compass every particle of matter in the universe, was the
work of Newton, as we shall see in due course. Meantime we shall
better understand that work if we recall that the mere local fact
of terrestrial gravitation has been the familiar knowledge of all
generations of men. It may further help to connect us in sympathy
with our primeval ancestor if we recall that in the attempt to
explain this fact of terrestrial gravitation Newton made no
advance, and we of to-day are scarcely more enlightened than the
man of the Stone Age. Like the man of the Stone Age, we know that
an arrow shot into the sky falls back to the earth. We can
calculate, as he could not do, the arc it will describe and the
exact speed of its fall; but as to why it returns to earth at
all, the greatest philosopher of to-day is almost as much in the
dark as was the first primitive bowman that ever made the
experiment.

Other physical facts going to make up an elementary science of
mechanics, that were demonstratively known to prehistoric man,
were such as these: the rigidity of solids and the mobility of
liquids; the fact that changes of temperature transform solids to
liquids and vice versa--that heat, for example, melts copper and
even iron, and that cold congeals water; and the fact that
friction, as illustrated in the rubbing together of two sticks,
may produce heat enough to cause a fire. The rationale of this
last experiment did not receive an explanation until about the
beginning of the nineteenth century of our own era. But the
experimental fact was so well known to prehistoric man that he
employed this method, as various savage tribes employ it to this
day, for the altogether practical purpose of making a fire; just
as he employed his practical knowledge of the mutability of
solids and liquids in smelting ores, in alloying copper with tin
to make bronze, and in casting this alloy in molds to make
various implements and weapons. Here, then, were the germs of an
elementary science of physics. Meanwhile such observations as
that of the solution of salt in water may be considered as giving
a first lesson in chemistry, but beyond such altogether
rudimentary conceptions chemical knowledge could not have
gone--unless, indeed, the practical observation of the effects of
fire be included; nor can this well be overlooked, since scarcely
another single line of practical observation had a more direct
influence in promoting the progress of man towards the heights of
civilization.

4. In the field of what we now speak of as biological knowledge,
primitive man had obviously the widest opportunity for practical
observation. We can hardly doubt that man attained, at an early
day, to that conception of identity and of difference which Plato
places at the head of his metaphysical system. We shall urge
presently that it is precisely such general ideas as these that
were man's earliest inductions from observation, and hence that
came to seem the most universal and "innate" ideas of his
mentality. It is quite inconceivable, for example, that even the
most rudimentary intelligence that could be called human could
fail to discriminate between living things and, let us say, the
rocks of the earth. The most primitive intelligence, then, must
have made a tacit classification of the natural objects about it
into the grand divisions of animate and inanimate nature.
Doubtless the nascent scientist may have imagined life animating
many bodies that we should call inanimate--such as the sun,
wandering planets, the winds, and lightning; and, on the other
hand, he may quite likely have relegated such objects as trees to
the ranks of the non-living; but that he recognized a fundamental
distinction between, let us say, a wolf and a granite bowlder we
cannot well doubt. A step beyond this--a step, however, that may
have required centuries or millenniums in the taking--must have
carried man to a plane of intelligence from which a primitive
Aristotle or Linnaeus was enabled to note differences and
resemblances connoting such groups of things as fishes, birds,
and furry beasts. This conception, to be sure, is an abstraction
of a relatively high order. We know that there are savage races
to-day whose language contains no word for such an abstraction as
bird or tree. We are bound to believe, then, that there were long
ages of human progress during which the highest man had attained
no such stage of abstraction; but, on the other hand, it is
equally little in question that this degree of mental development
had been attained long before the opening of our historical
period. The primeval man, then, whose scientific knowledge we are
attempting to predicate, had become, through his conception of
fishes, birds, and hairy animals as separate classes, a
scientific zoologist of relatively high attainments.

In the practical field of medical knowledge, a certain stage of
development must have been reached at a very early day. Even
animals pick and choose among the vegetables about them, and at
times seek out certain herbs quite different from their ordinary
food, practising a sort of instinctive therapeutics. The cat's
fondness for catnip is a case in point. The most primitive man,
then, must have inherited a racial or instinctive knowledge of
the medicinal effects of certain herbs; in particular he must
have had such elementary knowledge of toxicology as would enable
him to avoid eating certain poisonous berries. Perhaps, indeed,
we are placing the effect before the cause to some extent; for,
after all, the animal system possesses marvellous powers of
adaption, and there is perhaps hardly any poisonous vegetable
which man might not have learned to eat without deleterious
effect, provided the experiment were made gradually. To a certain
extent, then, the observed poisonous effects of numerous plants
upon the human system are to be explained by the fact that our
ancestors have avoided this particular vegetable. Certain fruits
and berries might have come to have been a part of man's diet,
had they grown in the regions he inhabited at an early day, which
now are poisonous to his system. This thought, however, carries
us too far afield. For practical purposes, it suffices that
certain roots, leaves, and fruits possess principles that are
poisonous to the human system, and that unless man had learned in
some way to avoid these, our race must have come to disaster. In
point of fact, he did learn to avoid them; and such evidence
implied, as has been said, an elementary knowledge of toxicology.

Coupled with this knowledge of things dangerous to the human
system, there must have grown up, at a very early day, a belief
in the remedial character of various vegetables as agents to
combat disease. Here, of course, was a rudimentary therapeutics,
a crude principle of an empirical art of medicine. As just
suggested, the lower order of animals have an instinctive
knowledge that enables them to seek out remedial herbs (though we
probably exaggerate the extent of this instinctive knowledge);
and if this be true, man must have inherited from his prehuman
ancestors this instinct along with the others. That he extended
this knowledge through observation and practice, and came early
to make extensive use of drugs in the treatment of disease, is
placed beyond cavil through the observation of the various
existing barbaric tribes, nearly all of whom practice elaborate
systems of therapeutics. We shall have occasion to see that even
within historic times the particular therapeutic measures
employed were often crude, and, as we are accustomed to say,
unscientific; but even the crudest of them are really based upon
scientific principles, inasmuch as their application implies the
deduction of principles of action from previous observations.
Certain drugs are applied to appease certain symptoms of disease
because in the belief of the medicine-man such drugs have proved
beneficial in previous similar cases.

All this, however, implies an appreciation of the fact that man
is subject to "natural" diseases, and that if these diseases are
not combated, death may result. But it should be understood that
the earliest man probably had no such conception as this.
Throughout all the ages of early development, what we call
"natural" disease and "natural" death meant the onslaught of a
tangible enemy. A study of this question leads us to some very
curious inferences. The more we look into the matter the more the
thought forces itself home to us that the idea of natural death,
as we now conceive it, came to primitive man as a relatively late
scientific induction. This thought seems almost startling, so
axiomatic has the conception "man is mortal" come to appear. Yet
a study of the ideas of existing savages, combined with our
knowledge of the point of view from which historical peoples
regard disease, make it more probable that the primitive
conception of human life did not include the idea of necessary
death. We are told that the Australian savage who falls from a
tree and breaks his neck is not regarded as having met a natural
death, but as having been the victim of the magical practices of
the "medicine-man" of some neighboring tribe. Similarly, we shall
find that the Egyptian and the Babylonian of the early historical
period conceived illness as being almost invariably the result of
the machinations of an enemy. One need but recall the
superstitious observances of the Middle Ages, and the yet more
recent belief in witchcraft, to realize how generally disease has
been personified as a malicious agent invoked by an unfriendly
mind. Indeed, the phraseology of our present-day speech is still
reminiscent of this; as when, for example, we speak of an "attack
of fever," and the like.

When, following out this idea, we picture to ourselves the
conditions under which primitive man lived, it will be evident at
once how relatively infrequent must have been his observation of
what we usually term natural death. His world was a world of
strife; he lived by the chase; he saw animals kill one another;
he witnessed the death of his own fellows at the hands of
enemies. Naturally enough, then, when a member of his family was
"struck down" by invisible agents, he ascribed this death also to
violence, even though the offensive agent was concealed.
Moreover, having very little idea of the lapse of time--being
quite unaccustomed, that is, to reckon events from any fixed
era--primitive man cannot have gained at once a clear conception
of age as applied to his fellows. Until a relatively late stage
of development made tribal life possible, it cannot have been
usual for man to have knowledge of his grandparents; as a rule he
did not know his own parents after he had passed the adolescent
stage and had been turned out upon the world to care for himself.
If, then, certain of his fellow-beings showed those evidences of
infirmity which we ascribe to age, it did not necessarily follow
that he saw any association between such infirmities and the
length of time which those persons had lived. The very fact that
some barbaric nations retain the custom of killing the aged and
infirm, in itself suggests the possibility that this custom arose
before a clear conception had been attained that such drags upon
the community would be removed presently in the natural order of
things. To a person who had no clear conception of the lapse of
time and no preconception as to the limited period of man's life,
the infirmities of age might very naturally be ascribed to the
repeated attacks of those inimical powers which were understood
sooner or later to carry off most members of the race. And
coupled with this thought would go the conception that inasmuch
as some people through luck had escaped the vengeance of all
their enemies for long periods, these same individuals might
continue to escape for indefinite periods of the future. There
were no written records to tell primeval man of events of long
ago. He lived in the present, and his sweep of ideas scarcely
carried him back beyond the limits of his individual memory. But
memory is observed to be fallacious. It must early have been
noted that some people recalled events which other participants
in them had quite forgotten, and it may readily enough have been
inferred that those members of the tribe who spoke of events
which others could not recall were merely the ones who were
gifted with the best memories. If these reached a period when
their memories became vague, it did not follow that their
recollections had carried them back to the beginnings of their
lives. Indeed, it is contrary to all experience to believe that
any man remembers all the things he has once known, and the
observed fallaciousness and evanescence of memory would thus tend
to substantiate rather than to controvert the idea that various
members of a tribe had been alive for an indefinite period.

Without further elaborating the argument, it seems a justifiable
inference that the first conception primitive man would have of
his own life would not include the thought of natural death, but
would, conversely, connote the vague conception of endless life.
Our own ancestors, a few generations removed, had not got rid of
this conception, as the perpetual quest of the spring of eternal
youth amply testifies. A naturalist of our own day has suggested
that perhaps birds never die except by violence. The thought,
then, that man has a term of years beyond which "in the nature of
things," as the saying goes, he may not live, would have dawned
but gradually upon the developing intelligence of successive
generations of men; and we cannot feel sure that he would fully
have grasped the conception of a "natural" termination of human
life until he had shaken himself free from the idea that disease
is always the result of the magic practice of an enemy. Our
observation of historical man in antiquity makes it somewhat
doubtful whether this conception had been attained before the
close of the prehistoric period. If it had, this conception of
the mortality of man was one of the most striking scientific
inductions to which prehistoric man attained. Incidentally, it
may be noted that the conception of eternal life for the human
body being a more primitive idea than the conception of natural
death, the idea of the immortality of the spirit would be the
most natural of conceptions. The immortal spirit, indeed, would
be but a correlative of the immortal body, and the idea which we
shall see prevalent among the Egyptians that the soul persists
only as long as the body is intact--the idea upon which the
practice of mummifying the dead depended--finds a ready
explanation. But this phase of the subject carries us somewhat
afield. For our present purpose it suffices to have pointed out
that the conception of man's mortality--a conception which now
seems of all others the most natural and "innate"--was in all
probability a relatively late scientific induction of our
primitive ancestors.

5. Turning from the consideration of the body to its mental
complement, we are forced to admit that here, also, our primitive
man must have made certain elementary observations that underlie
such sciences as psychology, mathematics, and political economy.
The elementary emotions associated with hunger and with satiety,
with love and with hatred, must have forced themselves upon the
earliest intelligence that reached the plane of conscious
self-observation. The capacity to count, at least to the number
four or five, is within the range of even animal intelligence.
Certain savages have gone scarcely farther than this; but our
primeval ancestor, who was forging on towards civilization, had
learned to count his fingers and toes, and to number objects
about him by fives and tens in consequence, before be passed
beyond the plane of numerous existing barbarians. How much beyond
this he had gone we need not attempt to inquire; but the
relatively high development of mathematics in the early
historical period suggests that primeval man had attained a not
inconsiderable knowledge of numbers. The humdrum vocation of
looking after a numerous progeny must have taught the mother the
rudiments of addition and subtraction; and the elements of
multiplication and division are implied in the capacity to carry
on even the rudest form of barter, such as the various tribes
must have practised from an early day.

As to political ideas, even the crudest tribal life was based on
certain conceptions of ownership, at least of tribal ownership,
and the application of the principle of likeness and difference
to which we have already referred. Each tribe, of course,
differed in some regard from other tribes, and the recognition of
these differences implied in itself a political classification. A
certain tribe took possession of a particular hunting- ground,
which became, for the time being, its home, and over which it
came to exercise certain rights. An invasion of this territory by
another tribe might lead to war, and the banding together of the
members of the tribe to repel the invader implied both a
recognition of communal unity and a species of prejudice in favor
of that community that constituted a primitive patriotism. But
this unity of action in opposing another tribe would not prevent
a certain rivalry of interest between the members of the same
tribe, which would show itself more and more prominently as the
tribe increased in size. The association of two or more persons
implies, always, the ascendency of some and the subordination of
others. Leadership and subordination are necessary correlatives
of difference of physical and mental endowment, and rivalry
between leaders would inevitably lead to the formation of
primitive political parties. With the ultimate success and
ascendency of one leader, who secures either absolute power or
power modified in accordance with the advice of subordinate
leaders, we have the germs of an elaborate political system--an
embryo science of government.

Meanwhile, the very existence of such a community implies the
recognition on the part of its members of certain individual
rights, the recognition of which is essential to communal
harmony. The right of individual ownership of the various
articles and implements of every-day life must be recognized, or
all harmony would be at an end. Certain rules of justice--
primitive laws--must, by common consent, give protection to the
weakest members of the community. Here are the rudiments of a
system of ethics. It may seem anomalous to speak of this
primitive morality, this early recognition of the principles of
right and wrong, as having any relation to science. Yet, rightly
considered, there is no incongruity in such a citation. There
cannot well be a doubt that the adoption of those broad
principles of right and wrong which underlie the entire structure
of modern civilization was due to scientific induction,--in other
words, to the belief, based on observation and experience, that
the principles implied were essential to communal progress. He
who has scanned the pageant of history knows how often these
principles seem to be absent in the intercourse of men and
nations. Yet the ideal is always there as a standard by which all
deeds are judged.


It would appear, then, that the entire superstructure of later
science had its foundation in the knowledge and practice of
prehistoric man. The civilization of the historical period could
not have advanced as it has had there not been countless
generations of culture back of it. The new principles of science
could not have been evolved had there not been great basal
principles which ages of unconscious experiment had impressed
upon the mind of our race. Due meed of praise must be given,
then, to our primitive ancestor for his scientific
accomplishments; but justice demands that we should look a little
farther and consider the reverse side of the picture. We have had
to do, thus far, chiefly with the positive side of
accomplishment. We have pointed out what our primitive ancestor
knew, intimating, perhaps, the limitations of his knowledge; but
we have had little to say of one all-important feature of his
scientific theorizing. The feature in question is based on the
highly scientific desire and propensity to find explanations for
the phenomena of nature. Without such desire no progress could be
made. It is, as we have seen, the generalizing from experience
that constitutes real scientific progress; and yet, just as most
other good things can be overdone, this scientific propensity may
be carried to a disastrous excess.

Primeval man did not escape this danger. He observed, he
reasoned, he found explanations; but he did not always
discriminate as to the logicality of his reasonings. He failed to
recognize the limitations of his knowledge. The observed
uniformity in the sequence of certain events impressed on his
mind the idea of cause and effect. Proximate causes known, he
sought remoter causes; childlike, his inquiring mind was always
asking, Why? and, childlike, he demanded an explicit answer. If
the forces of nature seemed to combat him, if wind and rain
opposed his progress and thunder and lightning seemed to menace
his existence, he was led irrevocably to think of those human
foes who warred with him, and to see, back of the warfare of the
elements, an inscrutable malevolent intelligence which took this
method to express its displeasure. But every other line of
scientific observation leads equally, following back a sequence
of events, to seemingly causeless beginnings. Modern science can
explain the lightning, as it can explain a great number of the
mysteries which the primeval intelligence could not penetrate.
But the primordial man could not wait for the revelations of
scientific investigation: he must vault at once to a final
solution of all scientific problems. He found his solution by
peopling the world with invisible forces, anthropomorphic in
their conception, like himself in their thought and action,
differing only in the limitations of their powers. His own dream
existence gave him seeming proof of the existence of an alter
ego, a spiritual portion of himself that could dissever itself
from his body and wander at will; his scientific inductions
seemed to tell him of a world of invisible beings, capable of
influencing him for good or ill. From the scientific exercise of
his faculties he evolved the all-encompassing generalizations of
invisible and all-powerful causes back of the phenomena of
nature. These generalizations, early developed and seemingly
supported by the observations of countless generations, came to
be among the most firmly established scientific inductions of our
primeval ancestor. They obtained a hold upon the mentality of our
race that led subsequent generations to think of them, sometimes
to speak of them, as "innate" ideas. The observations upon which
they were based are now, for the most part, susceptible of other
interpretations; but the old interpretations have precedent and
prejudice back of them, and they represent ideas that are more
difficult than almost any others to eradicate. Always, and
everywhere, superstitions based upon unwarranted early scientific
deductions have been the most implacable foes to the progress of
science. Men have built systems of philosophy around their
conception of anthropomorphic deities; they have linked to these
systems of philosophy the allied conception of the immutability
of man's spirit, and they have asked that scientific progress
should stop short at the brink of these systems of philosophy and
accept their dictates as final. Yet there is not to-day in
existence, and there never has been, one jot of scientific
evidence for the existence of these intangible anthropomorphic
powers back of nature that is not susceptible of scientific
challenge and of more logical interpretation. In despite of which
the superstitious beliefs are still as firmly fixed in the minds
of a large majority of our race as they were in the mind of our
prehistoric ancestor. The fact of this baleful heritage must not
be forgotten in estimating the debt of gratitude which historic
man owes to his barbaric predecessor.



II. EGYPTIAN SCIENCE

In the previous chapter we have purposely refrained from
referring to any particular tribe or race of historical man. Now,
however, we are at the beginnings of national existence, and we
have to consider the accomplishments of an individual race; or
rather, perhaps, of two or more races that occupied successively
the same geographical territory. But even now our studies must
for a time remain very general; we shall see little or nothing of
the deeds of individual scientists in the course of our study of
Egyptian culture. We are still, it must be understood, at the
beginnings of history; indeed, we must first bridge over the gap
from the prehistoric before we may find ourselves fairly on the
line of march of historical science.

At the very outset we may well ask what constitutes the
distinction between prehistoric and historic epochs --a
distinction which has been constantly implied in much that we
have said. The reply savors somewhat of vagueness. It is a
distinction having to do, not so much with facts of human
progress as with our interpretation of these facts. When we speak
of the dawn of history we must not be understood to imply that,
at the period in question, there was any sudden change in the
intellectual status of the human race or in the status of any
individual tribe or nation of men. What we mean is that modern
knowledge has penetrated the mists of the past for the period we
term historical with something more of clearness and precision
than it has been able to bring to bear upon yet earlier periods.
New accessions of knowledge may thus shift from time to time the
bounds of the so-called historical period. The clearest
illustration of this is furnished by our interpretation of
Egyptian history. Until recently the biblical records of the
Hebrew captivity or service, together with the similar account of
Josephus, furnished about all that was known of Egyptian history
even of so comparatively recent a time as that of Ramses II.
(fifteenth century B.C.), and from that period on there was
almost a complete gap until the story was taken up by the Greek
historians Herodotus and Diodorus. It is true that the king-lists
of the Alexandrian historian, Manetho, were all along accessible
in somewhat garbled copies. But at best they seemed to supply
unintelligible lists of names and dates which no one was disposed
to take seriously. That they were, broadly speaking, true
historical records, and most important historical records at
that, was not recognized by modern scholars until fresh light had
been thrown on the subject from altogether new sources.

These new sources of knowledge of ancient history demand a
moment's consideration. They are all-important because they have
been the means of extending the historical period of Egyptian
history (using the word history in the way just explained) by
three or four thousand years. As just suggested, that historical
period carried the scholarship of the early nineteenth century
scarcely beyond the fifteenth century B.C., but to-day's vision
extends with tolerable clearness to about the middle of the fifth
millennium B.C. This change has been brought about chiefly
through study of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. These hieroglyphics
constitute, as we now know, a highly developed system of writing;
a system that was practised for some thousands of years, but
which fell utterly into disuse in the later Roman period, and the
knowledge of which passed absolutely from the mind of man. For
about two thousand years no one was able to read, with any degree
of explicitness, a single character of this strange script, and
the idea became prevalent that it did not constitute a real
system of writing, but only a more or less barbaric system of
religious symbolism. The falsity of this view was shown early in
the nineteenth century when Dr. Thomas Young was led, through
study of the famous trilingual inscription of the Rosetta stone,
to make the first successful attempt at clearing up the mysteries
of the hieroglyphics.

This is not the place to tell the story of his fascinating
discoveries and those of his successors. That story belongs to
nineteenth-century science, not to the science of the Egyptians.
Suffice it here that Young gained the first clew to a few of the
phonetic values of the Egyptian symbols, and that the work of
discovery was carried on and vastly extended by the Frenchman
Champollion, a little later, with the result that the firm
foundations of the modern science of Egyptology were laid.
Subsequently such students as Rosellini the Italian, Lepsius the
German, and Wilkinson the Englishman, entered the field, which in
due course was cultivated by De Rouge in France and Birch in
England, and by such distinguished latter-day workers as Chabas,
Mariette, Maspero, Amelineau, and De Morgan among the Frenchmen;
Professor Petrie and Dr. Budge in England; and Brugsch Pasha and
Professor Erman in Germany, not to mention a large coterie of
somewhat less familiar names. These men working, some of them in
the field of practical exploration, some as students of the
Egyptian language and writing, have restored to us a tolerably
precise knowledge of the history of Egypt from the time of the
first historical king, Mena, whose date is placed at about the
middle of the fifth century B.C. We know not merely the names of
most of the subsequent rulers, but some thing of the deeds of
many of them; and, what is vastly more important, we know, thanks
to the modern interpretation of the old literature, many things
concerning the life of the people, and in particular concerning
their highest culture, their methods of thought, and their
scientific attainments, which might well have been supposed to be
past finding out. Nor has modern investigation halted with the
time of the first kings; the recent explorations of such
archaeologists as Amelineau, De Morgan, and Petrie have brought
to light numerous remains of what is now spoken of as the
predynastic period--a period when the inhabitants of the Nile
Valley used implements of chipped stone, when their pottery was
made without the use of the potter's wheel, and when they buried
their dead in curiously cramped attitudes without attempt at
mummification. These aboriginal inhabitants of Egypt cannot
perhaps with strict propriety be spoken of as living within the
historical period, since we cannot date their relics with any
accuracy. But they give us glimpses of the early stages of
civilization upon which the Egyptians of the dynastic period were
to advance.

It is held that the nascent civilization of these Egyptians of
the Neolithic, or late Stone Age, was overthrown by the invading
hosts of a more highly civilized race which probably came from
the East, and which may have been of a Semitic stock. The
presumption is that this invading people brought with it a
knowledge of the arts of war and peace, developed or adopted in
its old home. The introduction of these arts served to bridge
somewhat suddenly, so far as Egypt is concerned, that gap between
the prehistoric and the historic stage of culture to which we
have all along referred. The essential structure of that bridge,
let it now be clearly understood, consisted of a single element.
That element is the capacity to make written records: a knowledge
of the art of writing. Clearly understood, it is this element of
knowledge that forms the line bounding the historical period.
Numberless mementos are in existence that tell of the
intellectual activities of prehistoric man; such mementos as
flint implements, pieces of pottery, and fragments of bone,
inscribed with pictures that may fairly be spoken of as works of
art; but so long as no written word accompanies these records, so
long as no name of king or scribe comes down to us, we feel that
these records belong to the domain of archaeology rather than to
that of history. Yet it must be understood all along that these
two domains shade one into the other and, it has already been
urged, that the distinction between them is one that pertains
rather to modern scholarship than to the development of
civilization itself. Bearing this distinction still in mind, and
recalling that the historical period, which is to be the field of
our observation throughout the rest of our studies, extends for
Egypt well back into the fifth millennium B.C., let us briefly
review the practical phases of that civilization to which the
Egyptian had attained before the beginning of the dynastic
period. Since theoretical science is everywhere linked with the
mechanical arts, this survey will give us a clear comprehension
of the field that lies open for the progress of science in the
long stages of historical time upon which we are just entering.

We may pass over such rudimentary advances in the direction of
civilization as are implied in the use of articulate language,
the application of fire to the uses of man, and the systematic
making of dwellings of one sort or another, since all of these
are stages of progress that were reached very early in the
prehistoric period. What more directly concerns us is to note
that a really high stage of mechanical development had been
reached before the dawnings of Egyptian history proper. All
manner of household utensils were employed; the potter's wheel
aided in the construction of a great variety of earthen vessels;
weaving had become a fine art, and weapons of bronze, including
axes, spears, knives, and arrow-heads, were in constant use.
Animals had long been domesticated, in particular the dog, the
cat, and the ox; the horse was introduced later from the East.
The practical arts of agriculture were practised almost as they
are at the present day in Egypt, there being, of course, the same
dependence then as now upon the inundations of the Nile.

As to government, the Egyptian of the first dynasty regarded his
king as a demi-god to be actually deified after his death, and
this point of view was not changed throughout the stages of later
Egyptian history. In point of art, marvellous advances upon the
skill of the prehistoric man had been made, probably in part
under Asiatic influences, and that unique style of stilted yet
expressive drawing had come into vogue, which was to be
remembered in after times as typically Egyptian. More important
than all else, our Egyptian of the earliest historical period was
in possession of the art of writing. He had begun to make those
specific records which were impossible to the man of the Stone
Age, and thus he had entered fully upon the way of historical
progress which, as already pointed out, has its very foundation
in written records. From now on the deeds of individual kings
could find specific record. It began to be possible to fix the
chronology of remote events with some accuracy; and with this
same fixing of chronologies came the advent of true history. The
period which precedes what is usually spoken of as the first
dynasty in Egypt is one into which the present-day searcher is
still able to see but darkly. The evidence seems to suggest than
an invasion of relatively cultured people from the East
overthrew, and in time supplanted, the Neolithic civilization of
the Nile Valley. It is impossible to date this invasion
accurately, but it cannot well have been later than the year 5000
B.C., and it may have been a great many centuries earlier than
this. Be the exact dates what they may, we find the Egyptian of
the fifth millennium B.C. in full possession of a highly
organized civilization.

All subsequent ages have marvelled at the pyramids, some of which
date from about the year 4000 B.C., though we may note in passing
that these dates must not be taken too literally. The chronology
of ancient Egypt cannot as yet be fixed with exact accuracy, but
the disagreements between the various students of the subject
need give us little concern. For our present purpose it does not
in the least matter whether the pyramids were built three
thousand or four thousand years before the beginning of our era.
It suffices that they date back to a period long antecedent to
the beginnings of civilization in Western Europe. They prove that
the Egyptian of that early day had attained a knowledge of
practical mechanics which, even from the twentieth-century point
of view, is not to be spoken of lightly. It has sometimes been
suggested that these mighty pyramids, built as they are of great
blocks of stone, speak for an almost miraculous knowledge on the
part of their builders; but a saner view of the conditions gives
no warrant for this thought. Diodoras, the Sicilian, in his
famous World's History, written about the beginning of our era,
explains the building of the pyramids by suggesting that great
quantities of earth were piled against the side of the rising
structure to form an inclined plane up which the blocks of stone
were dragged. He gives us certain figures, based, doubtless, on
reports made to him by Egyptian priests, who in turn drew upon
the traditions of their country, perhaps even upon written
records no longer preserved. He says that one hundred and twenty
thousand men were employed in the construction of the largest
pyramid, and that, notwithstanding the size of this host of
workers, the task occupied twenty years. We must not place too
much dependence upon such figures as these, for the ancient
historians are notoriously given to exaggeration in recording
numbers; yet we need not doubt that the report given by Diodorus
is substantially accurate in its main outlines as to the method
through which the pyramids were constructed. A host of men
putting their added weight and strength to the task, with the aid
of ropes, pulleys, rollers, and levers, and utilizing the
principle of the inclined plane, could undoubtedly move and
elevate and place in position the largest blocks that enter into
the pyramids or--what seems even more wonderful--the most
gigantic obelisks, without the aid of any other kind of mechanism
or of any more occult power. The same hands could, as Diodorus
suggests, remove all trace of the debris of construction and
leave the pyramids and obelisks standing in weird isolation, as
if sprung into being through a miracle.


ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE

It has been necessary to bear in mind these phases of practical
civilization because much that we know of the purely scientific
attainments of the Egyptians is based upon modern observation of
their pyramids and temples. It was early observed, for example,
that the pyramids are obviously oriented as regards the direction
in which they face, in strict accordance with some astronomical
principle. Early in the nineteenth century the Frenchman Biot
made interesting studies in regard to this subject, and a hundred
years later, in our own time, Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer,
following up the work of various intermediary observers, has
given the subject much attention, making it the central theme of
his work on The Dawn of Astronomy.[1] Lockyer's researches make
it clear that in the main the temples of Egypt were oriented with
reference to the point at which the sun rises on the day of the
summer solstice. The time of the solstice had peculiar interest
for the Egyptians, because it corresponded rather closely with
the time of the rising of the Nile. The floods of that river
appear with very great regularity; the on-rushing tide reaches
the region of Heliopolis and Memphis almost precisely on the day
of the summer solstice. The time varies at different stages of
the river's course, but as the civilization of the early
dynasties centred at Memphis, observations made at this place had
widest vogue.

Considering the all-essential character of the Nile
floods-without which civilization would be impossible in
Egypt--it is not strange that the time of their appearance should
be taken as marking the beginning of a new year. The fact that
their coming coincides with the solstice makes such a division of
the calendar perfectly natural. In point of fact, from the
earliest periods of which records have come down to us, the new
year of the Egyptians dates from the summer solstice. It is
certain that from the earliest historical periods the Egyptians
were aware of the approximate length of the year. It would be
strange were it otherwise, considering the ease with which a
record of days could be kept from Nile flood to Nile flood, or
from solstice to solstice. But this, of course, applies only to
an approximate count. There is some reason to believe that in the
earliest period the Egyptians made this count only 360 days. The
fact that their year was divided into twelve months of thirty
days each lends color to this belief; but, in any event, the
mistake was discovered in due time and a partial remedy was
applied through the interpolation of a "little month" of five
days between the end of the twelfth month and the new year. This
nearly but not quite remedied the matter. What it obviously
failed to do was to take account of that additional quarter of a
day which really rounds out the actual year.

It would have been a vastly convenient thing for humanity had it
chanced that the earth had so accommodated its rotary motion with
its speed of transit about the sun as to make its annual flight
in precisely 360 days. Twelve lunar months of thirty days each
would then have coincided exactly with the solar year, and most
of the complexities of the calendar, which have so puzzled
historical students, would have been avoided; but, on the other
hand, perhaps this very simplicity would have proved detrimental
to astronomical science by preventing men from searching the
heavens as carefully as they have done. Be that as it may, the
complexity exists. The actual year of three hundred and
sixty-five and (about) one-quarter days cannot be divided evenly
into months, and some such expedient as the intercalation of days
here and there is essential, else the calendar will become
absolutely out of harmony with the seasons.

In the case of the Egyptians, the attempt at adjustment was made,
as just noted, by the introduction of the five days, constituting
what the Egyptians themselves termed "the five days over and
above the year." These so-called epagomenal days were undoubtedly
introduced at a very early period. Maspero holds that they were
in use before the first Thinite dynasty, citing in evidence the
fact that the legend of Osiris explains these days as having been
created by the god Thot in order to permit Nuit to give birth to
all her children; this expedient being necessary to overcome a
ban which had been pronounced against Nuit, according to which
she could not give birth to children on any day of the year. But,
of course, the five additional days do not suffice fully to
rectify the calendar. There remains the additional quarter of a
day to be accounted for. This, of course, amounts to a full day
every fourth year. We shall see that later Alexandrian science
hit upon the expedient of adding a day to every fourth year; an
expedient which the Julian calendar adopted and which still gives
us our familiar leap-year. But, unfortunately, the ancient
Egyptian failed to recognize the need of this additional day, or
if he did recognize it he failed to act on his knowledge, and so
it happened that, starting somewhere back in the remote past with
a new year's day that coincided with the inundation of the Nile,
there was a constantly shifting maladjustment of calendar and
seasons as time went on.

The Egyptian seasons, it should be explained, were three in
number: the season of the inundation, the season of the
seed-time, and the season of the harvest; each season being, of
course, four months in extent. Originally, as just mentioned, the
season of the inundations began and coincided with the actual
time of inundation. The more precise fixing of new year's day was
accomplished through observation of the time of the so-called
heliacal rising of the dog-star, Sirius, which bore the Egyptian
name Sothis. It chances that, as viewed from about the region of
Heliopolis, the sun at the time of the summer solstice occupies
an apparent position in the heavens close to the dog-star. Now,
as is well known, the Egyptians, seeing divinity back of almost
every phenomenon of nature, very naturally paid particular
reverence to so obviously influential a personage as the sun-god.
In particular they thought it fitting to do homage to him just as
he was starting out on his tour of Egypt in the morning; and that
they might know the precise moment of his coming, the Egyptian
astronomer priests, perched on the hill-tops near their temples,
were wont to scan the eastern horizon with reference to some star
which had been observed to precede the solar luminary. Of course
the precession of the equinoxes, due to that axial wobble in
which our clumsy earth indulges, would change the apparent
position of the fixed stars in reference to the sun, so that the
same star could not do service as heliacal messenger
indefinitely; but, on the other hand, these changes are so slow
that observations by many generations of astronomers would be
required to detect the shifting. It is believed by Lockyer,
though the evidence is not quite demonstrative, that the
astronomical observations of the Egyptians date back to a period
when Sothis, the dog-star, was not in close association with the
sun on the morning of the summer solstice. Yet, according to the
calculations of Biot, the heliacal rising of Sothis at the
solstice was noted as early as the year 3285 B.C., and it is
certain that this star continued throughout subsequent centuries
to keep this position of peculiar prestige. Hence it was that
Sothis came to be associated with Isis, one of the most important
divinities of Egypt, and that the day in which Sothis was first
visible in the morning sky marked the beginning of the new year;
that day coinciding, as already noted, with the summer solstice
and with the beginning of the Nile flow.

But now for the difficulties introduced by that unreckoned
quarter of a day. Obviously with a calendar of 365 days only, at
the end of four years, the calendar year, or vague year, as the
Egyptians came to call it, had gained by one full day upon the
actual solar year-- that is to say, the heliacal rising of
Sothis, the dog- star, would not occur on new year's day of the
faulty calendar, but a day later. And with each succeeding period
of four years the day of heliacal rising, which marked the true
beginning of the year--and which still, of course, coincided with
the inundation--would have fallen another day behind the
calendar. In the course of 120 years an entire month would be
lost; and in 480 years so great would become the shifting that
the seasons would be altogether misplaced; the actual time of
inundations corresponding with what the calendar registered as
the seed-time, and the actual seed-time in turn corresponding
with the harvest-time of the calendar.

At first thought this seems very awkward and confusing, but in
all probability the effects were by no means so much so in actual
practice. We need go no farther than to our own experience to
know that the names of seasons, as of months and days, come to
have in the minds of most of us a purely conventional
significance. Few of us stop to give a thought to the meaning of
the words January, February, etc., except as they connote certain
climatic conditions. If, then, our own calendar were so defective
that in the course of 120 years the month of February had shifted
back to occupy the position of the original January, the change
would have been so gradual, covering the period of two life-times
or of four or five average generations, that it might well escape
general observation.

Each succeeding generation of Egyptians, then, may not improbably
have associated the names of the seasons with the contemporary
climatic conditions, troubling themselves little with the thought
that in an earlier age the climatic conditions for each period of
the calendar were quite different. We cannot well suppose,
however, that the astronomer priests were oblivious to the true
state of things. Upon them devolved the duty of predicting the
time of the Nile flood; a duty they were enabled to perform
without difficulty through observation of the rising of the
solstitial sun and its Sothic messenger. To these observers it
must finally have been apparent that the shifting of the seasons
was at the rate of one day in four years; this known, it required
no great mathematical skill to compute that this shifting would
finally effect a complete circuit of the calendar, so that after
(4 X 365 =) 1460 years the first day of the calendar year would
again coincide with the heliacal rising of Sothis and with the
coming of the Nile flood. In other words, 1461 vague years or
Egyptian calendar years Of 365 days each correspond to 1460
actual solar years of 365 1/4 days each. This period, measured
thus by the heliacal rising of Sothis, is spoken of as the Sothic
cycle.

To us who are trained from childhood to understand that the year
consists of (approximately) 365 1/4 days, and to know that the
calendar may be regulated approximately by the introduction of an
extra day every fourth year, this recognition of the Sothic cycle
seems simple enough. Yet if the average man of us will reflect
how little he knows, of his own knowledge, of the exact length of
the year, it will soon become evident that the appreciation of
the faults of the calendar and the knowledge of its periodical
adjustment constituted a relatively high development of
scientific knowledge on the part of the Egyptian astronomer. It
may be added that various efforts to reform the calendar were
made by the ancient Egyptians, but that they cannot be credited
with a satisfactory solution of the problem; for, of course, the
Alexandrian scientists of the Ptolemaic period (whose work we
shall have occasion to review presently) were not Egyptians in
any proper sense of the word, but Greeks.

Since so much of the time of the astronomer priests was devoted
to observation of the heavenly bodies, it is not surprising that
they should have mapped out the apparent course of the moon and
the visible planets in their nightly tour of the heavens, and
that they should have divided the stars of the firmament into
more or less arbitrary groups or constellations. That they did so
is evidenced by various sculptured representations of
constellations corresponding to signs of the zodiac which still
ornament the ceilings of various ancient temples. Unfortunately
the decorative sense, which was always predominant with the
Egyptian sculptor, led him to take various liberties with the
distribution of figures in these representations of the
constellations, so that the inferences drawn from them as to the
exact map of the heavens as the Egyptians conceived it cannot be
fully relied upon. It appears, however, that the Egyptian
astronomer divided the zodiac into twenty-four decani, or
constellations. The arbitrary groupings of figures, with the aid
of which these are delineated, bear a close resemblance to the
equally arbitrary outlines which we are still accustomed to use
for the same purpose.


IDEAS OF COSMOLOGY

In viewing this astronomical system of the Egyptians one cannot
avoid the question as to just what interpretation was placed upon
it as regards the actual mechanical structure of the universe. A
proximal answer to the question is supplied us with a good deal
of clearness. It appears that the Egyptian conceived the sky as a
sort of tangible or material roof placed above the world, and
supported at each of its four corners by a column or pillar,
which was later on conceived as a great mountain. The earth
itself was conceived to be a rectangular box, longer from north
to south than from east to west; the upper surface of this box,
upon which man lived, being slightly concave and having, of
course, the valley of the Nile as its centre. The pillars of
support were situated at the points of the compass; the northern
one being located beyond the Mediterranean Sea; the southern one
away beyond the habitable regions towards the source of the Nile,
and the eastern and western ones in equally inaccessible regions.
Circling about the southern side of the, world was a great river
suspended in mid-air on something comparable to mountain cliffs;
on which river the sun-god made his daily course in a boat,
fighting day by day his ever-recurring battle against Set, the
demon of darkness. The wide channel of this river enabled the
sun-god to alter his course from time to time, as he is observed
to do; in winter directing his bark towards the farther bank of
the channel; in summer gliding close to the nearer bank. As to
the stars, they were similar lights, suspended from the vault of
the heaven; but just how their observed motion of translation
across the heavens was explained is not apparent. It is more than
probable that no one explanation was, universally accepted.

In explaining the origin of this mechanism of the heavens, the
Egyptian imagination ran riot. Each separate part of Egypt had
its own hierarchy of gods, and more or less its own explanations
of cosmogony. There does not appear to have been any one central
story of creation that found universal acceptance, any more than
there was one specific deity everywhere recognized as supreme
among the gods. Perhaps the most interesting of the cosmogonic
myths was that which conceived that Nuit, the goddess of night,
had been torn from the arms of her husband, Sibu the earth-god,
and elevated to the sky despite her protests and her husband's
struggles, there to remain supported by her four limbs, which
became metamorphosed into the pillars, or mountains, already
mentioned. The forcible elevation of Nuit had been effected on
the day of creation by a new god, Shu, who came forth from the
primeval waters. A painting on the mummy case of one Betuhamon,
now in the Turin Museum, illustrates, in the graphic manner so
characteristic of the Egyptians, this act of creation. As
Maspero[2] points out, the struggle of Sibu resulted in
contorted attitudes to which the irregularities of the earth's
surface are to be ascribed.

In contemplating such a scheme of celestial mechanics as that
just outlined, one cannot avoid raising the question as to just
the degree of literalness which the Egyptians themselves put upon
it. We know how essentially eye-minded the Egyptian was, to use a
modern psychological phrase--that is to say, how essential to him
it seemed that all his conceptions should be visualized. The
evidences of this are everywhere: all his gods were made
tangible; he believed in the immortality of the soul, yet he
could not conceive of such immortality except in association with
an immortal body; he must mummify the body of the dead, else, as
he firmly believed, the dissolution of the spirit would take
place along with the dissolution of the body itself. His world
was peopled everywhere with spirits, but they were spirits
associated always with corporeal bodies; his gods found lodgment
in sun and moon and stars; in earth and water; in the bodies of
reptiles and birds and mammals. He worshipped all of these
things: the sun, the moon, water, earth, the spirit of the Nile,
the ibis, the cat, the ram, and apis the bull; but, so far as we
can judge, his imagination did not reach to the idea of an
absolutely incorporeal deity. Similarly his conception of the
mechanism of the heavens must be a tangibly mechanical one. He
must think of the starry firmament as a substantial entity which
could not defy the law of gravitation, and which, therefore, must
have the same manner of support as is required by the roof of a
house or temple. We know that this idea of the materiality of the
firmament found elaborate expression in those later cosmological
guesses which were to dominate the thought of Europe until the
time of Newton. We need not doubt, therefore, that for the
Egyptian this solid vault of the heavens had a very real
existence. If now and then some dreamer conceived the great
bodies of the firmament as floating in a less material
plenum--and such iconoclastic dreamers there are in all ages--no
record of his musings has come down to us, and we must freely
admit that if such thoughts existed they were alien to the
character of the Egyptian mind as a whole.

While the Egyptians conceived the heavenly bodies as the
abiding-place of various of their deities, it does not appear
that they practised astrology in the later acceptance of that
word. This is the more remarkable since the conception of lucky
and unlucky days was carried by the Egyptians to the extremes of
absurdity. "One day was lucky or unlucky," says Erman,[3]
"according as a good or bad mythological incident took place on
that day. For instance, the 1st of Mechir, on which day the sky
was raised, and the 27th of Athyr, when Horus and, Set concluded
peace together and divided the world between them, were lucky
days; on the other hand, the 14th of Tybi, on which Isis and
Nephthys mourned for Osiris, was an unlucky day. With the unlucky
days, which, fortunately, were less in number than the lucky
days, they distinguished different degrees of ill-luck. Some were
very unlucky, others only threatened ill-luck, and many, like the
17th and the 27th Choiakh, were partly good and partly bad
according to the time of day. Lucky days might, as a rule, be
disregarded. At most it might be as well to visit some specially
renowned temple, or to 'celebrate a joyful day at home,' but no
particular precautions were really necessary; and, above all, it
was said, 'what thou also seest on the day is lucky.' It was
quite otherwise with the unlucky and dangerous days, which
imposed so many and such great limitations on people that those
who wished to be prudent were always obliged to bear them in mind
when determining on any course of action. Certain conditions were
easy to carry out. Music and singing were to be avoided on the
14th Tybi, the day of the mourning of Osiris, and no one was
allowed to wash on the 16th Tybi; whilst the name of Set might
not be pronounced on the 24th of Pharmuthi. Fish was forbidden on
certain days; and what was still more difficult in a country so
rich in mice, on the 12th of Tybi no mouse might be seen. The
most tiresome prohibitions, however, were those which occurred
not infrequently, namely, those concerning work and going out:
for instance, four times in Paophi the people had to 'do nothing
at all,' and five times to sit the whole day or half the day in
the house; and the same rule had to be observed each month. It
was impossible to rejoice if a child was born on the 23d of
Thoth; the parents knew it could not live. Those born on the 20th
of Choiakh would become blind, and those born on the 3d of
Choiakh, deaf."


CHARMS AND INCANTATIONS

Where such conceptions as these pertained, it goes without saying
that charms and incantations intended to break the spell of the
unlucky omens were equally prevalent. Such incantations consisted
usually of the recitation of certain phrases based originally, it
would appear, upon incidents in the history of the gods. The
words which the god had spoken in connection with some lucky
incident would, it was thought, prove effective now in bringing
good luck to the human supplicant--that is to say, the magician
hoped through repeating the words of the god to exercise the
magic power of the god. It was even possible, with the aid of the
magical observances, partly to balk fate itself. Thus the person
predestined through birth on an unlucky day to die of a serpent
bite might postpone the time of this fateful visitation to
extreme old age. The like uncertainty attached to those spells
which one person was supposed to be able to exercise over
another. It was held, for example, that if something belonging to
an individual, such as a lock of hair or a paring of the nails,
could be secured and incorporated in a waxen figure, this figure
would be intimately associated with the personality of that
individual. An enemy might thus secure occult power over one; any
indignity practised upon the waxen figure would result in like
injury to its human prototype. If the figure were bruised or
beaten, some accident would overtake its double; if the image
were placed over a fire, the human being would fall into a fever,
and so on. But, of course, such mysterious evils as these would
be met and combated by equally mysterious processes; and so it
was that the entire art of medicine was closely linked with
magical practices. It was not, indeed, held, according to
Maspero, that the magical spells of enemies were the sole sources
of human ailments, but one could never be sure to what extent
such spells entered into the affliction; and so closely were the
human activities associated in the mind of the Egyptian with one
form or another of occult influences that purely physical
conditions were at a discount. In the later times, at any rate,
the physician was usually a priest, and there was a close
association between the material and spiritual phases of
therapeutics. Erman[4] tells us that the following formula had to
be recited at the preparation of all medicaments: "That Isis
might make free, make free. That Isis might make Horus free from
all evil that his brother Set had done to him when he slew his
father, Osiris. O Isis, great enchantress, free me, release me
from all evil red things, from the fever of the god, and the
fever of the goddess, from death and death from pain, and the
pain which comes over me; as thou hast freed, as thou hast
released thy son Horus, whilst I enter into the fire and come
forth from the water," etc. Again, when the invalid took the
medicine, an incantation had to be said which began thus: "Come
remedy, come drive it out of my heart, out of these limbs strong
in magic power with the remedy." He adds: "There may have been a
few rationalists amongst the Egyptian doctors, for the number of
magic formulae varies much in the different books. The book that
we have specially taken for a foundation for this account of
Egyptian medicine-- the great papyrus of the eighteenth dynasty
edited by Ebers[5]--contains, for instance, far fewer exorcisms
than some later writings with similar contents, probably because
the doctor who compiled this book of recipes from older sources
had very little liking for magic."

It must be understood, however--indeed, what has just been said
implies as much--that the physician by no means relied upon
incantations alone; on the contrary, he equipped himself with an
astonishing variety of medicaments. He had a particular fondness
for what the modern physician speaks of as a "shot-gun"
prescription--one containing a great variety of ingredients. Not
only did herbs of many kinds enter into this, but such substances
as lizard's blood, the teeth of swine, putrid meat, the moisture
from pigs' ears, boiled horn, and numerous other even more
repellent ingredients. Whoever is familiar with the formulae
employed by European physicians even so recently as the
eighteenth century will note a striking similarity here. Erman
points out that the modern Egyptian even of this day holds
closely to many of the practices of his remote ancestor. In
particular, the efficacy of the beetle as a medicinal agent has
stood the test of ages of practice. "Against all kinds of
witchcraft," says an ancient formula, "a great scarabaeus beetle;
cut off his head and wings, boil him; put him in oil and lay him
out; then cook his head and wings, put them in snake fat, boil,
and let the patient drink the mixture." The modern Egyptian, says
Erman, uses almost precisely the same recipe, except that the
snake fat is replaced by modern oil.

In evidence of the importance which was attached to practical
medicine in the Egypt of an early day, the names of several
physicians have come down to us from an age which has preserved
very few names indeed, save those of kings. In reference to this
Erman says[6]: "We still know the names of some of the early body
physicians of this time; Sechmetna'eonch, 'chief physician of the
Pharaoh,' and Nesmenan his chief, the 'superintendent of the
physicians of the Pharaoh.' The priests also of the
lioness-headed goddess Sechmet seem to have been famed for their
medical wisdom, whilst the son of this goddess, the demi-god
Imhotep, was in later times considered to be the creator of
medical knowledge. These ancient doctors of the New Empire do not
seem to have improved upon the older conceptions about the
construction of the human body."

As to the actual scientific attainments of the Egyptian
physician, it is difficult to speak with precision. Despite the
cumbersome formulae and the grotesque incantations, we need not
doubt that a certain practical value attended his therapeutics.
He practised almost pure empiricism, however, and certainly it
must have been almost impossible to determine which ones, if any,
of the numerous ingredients of the prescription had real
efficacy.

The practical anatomical knowledge of the physician, there is
every reason to believe, was extremely limited. At first thought
it might seem that the practice of embalming would have led to
the custom of dissecting human bodies, and that the Egyptians, as
a result of this, would have excelled in the knowledge of
anatomy. But the actual results were rather the reverse of this.
Embalming the dead, it must be recalled, was a purely religious
observance. It took place under the superintendence of the
priests, but so great was the reverence for the human body that
the priests themselves were not permitted to make the abdominal
incision which was a necessary preliminary of the process. This
incision, as we are informed by both Herodotus[7] and
Diodorus[8], was made by a special officer, whose status, if we
may believe the explicit statement of Diodorus, was quite
comparable to that of the modern hangman. The paraschistas, as he
was called, having performed his necessary but obnoxious
function, with the aid of a sharp Ethiopian stone, retired
hastily, leaving the remaining processes to the priests. These,
however, confined their observations to the abdominal viscera;
under no consideration did they make other incisions in the body.
It follows, therefore, that their opportunity for anatomical
observations was most limited.

Since even the necessary mutilation inflicted on the corpse was
regarded with such horror, it follows that anything in the way of
dissection for a less sacred purpose was absolutely prohibited.
Probably the same prohibition extended to a large number of
animals, since most of these were held sacred in one part of
Egypt or another. Moreover, there is nothing in what we know of
the Egyptian mind to suggest the probability that any Egyptian
physician would make extensive anatomical observations for the
love of pure knowledge. All Egyptian science is eminently
practical. If we think of the Egyptian as mysterious, it is
because of the superstitious observances that we everywhere
associate with his daily acts; but these, as we have already
tried to make clear, were really based on scientific observations
of a kind, and the attempt at true inferences from these
observations. But whether or not the Egyptian physician desired
anatomical knowledge, the results of his inquiries were certainly
most meagre. The essentials of his system had to do with a series
of vessels, alleged to be twenty-two or twenty-four in number,
which penetrated the head and were distributed in pairs to the
various members of the body, and which were vaguely thought of as
carriers of water, air, excretory fluids, etc. Yet back of this
vagueness, as must not be overlooked, there was an all-essential
recognition of the heart as the central vascular organ. The heart
is called the beginning of all the members. Its vessels, we are
told, "lead to all the members; whether the doctor lays his
finger on the forehead, on the back of the head, on the hands, on
the place of the stomach (?), on the arms, or on the feet,
everywhere he meets with the heart, because its vessels lead to
all the members."[9] This recognition of the pulse must be
credited to the Egyptian physician as a piece of practical
knowledge, in some measure off-setting the vagueness of his
anatomical theories.


ABSTRACT SCIENCE

But, indeed, practical knowledge was, as has been said over and
over, the essential characteristic of Egyptian science. Yet
another illustration of this is furnished us if we turn to the
more abstract departments of thought and inquire what were the
Egyptian attempts in such a field as mathematics. The answer does
not tend greatly to increase our admiration for the Egyptian
mind. We are led to see, indeed, that the Egyptian merchant was
able to perform all the computations necessary to his craft, but
we are forced to conclude that the knowledge of numbers scarcely
extended beyond this, and that even here the methods of reckoning
were tedious and cumbersome. Our knowledge of the subject rests
largely upon the so- called papyrus Rhind,[10] which is a sort of
mythological hand-book of the ancient Egyptians. Analyzing this
document, Professor Erman concludes that the knowledge of the
Egyptians was adequate to all practical requirements. Their
mathematics taught them "how in the exchange of bread for beer
the respective value was to be determined when converted into a
quantity of corn; how to reckon the size of a field; how to
determine how a given quantity of corn would go into a granary of
a certain size," and like every-day problems. Yet they were
obliged to make some of their simple computations in a very
roundabout way. It would appear, for example, that their mental
arithmetic did not enable them to multiply by a number larger
than two, and that they did not reach a clear conception of
complex fractional numbers. They did, indeed, recognize that each
part of an object divided into 10 pieces became 1/10 of that
object; they even grasped the idea of 2/3 this being a conception
easily visualized; but they apparently did not visualize such a
conception as 3/10 except in the crude form of 1/10 plus 1/10
plus 1/10. Their entire idea of division seems defective. They
viewed the subject from the more elementary stand-point of
multiplication. Thus, in order to find out how many times 7 is
contained in 77, an existing example shows that the numbers
representing 1 times 7, 2 times 7, 4 times 7, 8 times 7 were set
down successively and various experimental additions made to find
out which sets of these numbers aggregated 77.

  --1 7
  --2 14
  --4 28
  --8 56

A line before the first, second, and fourth of these numbers
indicated that it is necessary to multiply 7 by 1 plus 2 plus
8--that is, by 11, in order to obtain 77; that is to say, 7 goes
11 times in 77. All this seems very cumbersome indeed, yet we
must not overlook the fact that the process which goes on in our
own minds in performing such a problem as this is precisely
similar, except that we have learned to slur over certain of the
intermediate steps with the aid of a memorized multiplication
table. In the last analysis, division is only the obverse side of
multiplication, and any one who has not learned his
multiplication table is reduced to some such expedient as that of
the Egyptian. Indeed, whenever we pass beyond the range of our
memorized multiplication table-which for most of us ends with the
twelves--the experimental character of the trial multiplication
through which division is finally effected does not so greatly
differ from the experimental efforts which the Egyptian was
obliged to apply to smaller numbers.

Despite his defective comprehension of fractions, the Egyptian
was able to work out problems of relative complexity; for
example, he could determine the answer of such a problem as this:
a number together with its fifth part makes 21; what is the
number? The process by which the Egyptian solved this problem
seems very cumbersome to any one for whom a rudimentary knowledge
of algebra makes it simple, yet the method which we employ
differs only in that we are enabled, thanks to our hypothetical
x, to make a short cut, and the essential fact must not be
overlooked that the Egyptian reached a correct solution of the
problem. With all due desire to give credit, however, the fact
remains that the Egyptian was but a crude mathematician. Here, as
elsewhere, it is impossible to admire him for any high
development of theoretical science. First, last, and all the
time, he was practical, and there is nothing to show that the
thought of science for its own sake, for the mere love of
knowing, ever entered his head.

In general, then, we must admit that the Egyptian had not
progressed far in the hard way of abstract thinking. He
worshipped everything about him because he feared the result of
failing to do so. He embalmed the dead lest the spirit of the
neglected one might come to torment him. Eye-minded as he was, he
came to have an artistic sense, to love decorative effects. But
he let these always take precedence over his sense of truth; as,
for example, when he modified his lists of kings at Abydos to fit
the space which the architect had left to be filled; he had no
historical sense to show to him that truth should take precedence
over mere decoration. And everywhere he lived in the same
happy-go-lucky way. He loved personal ease, the pleasures of the
table, the luxuries of life, games, recreations, festivals. He
took no heed for the morrow, except as the morrow might minister
to his personal needs. Essentially a sensual being, he scarcely
conceived the meaning of the intellectual life in the modern
sense of the term. He had perforce learned some things about
astronomy, because these were necessary to his worship of the
gods; about practical medicine, because this ministered to his
material needs; about practical arithmetic, because this aided
him in every-day affairs. The bare rudiments of an historical
science may be said to be crudely outlined in his defective lists
of kings. But beyond this he did not go. Science as science, and
for its own sake, was unknown to him. He had gods for all
material functions, and festivals in honor of every god; but
there was no goddess of mere wisdom in his pantheon. The
conception of Minerva was reserved for the creative genius of
another people.


III. SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

Throughout classical antiquity Egyptian science was famous. We
know that Plato spent some years in Egypt in the hope of
penetrating the alleged mysteries of its fabled learning; and the
story of the Egyptian priest who patronizingly assured Solon that
the Greeks were but babes was quoted everywhere without
disapproval. Even so late as the time of Augustus, we find
Diodorus, the Sicilian, looking back with veneration upon the
Oriental learning, to which Pliny also refers with unbounded
respect. From what we have seen of Egyptian science, all this
furnishes us with a somewhat striking commentary upon the
attainments of the Greeks and Romans themselves. To refer at
length to this would be to anticipate our purpose; what now
concerns us is to recall that all along there was another nation,
or group of nations, that disputed the palm for scientific
attainments. This group of nations found a home in the valley of
the Tigris and Euphrates. Their land was named Mesopotamia by the
Greeks, because a large part of it lay between the two rivers
just mentioned. The peoples themselves are familiar to every one
as the Babylonians and the Assyrians. These peoples were of
Semitic stock--allied, therefore, to the ancient Hebrews and
Phoenicians and of the same racial stem with the Arameans and
Arabs.

The great capital of the Babylonians during the later period of
their history was the famed city of Babylon itself; the most
famous capital of the Assyrians was Nineveh, that city to which,
as every Bible- student will recall, the prophet Jonah was
journeying when he had a much-exploited experience, the record of
which forms no part of scientific annals. It was the kings of
Assyria, issuing from their palaces in Nineveh, who dominated the
civilization of Western Asia during the heyday of Hebrew history,
and whose deeds are so frequently mentioned in the Hebrew
chronicles. Later on, in the year 606 B.C., Nineveh was
overthrown by the Medes[1] and Babylonians. The famous city was
completely destroyed, never to be rebuilt. Babylon, however,
though conquered subsequently by Cyrus and held in subjection by
Darius,[2] the Persian kings, continued to hold sway as a great
world-capital for some centuries. The last great historical event
that occurred within its walls was the death of Alexander the
Great, which took place there in the year 322 B.C.

In the time of Herodotus the fame of Babylon was at its height,
and the father of history has left us a most entertaining account
of what he saw when he visited the wonderful capital.
Unfortunately, Herodotus was not a scholar in the proper
acceptance of the term. He probably had no inkling of the
Babylonian language, so the voluminous records of its literature
were entirely shut off from his observation. He therefore
enlightens us but little regarding the science of the
Babylonians, though his observations on their practical
civilization give us incidental references of no small
importance. Somewhat more detailed references to the scientific
attainments of the Babylonians are found in the fragments that
have come down to us of the writings of the great Babylonian
historian, Berosus,[3] who was born in Babylon about 330 B.C.,
and who was, therefore, a contemporary of Alexander the Great.
But the writings of Berosus also, or at least such parts of them
as have come down to us, leave very much to be desired in point
of explicitness. They give some glimpses of Babylonian history,
and they detail at some length the strange mythical tales of
creation that entered into the Babylonian conception of
cosmogony--details which find their counterpart in the allied
recitals of the Hebrews. But taken all in all, the glimpses of
the actual state of Chaldean[4] learning, as it was commonly
called, amounted to scarcely more than vague wonder-tales. No one
really knew just what interpretation to put upon these tales
until the explorers of the nineteenth century had excavated the
ruins of the Babylonian and Assyrian cities, bringing to light
the relics of their wonderful civilization. But these relics
fortunately included vast numbers of written documents, inscribed
on tablets, prisms, and cylinders of terra-cotta. When
nineteenth-century scholarship had penetrated the mysteries of
the strange script, and ferreted out the secrets of an unknown
tongue, the world at last was in possession of authentic records
by which the traditions regarding the Babylonians and Assyrians
could be tested. Thanks to these materials, a new science
commonly spoken of as Assyriology came into being, and a most
important chapter of human history was brought to light. It
became apparent that the Greek ideas concerning Mesopotamia,
though vague in the extreme, were founded on fact. No one any
longer questions that the Mesopotamian civilization was fully on
a par with that of Egypt; indeed, it is rather held that
superiority lay with the Asiatics. Certainly, in point of purely
scientific attainments, the Babylonians passed somewhat beyond
their Egyptian competitors. All the evidence seems to suggest
also that the Babylonian civilization was even more ancient than
that of Egypt. The precise dates are here in dispute; nor for our
present purpose need they greatly concern us. But the
Assyrio-Babylonian records have much greater historical accuracy
as regards matters of chronology than have the Egyptian, and it
is believed that our knowledge of the early Babylonian history is
carried back, with some certainty, to King Sargon of Agade,[5]
for whom the date 3800 B.C. is generally accepted; while somewhat
vaguer records give us glimpses of periods as remote as the
sixth, perhaps even the seventh or eighth millenniums before our
era.

At a very early period Babylon itself was not a capital and
Nineveh had not come into existence. The important cities, such
as Nippur and Shirpurla, were situated farther to the south. It
is on the site of these cities that the recent excavations have
been made, such as those of the University of Pennsylvania
expeditions at Nippur,[6] which are giving us glimpses into
remoter recesses of the historical period.

Even if we disregard the more problematical early dates, we are
still concerned with the records of a civilization extending
unbroken throughout a period of about four thousand years; the
actual period is in all probability twice or thrice that.
Naturally enough, the current of history is not an unbroken
stream throughout this long epoch. It appears that at least two
utterly different ethnic elements are involved. A preponderance
of evidence seems to show that the earliest civilized inhabitants
of Mesopotamia were not Semitic, but an alien race, which is now
commonly spoken of as Sumerian. This people, of whom we catch
glimpses chiefly through the records of its successors, appears
to have been subjugated or overthrown by Semitic invaders, who,
coming perhaps from Arabia (their origin is in dispute), took
possession of the region of the Tigris and Euphrates, learned
from the Sumerians many of the useful arts, and, partly perhaps
because of their mixed lineage, were enabled to develop the most
wonderful civilization of antiquity. Could we analyze the details
of this civilization from its earliest to its latest period we
should of course find the same changes which always attend racial
progress and decay. We should then be able, no doubt, to speak of
certain golden epochs and their periods of decline. To a certain
meagre extent we are able to do this now. We know, for example,
that King Khammurabi, who lived about 2200 B.C., was a great
law-giver, the ancient prototype of Justinian; and the epochs of
such Assyrian kings as Sargon II., Asshurnazirpal, Sennacherib,
and Asshurbanapal stand out with much distinctness. Yet, as a
whole, the record does not enable us to trace with clearness the
progress of scientific thought. At best we can gain fewer
glimpses in this direction than in almost any other, for it is
the record of war and conquest rather than of the peaceful arts
that commanded the attention of the ancient scribe. So in dealing
with the scientific achievements of these peoples, we shall
perforce consider their varied civilizations as a unity, and
attempt, as best we may, to summarize their achievements as a
whole. For the most part, we shall not attempt to discriminate as
to what share in the final product was due to Sumerian, what to
Babylonian, and what to Assyrian. We shall speak of Babylonian
science as including all these elements; and drawing our
information chiefly from the relatively late Assyrian and
Babylonian sources, which, therefore, represent the culminating
achievements of all these ages of effort, we shall attempt to
discover what was the actual status of Mesopotamian science at
its climax. In so far as we succeed, we shall be able to judge
what scientific heritage Europe received from the Orient; for in
the records of Babylonian science we have to do with the Eastern
mind at its best. Let us turn to the specific inquiry as to the
achievements of the Chaldean scientist whose fame so dazzled the
eyes of his contemporaries of the classic world.


BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMY

Our first concern naturally is astronomy, this being here, as in
Egypt, the first-born and the most important of the sciences. The
fame of the Chaldean astronomer was indeed what chiefly commanded
the admiration of the Greeks, and it was through the results of
astronomical observations that Babylonia transmitted her most
important influences to the Western world. "Our division of time
is of Babylonian origin," says Hornmel;[7] "to Babylonia we owe
the week of seven days, with the names of the planets for the
days of the week, and the division into hours and months." Hence
the almost personal interest which we of to-day must needs feel
in the efforts of the Babylonian star-gazer.

It must not be supposed, however, that the Chaldean astronomer
had made any very extraordinary advances upon the knowledge of
the Egyptian "watchers of the night." After all, it required
patient observation rather than any peculiar genius in the
observer to note in the course of time such broad astronomical
conditions as the regularity of the moon's phases, and the
relation of the lunar periods to the longer periodical
oscillations of the sun. Nor could the curious wanderings of the
planets escape the attention of even a moderately keen observer.
The chief distinction between the Chaldean and Egyptian
astronomers appears to have consisted in the relative importance
they attached to various of the phenomena which they both
observed. The Egyptian, as we have seen, centred his attention
upon the sun. That luminary was the abode of one of his most
important gods. His worship was essentially solar. The
Babylonian, on the other hand, appears to have been peculiarly
impressed with the importance of the moon. He could not, of
course, overlook the attention-compelling fact of the solar year;
but his unit of time was the lunar period of thirty days, and his
year consisted of twelve lunar periods, or 360 days. He was
perfectly aware, however, that this period did not coincide with
the actual year; but the relative unimportance which he ascribed
to the solar year is evidenced by the fact that he interpolated
an added month to adjust the calendar only once in six years.
Indeed, it would appear that the Babylonians and Assyrians did
not adopt precisely the same method of adjusting the calendar,
since the Babylonians had two intercular months called Elul and
Adar, whereas the Assyrians had only a single such month, called
the second Adar.[8] (The Ve'Adar of the Hebrews.) This diversity
further emphasizes the fact that it was the lunar period which
received chief attention, the adjustment of this period with the
solar seasons being a necessary expedient of secondary
importance. It is held that these lunar periods have often been
made to do service for years in the Babylonian computations and
in the allied computations of the early Hebrews. The lives of the
Hebrew patriarchs, for example, as recorded in the Bible, are
perhaps reckoned in lunar "years." Divided by twelve, the "years"
of Methuselah accord fairly with the usual experience of mankind.

Yet, on the other hand, the convenience of the solar year in
computing long periods of time was not unrecognized, since this
period is utilized in reckoning the reigns of the Assyrian kings.
It may be added that the reign of a king "was not reckoned from
the day of his accession, but from the Assyrian new year's day,
either before or after the day of accession. There does not
appear to have been any fixed rule as to which new year's day
should be chosen; but from the number of known cases, it appears
to have been the general practice to count the reigning years
from the new year's day nearest the accession, and to call the
period between the accession day and the first new year's day
'the beginning of the reign,' when the year from the new year's
day was called the first year, and the following ones were
brought successively from it. Notwithstanding, in the dates of
several Assyrian and Babylonian sovereigns there are cases of the
year of accession being considered as the first year, thus giving
two reckonings for the reigns of various monarchs, among others,
Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Nebuchadrezzar."[9] This uncertainty as
to the years of reckoning again emphasizes the fact that the
solar year did not have for the Assyrian chronology quite the
same significance that it has for us.

The Assyrian month commenced on the evening when the new moon was
first observed, or, in case the moon was not visible, the new
month started thirty days after the last month. Since the actual
lunar period is about twenty-nine and one-half days, a practical
adjustment was required between the months themselves, and this
was probably effected by counting alternate months as Only 29
days in length. Mr. R. Campbell Thompson[10] is led by his
studies of the astrological tablets to emphasize this fact. He
believes that "the object of the astrological reports which
related to the appearance of the moon and sun was to help
determine and foretell the length of the lunar month." Mr.
Thompson believes also that there is evidence to show that the
interculary month was added at a period less than six years. In
point of fact, it does not appear to be quite clearly established
as to precisely how the adjustment of days with the lunar months,
and lunar months with the solar year, was effected. It is clear,
however, according to Smith, "that the first 28 days of every
month were divided into four weeks of seven days each; the
seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty-eighth days
respectively being Sabbaths, and that there was a general
prohibition of work on these days." Here, of course, is the
foundation of the Hebrew system of Sabbatical days which we have
inherited. The sacredness of the number seven itself--the belief
in which has not been quite shaken off even to this day --was
deduced by the Assyrian astronomer from his observation of the
seven planetary bodies--namely, Sin (the moon), Samas (the sun),
Umunpawddu (Jupiter), Dilbat (Venus), Kaimanu (Saturn), Gudud
(Mercury), Mustabarru-mutanu (Mars).[11] Twelve lunar periods,
making up approximately the solar year, gave peculiar importance
to the number twelve also. Thus the zodiac was divided into
twelve signs which astronomers of all subsequent times have
continued to recognize; and the duodecimal system of counting
took precedence with the Babylonian mathematicians over the more
primitive and, as it seems to us, more satisfactory decimal
system.

Another discrepancy between the Babylonian and Egyptian years
appears in the fact that the Babylonian new year dates from about
the period of the vernal equinox and not from the solstice.
Lockyer associates this with the fact that the periodical
inundation of the Tigris and Euphrates occurs about the
equinoctial period, whereas, as we have seen, the Nile flood
comes at the time of the solstice. It is but natural that so
important a phenomenon as the Nile flood should make a strong
impression upon the minds of a people living in a valley. The
fact that occasional excessive inundations have led to most
disastrous results is evidenced in the incorporation of stories
of the almost total destruction of mankind by such floods among
the myth tales of all peoples who reside in valley countries. The
flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates had not, it is true, quite
the same significance for the Mesopotamians that the Nile flood
had for the Egyptians. Nevertheless it was a most important
phenomenon, and may very readily be imagined to have been the
most tangible index to the seasons. But in recognizing the time
of the inundations and the vernal equinox, the Assyrians did not
dethrone the moon from its accustomed precedence, for the year
was reckoned as commencing not precisely at the vernal equinox,
but at the new moon next before the equinox.


ASTROLOGY

Beyond marking the seasons, the chief interests that actuated the
Babylonian astronomer in his observations were astrological.
After quoting Diodorus to the effect that the Babylonian priests
observed the position of certain stars in order to cast
horoscopes, Thompson tells us that from a very early day the very
name Chaldean became synonymous with magician. He adds that "from
Mesopotamia, by way of Greece and Rome, a certain amount of
Babylonian astrology made its way among the nations of the west,
and it is quite probable that many superstitions which we
commonly record as the peculiar product of western civilization
took their origin from those of the early dwellers on the
alluvial lands of Mesopotamia. One Assurbanipal, king of Assyria
B.C. 668-626, added to the royal library at Nineveh his
contribution of tablets, which included many series of documents
which related exclusively to the astrology of the ancient
Babylonians, who in turn had borrowed it with modifications from
the Sumerian invaders of the country. Among these must be
mentioned the series which was commonly called 'the Day of Bel,'
and which was decreed by the learned to have been written in the
time of the great Sargon I., king of Agade, 3800 B.C. With such
ancient works as these to guide them, the profession of deducing
omens from daily events reached such a pitch of importance in the
last Assyrian Empire that a system of making periodical reports
came into being. By these the king was informed of all the
occurrences in the heavens and on earth, and the results of
astrological studies in respect to after events. The heads of the
astrological profession were men of high rank and position, and
their office was hereditary. The variety of information contained
in these reports is best gathered from the fact that they were
sent from cities as far removed from each other as Assur in the
north and Erech in the south, and it can only be assumed that
they were despatched by runners, or men mounted on swift horses.
As reports also came from Dilbat, Kutba, Nippur, and Bursippa,
all cities of ancient foundation, the king was probably well
acquainted with the general course of events in his empire."[12]

From certain passages in the astrological tablets, Thompson draws
the interesting conclusion that the Chaldean astronomers were
acquainted with some kind of a machine for reckoning time. He
finds in one of the tablets a phrase which he interprets to mean
measure-governor, and he infers from this the existence of a kind
of a calculator. He calls attention also to the fact that Sextus
Empiricus[13] states that the clepsydra was known to the
Chaldeans, and that Herodotus asserts that the Greeks borrowed
certain measures of time from the Babylonians. He finds further
corroboration in the fact that the Babylonians had a time-measure
by which they divided the day and the night; a measure called
kasbu, which contained two hours. In a report relating to the day
of the vernal equinox, it is stated that there are six kasbu of
the day and six kasbu of the night.

While the astrologers deduced their omens from all the celestial
bodies known to them, they chiefly gave attention to the moon,
noting with great care the shape of its horns, and deducing such
a conclusion as that "if the horns are pointed the king will
overcome whatever he goreth," and that "when the moon is low at
its appearance, the submission (of the people) of a far country
will come."[14] The relations of the moon and sun were a source
of constant observation, it being noted whether the sun and moon
were seen together above the horizon; whether one set as the
other rose, and the like. And whatever the phenomena, there was
always, of course, a direct association between such phenomena
and the well-being of human kind--in particular the king, at
whose instance, and doubtless at whose expense, the observations
were carried out.

From omens associated with the heavenly bodies it is but a step
to omens based upon other phenomena of nature, and we, shall see
in a moment that the Babylonian prophets made free use of their
opportunities in this direction also. But before we turn from the
field of astronomy, it will be well to inform ourselves as to
what system the Chaldean astronomer had invented in explanation
of the mechanics of the universe. Our answer to this inquiry is
not quite as definite as could be desired, the vagueness of the
records, no doubt, coinciding with the like vagueness in the
minds of the Chaldeans themselves. So far as we can interpret the
somewhat mystical references that have come down to us, however,
the Babylonian cosmology would seem to have represented the earth
as a circular plane surrounded by a great circular river, beyond
which rose an impregnable barrier of mountains, and resting upon
an infinite sea of waters. The material vault of the heavens was
supposed to find support upon the outlying circle of mountains.
But the precise mechanism through which the observed revolution
of the heavenly bodies was effected remains here, as with the
Egyptian cosmology, somewhat conjectural. The simple fact would
appear to be that, for the Chaldeans as for the Egyptians,
despite their most careful observations of the tangible phenomena
of the heavens, no really satisfactory mechanical conception of
the cosmos was attainable. We shall see in due course by what
faltering steps the European imagination advanced from the crude
ideas of Egypt and Babylonia to the relatively clear vision of
Newton and Laplace.


CHALDEAN MAGIC

We turn now from the field of the astrologer to the closely
allied province of Chaldean magic--a province which includes the
other; which, indeed, is so all- encompassing as scarcely to
leave any phase of Babylonian thought outside its bounds.

The tablets having to do with omens, exorcisms, and the like
magic practices make up an astonishingly large proportion of the
Babylonian records. In viewing them it is hard to avoid the
conclusion that the superstitions which they evidenced absolutely
dominated the life of the Babylonians of every degree. Yet it
must not be forgotten that the greatest inconsistencies
everywhere exist between the superstitious beliefs of a people
and the practical observances of that people. No other problem is
so difficult for the historian as that which confronts him when
he endeavors to penetrate the mysteries of an alien religion; and
when, as in the present case, the superstitions involved have
been transmitted from generation to generation, their exact
practical phases as interpreted by any particular generation must
be somewhat problematical. The tablets upon which our knowledge
of these omens is based are many of them from the libraries of
the later kings of Nineveh; but the omens themselves are, in such
cases, inscribed in the original Accadian form in which they have
come down from remote ages, accompanied by an Assyrian
translation. Thus the superstitions involved had back of them
hundreds of years, even thousands of years, of precedent; and we
need not doubt that the ideas with which they are associated were
interwoven with almost every thought and deed of the life of the
people. Professor Sayce assures us that the Assyrians and
Babylonians counted no fewer than three hundred spirits of
heaven, and six hundred spirits of earth. "Like the Jews of the
Talmud," he says, "they believed that the world was swarming with
noxious spirits, who produced the various diseases to which man
is liable, and might be swallowed with the food and drink which
support life." Fox Talbot was inclined to believe that exorcisms
were the exclusive means used to drive away the tormenting
spirits. This seems unlikely, considering the uniform association
of drugs with the magical practices among their people. Yet there
is certainly a strange silence of the tablets in regard to
medicine. Talbot tells us that sometimes divine images were
brought into the sick-chamber, and written texts taken from holy
books were placed on the walls and bound around the sick man's
members. If these failed, recourse was had to the influence of
the mamit, which the evil powers were unable to resist. On a
tablet, written in the Accadian language only, the Assyrian
version being taken, however, was found the following:

  1. Take a white cloth. In it place the mamit,
  2. in the sick man's right hand.
  3. Take a black cloth,
  4. wrap it around his left hand.
  5. Then all the evil spirits (a long list of them is given)
  6. and the sins which he has committed
  7. shall quit their hold of him
  8. and shall never return.


The symbolism of the black cloth in the left hand seems evident.
The dying man repents of his former evil deeds, and he puts his
trust in holiness, symbolized by the white cloth in his right
hand. Then follow some obscure lines about the spirits:

  1. Their heads shall remove from his head.
  2. Their heads shall let go his hands.
  3. Their feet shall depart from his feet.

Which perhaps may be explained thus: we learn from another tablet
that the various classes of evil spirits troubled different parts
of the body; some injured the head, some the hands and the feet,
etc., therefore the passage before may mean "the spirits whose
power is over the hand shall loose their hands from his," etc.
"But," concludes Talbot, "I can offer no decided opinion upon
such obscure points of their superstition."[15]

In regard to evil spirits, as elsewhere, the number seven had a
peculiar significance, it being held that that number of spirits
might enter into a man together. Talbot has translated[16] a
"wild chant" which he names "The Song of the Seven Spirits."

  1. There are seven! There are seven!
  2. In the depths of the ocean there are seven!
  3. In the heights of the heaven there are seven!
  4. In the ocean stream in a palace they were born.
  5. Male they are not: female they are not!
  6. Wives they have not! Children are not born to them!
  7. Rules they have not! Government they know not!
  8. Prayers they hear not!
  9. There are seven! There are seven! Twice over there are
seven!

The tablets make frequent allusion to these seven spirits. One
starts thus:

  1. The god (---) shall stand by his bedside;
  2. These seven evil spirits he shall root out and shall expel
them from his body,
  3. and these seven shall never return to the sick man
again.[17]


Altogether similar are the exorcisms intended to ward off
disease. Professor Sayce has published translations of some of
these.[18] Each of these ends with the same phrase, and they
differ only in regard to the particular maladies from which
freedom is desired. One reads:

"From wasting, from want of health, from the evil spirit of the
ulcer, from the spreading quinsy of the gullet, from the violent
ulcer, from the noxious ulcer, may the king of heaven preserve,
may the king of earth preserve."

Another is phrased thus:

"From the cruel spirit of the head, from the strong spirit of the
head, from the head spirit that departs not, from the head spirit
that comes not forth, from the head spirit that will not go, from
the noxious head spirit, may the king of heaven preserve, may the
king of earth preserve."

As to omens having to do with the affairs of everyday life the
number is legion. For example, Moppert has published, in the
Journal Asiatique,[19] the translation of a tablet which contains
on its two sides several scores of birth-portents, a few of which
maybe quoted at random:

"When a woman bears a child and it has the ears of a lion, a
strong king is in the country." "When a woman bears a child and
it has a bird's beak, that country is oppressed." "When a woman
bears a child and its right hand is wanting, that country goes to
destruction." "When a woman bears a child and its feet are
wanting, the roads of the country are cut; that house is
destroyed." "When a woman bears a child and at the time of its
birth its beard is grown, floods are in the country." "When a
woman bears a child and at the time of its birth its mouth is
open and speaks, there is pestilence in the country, the Air-god
inundates the crops of the country, injury in the country is
caused."

Some of these portents, it will be observed, are not in much
danger of realization, and it is curious to surmise by what
stretch of the imagination they can have been invented. There is,
for example, on the same tablet just quoted, one reference which
assures us that "when a sheep bears a lion the forces march
multitudinously; the king has not a rival." There are other
omens, however, that are so easy of realization as to lead one to
suppose that any Babylonian who regarded all the superstitious
signs must have been in constant terror. Thus a tablet translated
by Professor Sayce[20] gives a long list of omens furnished by
dogs, in which we are assured that:

  1. If a yellow dog enters into the palace, exit from that
palace will be baleful.
  2. If a dog to the palace goes, and on a throne lies down, that
palace is burned.
  3. if a black dog into a temple enters, the foundation of that
temple is not stable.
  4. If female dogs one litter bear, destruction to the city.

It is needless to continue these citations, since they but
reiterate endlessly the same story. It is interesting to recall,
however, that the observations of animate nature, which were
doubtless superstitious in their motive, had given the
Babylonians some inklings of a knowledge of classification. Thus,
according to Menant,[21] some of the tablets from Nineveh, which
are written, as usual, in both the Sumerian and Assyrian
languages, and which, therefore, like practically all Assyrian
books, draw upon the knowledge of old Babylonia, give lists of
animals, making an attempt at classification. The dog, lion, and
wolf are placed in one category; the ox, sheep, and goat in
another; the dog family itself is divided into various races, as
the domestic dog, the coursing dog, the small dog, the dog of
Elan, etc. Similar attempts at classification of birds are found.
Thus, birds of rapid flight, sea-birds, and marsh-birds are
differentiated. Insects are classified according to habit; those
that attack plants, animals, clothing, or wood. Vegetables seem
to be classified according to their usefulness. One tablet
enumerates the uses of wood according to its adaptability for
timber-work of palaces, or construction of vessels, the making of
implements of husbandry, or even furniture. Minerals occupy a
long series in these tablets. They are classed according to their
qualities, gold and silver occupying a division apart; precious
stones forming another series. Our Babylonians, then, must be
credited with the development of a rudimentary science of natural
history.


BABYLONIAN MEDICINE

We have just seen that medical practice in the Babylonian world
was strangely under the cloud of superstition. But it should be
understood that our estimate, through lack of correct data,
probably does much less than justice to the attainments of the
physician of the time. As already noted, the existing tablets
chance not to throw much light on the subject. It is known,
however, that the practitioner of medicine occupied a position of
some, authority and responsibility. The proof of this is found in
the clauses relating to the legal status of the physician which
are contained in the now famous code[22] of the Babylonian King
Khamurabi, who reigned about 2300 years before our era. These
clauses, though throwing no light on the scientific attainments
of the physician of the period, are too curious to be omitted.
They are clauses 215 to 227 of the celebrated code, and are as
follows:

215. If a doctor has treated a man for a severe wound with a
lancet of bronze and has cured the man, or has opened a tumor
with a bronze lancet and has cured the man's eye, he shall
receive ten shekels of silver.

216. If it was a freedman, he shall receive five shekels of
silver.

217. If it was a man's slave, the owner of the slave shall give
the doctor two shekels of silver.

218. If a physician has treated a free-born man for a severe
wound with a lancet of bronze and has caused the man to die, or
has opened a tumor of the man with a lancet of bronze and has
destroyed his eye, his hands one shall cut off.

219. If the doctor has treated the slave of a freedman for a
severe wound with a bronze lancet and has caused him to die, he
shall give back slave for slave.

220. If he has opened his tumor with a bronze lancet and has
ruined his eye, he shall pay the half of his price in money.

221. If a doctor has cured the broken limb of a man, or has
healed his sick body, the patient shall pay the doctor five
shekels of silver.

222. If it was a freedman, he shall give three shekels of silver.

223. If it was a man's slave, the owner of the slave shall give
two shekels of silver to the doctor.

224. If the doctor of oxen and asses has treated an ox or an ass
for a grave wound and has cured it, the owner of the ox or the
ass shall give to the doctor as his pay one-sixth of a shekel of
silver.

225. If he has treated an ox or an ass for a severe wound and has
caused its death, he shall pay one-fourth of its price to the
owner of the ox or the ass.

226. If a barber-surgeon, without consent of the owner of a
slave, has branded the slave with an indelible mark, one shall
cut off the hands of that barber.

227. If any one deceive the surgeon-barber and make him brand a
slave with an indelible mark, one shall kill that man and bury
him in his house. The barber shall swear, "I did not mark him
wittingly," and he shall be guiltless.


ESTIMATES OF BABYLONIAN SCIENCE

Before turning from the Oriental world it is perhaps worth while
to attempt to estimate somewhat specifically the world-influence
of the name, Babylonian science. Perhaps we cannot better gain an
idea as to the estimate put upon that science by the classical
world than through a somewhat extended quotation from a classical
author. Diodorus Siculus, who, as already noted, lived at about
the time of Augustus, and who, therefore, scanned in perspective
the entire sweep of classical Greek history, has left us a
striking summary which is doubly valuable because of its
comparisons of Babylonian with Greek influence. Having viewed the
science of Babylonia in the light of the interpretations made
possible by the recent study of original documents, we are
prepared to draw our own conclusions from the statements of the
Greek historian. Here is his estimate in the words of the quaint
translation made by Philemon Holland in the year 1700:[23]


"They being the most ancient Babylonians, hold the same station
and dignity in the Common-wealth as the Egyptian Priests do in
Egypt: For being deputed to Divine Offices, they spend all their
Time in the study of Philosophy, and are especially famous for
the Art of Astrology. They are mightily given to Divination, and
foretel future Events, and imploy themselves either by
Purifications, Sacrifices, or other Inchantments to avert Evils,
or procure good Fortune and Success. They are skilful likewise in
the Art of Divination, by the flying of Birds, and interpreting
of Dreams and Prodigies: And are reputed as true Oracles (in
declaring what will come to pass) by their exact and diligent
viewing the Intrals of the Sacrifices. But they attain not to
this Knowledge in the same manner as the Grecians do; for the
Chaldeans learn it by Tradition from their Ancestors, the Son
from the Father, who are all in the mean time free from all other
publick Offices and Attendances; and because their Parents are
their Tutors, they both learn every thing without Envy, and rely
with more confidence upon the truth of what is taught them; and
being train'd up in this Learning, from their very Childhood,
they become most famous Philosophers, (that Age being most
capable of Learning, wherein they spend much of their time). But
the Grecians for the most part come raw to this study, unfitted
and unprepar'd, and are long before they attain to the Knowledge
of this Philosophy: And after they have spent some small time in
this Study, they are many times call'd off and forc'd to leave
it, in order to get a Livelihood and Subsistence. And although
some, few do industriously apply themselves to Philosophy, yet
for the sake of Gain, these very Men are opinionative, and ever
and anon starting new and high Points, and never fix in the steps
of their Ancestors. But the Barbarians keeping constantly close
to the same thing, attain to a perfect and distinct Knowledge in
every particular.

"But the Grecians, cunningly catching at all Opportunities of
Gain, make new Sects and Parties, and by their contrary Opinions
wrangling and quarelling concerning the chiefest Points, lead
their Scholars into a Maze; and being uncertain and doubtful what
to pitch upon for certain truth, their Minds are fluctuating and
in suspence all the days of their Lives, and unable to give a
certain assent unto any thing. For if any Man will but examine
the most eminent Sects of the Philosophers, he shall find them
much differing among themselves, and even opposing one another in
the most weighty parts of their Philosophy. But to return to the
Chaldeans, they hold that the World is eternal, which had neither
any certain Beginning, nor shall have any End; but all agree,
that all things are order'd, and this beautiful Fabrick is
supported by a Divine Providence, and that the Motions of the
Heavens are not perform'd by chance and of their own accord, but
by a certain and determinate Will and Appointment of the Gods.

"Therefore from a long observation of the Stars, and an exact
Knowledge of the motions and influences of every one of them,
wherein they excel all others, they fortel many things that are
to come to pass.

"They say that the Five Stars which some call Planets, but they
Interpreters, are most worthy of Consideration, both for their
motions and their remarkable influences, especially that which
the Grecians call Saturn. The brightest of them all, and which
often portends many and great Events, they call Sol, the other
Four they name Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter, with our own
Country Astrologers. They give the Name of Interpreters to these
Stars, because these only by a peculiar Motion do portend things
to come, and instead of Jupiters, do declare to Men before-hand
the good- will of the Gods; whereas the other Stars (not being of
the number of the Planets) have a constant ordinary motion.
Future Events (they say) are pointed at sometimes by their
Rising, and sometimes by their Setting, and at other times by
their Colour, as may be experienc'd by those that will diligently
observe it; sometimes foreshewing Hurricanes, at other times
Tempestuous Rains, and then again exceeding Droughts. By these,
they say, are often portended the appearance of Comets, Eclipses
of the Sun and Moon, Earthquakes and all other the various
Changes and remarkable effects in the Air, boding good and bad,
not only to Nations in general, but to Kings and Private Persons
in particular. Under the course of these Planets, they say are
Thirty Stars, which they call Counselling Gods, half of whom
observe what is done under the Earth, and the other half take
notice of the actions of Men upon the Earth, and what is
transacted in the Heavens. Once every Ten Days space (they say)
one of the highest Order of these Stars descends to them that are
of the lowest, like a Messenger sent from them above; and then
again another ascends from those below to them above, and that
this is their constant natural motion to continue for ever. The
chief of these Gods, they say, are Twelve in number, to each of
which they attribute a Month, and one Sign of the Twelve in the
Zodiack.

"Through these Twelve Signs the Sun, Moon, and the other Five
Planets run their Course. The Sun in a Years time, and the Moon
in the space of a Month. To every one of the Planets they assign
their own proper Courses, which are perform'd variously in lesser
or shorter time according as their several motions are quicker or
slower. These Stars, they say, have a great influence both as to
good and bad in Mens Nativities; and from the consideration of
their several Natures, may be foreknown what will befal Men
afterwards. As they foretold things to come to other Kings
formerly, so they did to Alexander who conquer'd Darius, and to
his Successors Antigonus and Seleucus Nicator; and accordingly
things fell out as they declar'd; which we shall relate
particularly hereafter in a more convenient time. They tell
likewise private Men their Fortunes so certainly, that those who
have found the thing true by Experience, have esteem'd it a
Miracle, and above the reach of man to perform. Out of the Circle
of the Zodiack they describe Four and Twenty Stars, Twelve
towards the North Pole, and as many to the South.

"Those which we see, they assign to the living; and the other
that do not appear, they conceive are Constellations for the
Dead; and they term them Judges of all things. The Moon, they
say, is in the lowest Orb; and being therefore next to the Earth
(because she is so small), she finishes her Course in a little
time, not through the swiftness of her Motion, but the shortness
of her Sphear. In that which they affirm (that she has but a
borrow'd light, and that when she is eclips'd, it's caus'd by the
interposition of the shadow of the Earth) they agree with the
Grecians.

"Their Rules and Notions concerning the Eclipses of the Sun are
but weak and mean, which they dare not positively foretel, nor
fix a certain time for them. They have likewise Opinions
concerning the Earth peculiar to themselves, affirming it to
resemble a Boat, and to be hollow, to prove which, and other
things relating to the frame of the World, they abound in
Arguments; but to give a particular Account of 'em, we conceive
would be a thing foreign to our History. But this any Man may
justly and truly say, That the Chaldeans far exceed all other Men
in the Knowledge of Astrology, and have study'd it most of any
other Art or Science: But the number of years during which the
Chaldeans say, those of their Profession have given themselves to
the study of this natural Philosophy, is incredible; for when
Alexander was in Asia, they reckon'd up Four Hundred and Seventy
Thousand Years since they first began to observe the Motions of
the Stars."


Let us now supplement this estimate of Babylonian influence with
another estimate written in our own day, and quoted by one of the
most recent historians of Babylonia and Assyria.[24] The estimate
in question is that of Canon Rawlinson in his Great Oriental
Monarchies.[25] Of Babylonia he says:

"Hers was apparently the genius which excogitated an alphabet;
worked out the simpler problems of arithmetic; invented
implements for measuring the lapse of time; conceived the idea of
raising enormous structures with the poorest of all materials,
clay; discovered the art of polishing, boring, and engraving
gems; reproduced with truthfulness the outlines of human and
animal forms; attained to high perfection in textile fabrics;
studied with success the motions of the heavenly bodies;
conceived of grammar as a science; elaborated a system of law;
saw the value of an exact chronology--in almost every branch of
science made a beginning, thus rendering it comparatively easy
for other nations to proceed with the superstructure.... It was
from the East, not from Egypt, that Greece derived her
architecture, her sculpture, her science, her philosophy, her
mathematical knowledge--in a word, her intellectual life. And
Babylon was the source to which the entire stream of Eastern
civilization may be traced. It is scarcely too much to say that,
but for Babylon, real civilization might not yet have dawned upon
the earth."


Considering that a period of almost two thousand years separates
the times of writing of these two estimates, the estimates
themselves are singularly in unison. They show that the greatest
of Oriental nations has not suffered in reputation at the hands
of posterity. It is indeed almost impossible to contemplate the
monuments of Babylonian and Assyrian civilization that are now
preserved in the European and American museums without becoming
enthusiastic. That certainly was a wonderful civilization which
has left us the tablets on which are inscribed the laws of a
Khamurabi on the one hand, and the art treasures of the palace of
an Asshurbanipal on the other. Yet a candid consideration of the
scientific attainments of the Babylonians and Assyrians can
scarcely arouse us to a like enthusiasm. In considering the
subject we have seen that, so far as pure science is concerned,
the efforts of the Babylonians and Assyrians chiefly centred
about the subjects of astrology and magic. With the records of
their ghost-haunted science fresh in mind, one might be forgiven
for a momentary desire to take issue with Canon Rawlinson's
words. We are assured that the scientific attainments of Europe
are almost solely to be credited to Babylonia and not to Egypt,
but we should not forget that Plato, the greatest of the Greek
thinkers, went to Egypt and not to Babylonia to pursue his
studies when he wished to penetrate the secrets of Oriental
science and philosophy. Clearly, then, classical Greece did not
consider Babylonia as having a monopoly of scientific knowledge,
and we of to-day, when we attempt to weigh the new evidence that
has come to us in recent generations with the Babylonian records
themselves, find that some, at least, of the heritages for which
Babylonia has been praised are of more than doubtful value.
Babylonia, for example, gave us our seven-day week and our system
of computing by twelves. But surely the world could have got on
as well without that magic number seven; and after some hundreds
of generations we are coming to feel that the decimal system of
the Egyptians has advantages over the duodecimal system of the
Babylonians. Again, the Babylonians did not invent the alphabet;
they did not even accept it when all the rest of the world had
recognized its value. In grammar and arithmetic, as with
astronomy, they seemed not to have advanced greatly, if at all,
upon the Egyptians. One field in which they stand out in
startling pre- eminence is the field of astrology; but this, in
the estimate of modern thought, is the very negation of science.
Babylonia impressed her superstitions on the Western world, and
when we consider the baleful influence of these superstitions, we
may almost question whether we might not reverse Canon
Rawlinson's estimate and say that perhaps but for Babylonia real
civilization, based on the application of true science, might
have dawned upon the earth a score of centuries before it did.
Yet, after all, perhaps this estimate is unjust. Society, like an
individual organism, must creep before it can walk, and perhaps
the Babylonian experiments in astrology and magic, which European
civilization was destined to copy for some three or four thousand
years, must have been made a part of the necessary evolution of
our race in one place or in another. That thought, however, need
not blind us to the essential fact, which the historian of
science must needs admit, that for the Babylonian, despite his
boasted culture, science spelled superstition.



IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALPHABET

Before we turn specifically to the new world of the west, it
remains to take note of what may perhaps be regarded as the very
greatest achievement of ancient science. This was the analysis of
speech sounds, and the resulting development of a system of
alphabetical writing. To comprehend the series of scientific
inductions which led to this result, we must go back in
imagination and trace briefly the development of the methods of
recording thought by means of graphic symbols. In other words, we
must trace the evolution of the art of writing. In doing so we
cannot hold to national lines as we have done in the preceding
two chapters, though the efforts of the two great scientific
nations just considered will enter prominently into the story.

The familiar Greek legend assures us that a Phoenician named
Kadmus was the first to bring a knowledge of letters into Europe.
An elaboration of the story, current throughout classical times,
offered the further explanation that the Phoenicians had in turn
acquired the art of writing from the Egyptians or Babylonians.
Knowledge as to the true origin and development of the art of
writing did not extend in antiquity beyond such vagaries as
these. Nineteenth-century studies gave the first real clews to an
understanding of the subject. These studies tended to
authenticate the essential fact on which the legend of Kadmus was
founded; to the extent, at least, of making it probable that the
later Grecian alphabet was introduced from Phoenicia--though not,
of course, by any individual named Kadmus, the latter being,
indeed, a name of purely Greek origin. Further studies of the
past generation tended to corroborate the ancient belief as to
the original source of the Phoenician alphabet, but divided
scholars between two opinions: the one contending that the
Egyptian hieroglyphics were the source upon which the Phoenicians
drew; and the other contending with equal fervor that the
Babylonian wedge character must be conceded that honor.

But, as has often happened in other fields after years of
acrimonious controversy, a new discovery or two may suffice to
show that neither contestant was right. After the Egyptologists
of the school of De Rouge[1] thought they had demonstrated that
the familiar symbols of the Phoenician alphabet had been copied
from that modified form of Egyptian hieroglyphics known as the
hieratic writing, the Assyriologists came forward to prove that
certain characters of the Babylonian syllabary also show a
likeness to the alphabetical characters that seemingly could not
be due to chance. And then, when a settlement of the dispute
seemed almost hopeless, it was shown through the Egyptian
excavations that characters even more closely resembling those in
dispute had been in use all about the shores of the
Mediterranean, quite independently of either Egyptian or Assyrian
writings, from periods so ancient as to be virtually prehistoric.

Coupled with this disconcerting discovery are the revelations
brought to light by the excavations at the sites of Knossos and
other long-buried cities of the island of Crete.[2] These
excavations, which are still in progress, show that the art of
writing was known and practised independently in Crete before
that cataclysmic overthrow of the early Greek civilization which
archaeologists are accustomed to ascribe to the hypothetical
invasion of the Dorians. The significance of this is that the art
of writing was known in Europe long before the advent of the
mythical Kadmus. But since the early Cretan scripts are not to be
identified with the scripts used in Greece in historical times,
whereas the latter are undoubtedly of lineal descent from the
Phoenician alphabet, the validity of the Kadmus legend, in a
modified form, must still be admitted.

As has just been suggested, the new knowledge, particularly that
which related to the great antiquity of characters similar to the
Phoenician alphabetical signs, is somewhat disconcerting. Its
general trend, however, is quite in the same direction with most
of the new archaeological knowledge of recent decades---that is
to say, it tends to emphasize the idea that human civilization in
most of its important elaborations is vastly older than has
hitherto been supposed. It may be added, however, that no
definite clews are as yet available that enable us to fix even an
approximate date for the origin of the Phoenician alphabet. The
signs, to which reference has been made, may well have been in
existence for thousands of years, utilized merely as property
marks, symbols for counting and the like, before the idea of
setting them aside as phonetic symbols was ever conceived.
Nothing is more certain, in the judgment of the present-day
investigator, than that man learned to write by slow and painful
stages. It is probable that the conception of such an analysis of
speech sounds as would make the idea of an alphabet possible came
at a very late stage of social evolution, and as the culminating
achievement of a long series of improvements in the art of
writing. The precise steps that marked this path of intellectual
development can for the most part be known only by inference; yet
it is probable that the main chapters of the story may be
reproduced with essential accuracy.


FIRST STEPS

For the very first chapters of the story we must go back in
imagination to the prehistoric period. Even barbaric man feels
the need of self-expression, and strives to make his ideas
manifest to other men by pictorial signs. The cave-dwellers
scratched pictures of men and animals on the surface of a
reindeer horn or mammoth tusk as mementos of his prowess. The
American Indian does essentially the same thing to-day, making
pictures that crudely record his successes in war and the chase.
The Northern Indian had got no farther than this when the white
man discovered America; but the Aztecs of the Southwest and the
Maya people of Yucatan had carried their picture- making to a
much higher state of elaboration.[3] They had developed systems
of pictographs or hieroglyphics that would doubtless in the
course of generations have been elaborated into alphabetical
systems, had not the Europeans cut off the civilization of which
they were the highest exponents.

What the Aztec and Maya were striving towards in the sixteenth
century A.D., various Oriental nations had attained at least five
or six thousand years earlier. In Egypt at the time of the
pyramid-builders, and in Babylonia at the same epoch, the people
had developed systems of writing that enabled them not merely to
present a limited range of ideas pictorially, but to express in
full elaboration and with finer shades of meaning all the ideas
that pertain to highly cultured existence. The man of that time
made records of military achievements, recorded the transactions
of every-day business life, and gave expression to his moral and
spiritual aspirations in a way strangely comparable to the manner
of our own time. He had perfected highly elaborate systems of
writing.


EGYPTIAN WRITING

Of the two ancient systems of writing just referred to as being
in vogue at the so-called dawnings of history, the more
picturesque and suggestive was the hieroglyphic system of the
Egyptians. This is a curiously conglomerate system of writing,
made up in part of symbols reminiscent of the crudest stages of
picture-writing, in part of symbols having the phonetic value of
syllables, and in part of true alphabetical letters. In a word,
the Egyptian writing represents in itself the elements of the
various stages through which the art of writing has developed.[4]
We must conceive that new features were from time to time added
to it, while the old features, curiously enough, were not given
up.

Here, for example, in the midst of unintelligible lines and
pot-hooks, are various pictures that are instantly recognizable
as representations of hawks, lions, ibises, and the like. It can
hardly be questioned that when these pictures were first used
calligraphically they were meant to represent the idea of a bird
or animal. In other words, the first stage of picture-writing did
not go beyond the mere representation of an eagle by the picture
of an eagle. But this, obviously, would confine the presentation
of ideas within very narrow limits. In due course some inventive
genius conceived the thought of symbolizing a picture. To him the
outline of an eagle might represent not merely an actual bird,
but the thought of strength, of courage, or of swift progress.
Such a use of symbols obviously extends the range of utility of a
nascent art of writing. Then in due course some wonderful
psychologist--or perhaps the joint efforts of many generations of
psychologists--made the astounding discovery that the human
voice, which seems to flow on in an unbroken stream of endlessly
varied modulations and intonations, may really be analyzed into a
comparatively limited number of component sounds--into a few
hundreds of syllables. That wonderful idea conceived, it was only
a matter of time until it would occur to some other enterprising
genius that by selecting an arbitrary symbol to represent each
one of these elementary sounds it would be possible to make a
written record of the words of human speech which could be
reproduced--rephonated--by some one who had never heard the words
and did not know in advance what this written record contained.
This, of course, is what every child learns to do now in the
primer class, but we may feel assured that such an idea never
occurred to any human being until the peculiar forms of
pictographic writing just referred to had been practised for many
centuries. Yet, as we have said, some genius of prehistoric Egypt
conceived the idea and put it into practical execution, and the
hieroglyphic writing of which the Egyptians were in full
possession at the very beginning of what we term the historical
period made use of this phonetic system along with the
ideographic system already described.

So fond were the Egyptians of their pictorial symbols used
ideographically that they clung to them persistently throughout
the entire period of Egyptian history. They used symbols as
phonetic equivalents very frequently, but they never learned to
depend upon them exclusively. The scribe always interspersed his
phonetic signs with some other signs intended as graphic aids.
After spelling a word out in full, he added a picture, sometimes
even two or three pictures, representative of the individual
thing, or at least of the type of thing to which the word
belongs. Two or three illustrations will make this clear.

Thus qeften, monkey, is spelled out in full, but the picture of a
monkey is added as a determinative; second, qenu, cavalry, after
being spelled, is made unequivocal by the introduction of a
picture of a horse; third, temati, wings, though spelled
elaborately, has pictures of wings added; and fourth, tatu,
quadrupeds, after being spelled, has a picture of a quadruped,
and then the picture of a hide, which is the usual determinative
of a quadruped, followed by three dashes to indicate the plural
number.

It must not be supposed, however, that it was a mere whim which
led the Egyptians to the use of this system of determinatives.
There was sound reason back of it. It amounted to no more than
the expedient we adopt when we spell "to," "two," or "too," in
indication of a single sound with three different meanings. The
Egyptian language abounds in words having more than one meaning,
and in writing these it is obvious that some means of distinction
is desirable. The same thing occurs even more frequently in the
Chinese language, which is monosyllabic. The Chinese adopt a more
clumsy expedient, supplying a different symbol for each of the
meanings of a syllable; so that while the actual word-sounds of
their speech are only a few hundreds in number, the characters of
their written language mount high into the thousands.


BABYLONIAN WRITING

While the civilization of the Nile Valley was developing this
extraordinary system of hieroglyphics, the inhabitants of
Babylonia were practising the art of writing along somewhat
different lines. It is certain that they began with
picture-making, and that in due course they advanced to the
development of the syllabary; but, unlike their Egyptian cousins,
the men of Babylonia saw fit to discard the old system when they
had perfected a better one.[5] So at a very early day their
writing--as revealed to us now through the recent
excavations--had ceased to have that pictorial aspect which
distinguishes the Egyptian script. What had originally been
pictures of objects--fish, houses, and the like--had come to be
represented by mere aggregations of wedge-shaped marks. As the
writing of the Babvlonians was chiefly inscribed on soft clay,
the adaptation of this wedge-shaped mark in lieu of an ordinary
line was probably a mere matter of convenience, since the
sharp-cornered implement used in making the inscription naturally
made a wedge-shaped impression in the clay. That, however, is a
detail. The essential thing is that the Babylonian had so fully
analyzed the speech-sounds that he felt entire confidence in
them, and having selected a sufficient number of conventional
characters--each made up of wedge-shaped lines--to represent all
the phonetic sounds of his language, spelled the words out in
syllables and to some extent dispensed with the determinative
signs which, as we have seen, played so prominent a part in the
Egyptian writing. His cousins the Assyrians used habitually a
system of writing the foundation of which was an elaborate
phonetic syllabary; a system, therefore, far removed from the old
crude pictograph, and in some respects much more developed than
the complicated Egyptian method; yet, after all, a system that
stopped short of perfection by the wide gap that separates the
syllabary from the true alphabet.

A brief analysis of speech sounds will aid us in understanding
the real nature of the syllabary. Let us take for consideration
the consonantal sound represented by the letter b. A moment's
consideration will make it clear that this sound enters into a
large number of syllables. There are, for example, at least
twenty vowel sounds in the English language, not to speak of
certain digraphs; that is to say, each of the important vowels
has from two to six sounds. Each of these vowel sounds may enter
into combination with the b sound alone to form three syllables;
as ba, ab, bal, be, eb, bel, etc. Thus there are at least sixty
b-sound syllables. But this is not the end, for other consonantal
sounds may be associated in the syllables in such combinations as
bad, bed, bar, bark, cab, etc. As each of the other twenty odd
consonantal sounds may enter into similar combinations, it is
obvious that there are several hundreds of fundamental syllables
to be taken into account in any syllabic system of writing. For
each of these syllables a symbol must be set aside and held in
reserve as the representative of that particular sound. A perfect
syllabary, then, would require some hundred or more of symbols to
represent b sounds alone; and since the sounds for c, d, f, and
the rest are equally varied, the entire syllabary would run into
thousands of characters, almost rivalling in complexity the
Chinese system. But in practice the most perfect syllabary, Such
as that of the Babylonians, fell short of this degree of
precision through ignoring the minor shades of sound; just as our
own alphabet is content to represent some thirty vowel sounds by
five letters, ignoring the fact that a, for example, has really
half a dozen distinct phonetic values. By such slurring of sounds
the syllabary is reduced far below its ideal limits; yet even so
it retains three or four hundred characters.

In point of fact, such a work as Professor Delitzsch's Assyrian
Grammar[6] presents signs for three hundred and thirty-four
syllables, together with sundry alternative signs and
determinatives to tax the memory of the would-be reader of
Assyrian. Let us take for example a few of the b sounds. It has
been explained that the basis of the Assyrian written character
is a simple wedge-shaped or arrow-head mark. Variously repeated
and grouped, these marks make up the syllabic characters.

To learn some four hundred such signs as these was the task set,
as an equivalent of learning the a b c's, to any primer class in
old Assyria in the long generations when that land was the
culture Centre of the world. Nor was the task confined to the
natives of Babylonia and Assyria alone. About the fifteenth
century B.C., and probably for a long time before and after that
period, the exceedingly complex syllabary of the Babylonians was
the official means of communication throughout western Asia and
between Asia and Egypt, as we know from the chance discovery of a
collection of letters belonging to the Egyptian king Khun-aten,
preserved at Tel-el-Amarna. In the time of Ramses the Great the
Babylonian writing was in all probability considered by a
majority of the most highly civilized people in the world to be
the most perfect script practicable. Doubtless the average scribe
of the time did not in the least realize the waste of energy
involved in his labors, or ever suspect that there could be any
better way of writing.

Yet the analysis of any one of these hundreds of syllables into
its component phonetic elements--had any one been genius enough
to make such analysis-- ould have given the key to simpler and
better things. But such an analysis was very hard to make, as the
sequel shows. Nor is the utility of such an analysis
self-evident, as the experience of the Egyptians proved. The
vowel sound is so intimately linked with the consonant--the
con-sonant, implying this intimate relation in its very
name--that it seemed extremely difficult to give it individual
recognition. To set off the mere labial beginning of the sound by
itself, and to recognize it as an all-essential element of
phonation, was the feat at which human intelligence so long
balked. The germ of great things lay in that analysis. It was a
process of simplification, and all art development is from the
complex to the simple. Unfortunately, however, it did not seem a
simplification, but rather quite the reverse. We may well suppose
that the idea of wresting from the syllabary its secret of
consonants and vowels, and giving to each consonantal sound a
distinct sign, seemed a most cumbersome and embarrassing
complication to the ancient scholars--that is to say, after the
time arrived when any one gave such an idea expression. We can
imagine them saying: "You will oblige us to use four signs
instead of one to write such an elementary syllable as 'bard,'
for example. Out upon such endless perplexity!" Nor is such a
suggestion purely gratuitous, for it is an historical fact that
the old syllabary continued to be used in Babylon hundreds of
years after the alphabetical system had been introduced.[7]
Custom is everything in establishing our prejudices. The Japanese
to-day rebel against the introduction of an alphabet, thinking it
ambiguous.

Yet, in the end, conservatism always yields, and so it was with
opposition to the alphabet. Once the idea of the consonant had
been firmly grasped, the old syllabary was doomed, though
generations of time might be required to complete the
obsequies--generations of time and the influence of a new nation.
We have now to inquire how and by whom this advance was made.


THE ALPHABET ACHIEVED

We cannot believe that any nation could have vaulted to the final
stage of the simple alphabetical writing without tracing the
devious and difficult way of the pictograph and the syllabary. It
is possible, however, for a cultivated nation to build upon the
shoulders of its neighbors, and, profiting by the experience of
others, to make sudden leaps upward and onward. And this is
seemingly what happened in the final development of the art of
writing. For while the Babylonians and Assyrians rested content
with their elaborate syllabary, a nation on either side of them,
geographically speaking, solved the problem, which they perhaps
did not even recognize as a problem; wrested from their syllabary
its secret of consonants and vowels, and by adopting an arbitrary
sign for each consonantal sound, produced that most wonderful of
human inventions, the alphabet.

The two nations credited with this wonderful achievement are the
Phoenicians and the Persians. But it is not usually conceded that
the two are entitled to anything like equal credit. The Persians,
probably in the time of Cyrus the Great, used certain characters
of the Babylonian script for the construction of an alphabet; but
at this time the Phoenician alphabet had undoubtedly been in use
for some centuries, and it is more than probable that the Persian
borrowed his idea of an alphabet from a Phoenician source. And
that, of course, makes all the difference. Granted the idea of an
alphabet, it requires no great reach of constructive genius to
supply a set of alphabetical characters; though even here, it may
be added parenthetically, a study of the development of alphabets
will show that mankind has all along had a characteristic
propensity to copy rather than to invent.

Regarding the Persian alphabet-maker, then, as a copyist rather
than a true inventor, it remains to turn attention to the
Phoenician source whence, as is commonly believed, the original
alphabet which became "the mother of all existing alphabets" came
into being. It must be admitted at the outset that evidence for
the Phoenician origin of this alphabet is traditional rather than
demonstrative. The Phoenicians were the great traders of
antiquity; undoubtedly they were largely responsible for the
transmission of the alphabet from one part of the world to
another, once it had been invented. Too much credit cannot be
given them for this; and as the world always honors him who makes
an idea fertile rather than the originator of the idea, there can
be little injustice in continuing to speak of the Phoenicians as
the inventors of the alphabet. But the actual facts of the case
will probably never be known. For aught we know, it may have been
some dreamy-eyed Israelite, some Babylonian philosopher, some
Egyptian mystic, perhaps even some obscure Cretan, who gave to
the hard-headed Phoenician trader this conception of a
dismembered syllable with its all-essential, elemental,
wonder-working consonant. But it is futile now to attempt even to
surmise on such unfathomable details as these. Suffice it that
the analysis was made; that one sign and no more was adopted for
each consonantal sound of the Semitic tongue, and that the entire
cumbersome mechanism of the Egyptian and Babylonian writing
systems was rendered obsolescent. These systems did not yield at
once, to be sure; all human experience would have been set at
naught had they done so. They held their own, and much more than
held their own, for many centuries. After the Phoenicians as a
nation had ceased to have importance; after their original script
had been endlessly modified by many alien nations; after the
original alphabet had made the conquest of all civilized Europe
and of far outlying portions of the Orient--the Egyptian and
Babylonian scribes continued to indite their missives in the same
old pictographs and syllables.

The inventive thinker must have been struck with amazement when,
after making the fullest analysis of speech-sounds of which he
was capable, he found himself supplied with only a score or so of
symbols. Yet as regards the consonantal sounds he had exhausted
the resources of the Semitic tongue. As to vowels, he scarcely
considered them at all. It seemed to him sufficient to use one
symbol for each consonantal sound. This reduced the hitherto
complex mechanism of writing to so simple a system that the
inventor must have regarded it with sheer delight. On the other
hand, the conservative scholar doubtless thought it distinctly
ambiguous. In truth, it must be admitted that the system was
imperfect. It was a vast improvement on the old syllabary, but it
had its drawbacks. Perhaps it had been made a bit too simple;
certainly it should have had symbols for the vowel sounds as well
as for the consonants. Nevertheless, the vowel-lacking alphabet
seems to have taken the popular fancy, and to this day Semitic
people have never supplied its deficiencies save with certain
dots and points.

Peoples using the Aryan speech soon saw the defect, and the
Greeks supplied symbols for several new sounds at a very early
day.[8] But there the matter rested, and the alphabet has
remained imperfect. For the purposes of the English language
there should certainly have been added a dozen or more new
characters. It is clear, for example, that, in the interest of
explicitness, we should have a separate symbol for the vowel
sound in each of the following syllables: bar, bay, bann, ball,
to cite a single illustration.

There is, to be sure, a seemingly valid reason for not extending
our alphabet, in the fact that in multiplying syllables it would
be difficult to select characters at once easy to make and
unambiguous. Moreover, the conservatives might point out, with
telling effect, that the present alphabet has proved admirably
effective for about three thousand years. Yet the fact that our
dictionaries supply diacritical marks for some thirty vowels
sounds to indicate the pronunciation of the words of our
every-day speech, shows how we let memory and guessing do the
work that might reasonably be demanded of a really complete
alphabet. But, whatever its defects, the existing alphabet is a
marvellous piece of mechanism, the result of thousands of years
of intellectual effort. It is, perhaps without exception, the
most stupendous invention of the human intellect within
historical times--an achievement taking rank with such great
prehistoric discoveries as the use of articulate speech, the
making of a fire, and the invention of stone implements, of the
wheel and axle, and of picture-writing. It made possible for the
first time that education of the masses upon which all later
progress of civilization was so largely to depend.



V. THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCIENCE

Herodotus, the Father of History, tells us that once upon a
time--which time, as the modern computator shows us, was about
the year 590 B.C. --a war had risen between the Lydians and the
Medes and continued five years. "In these years the Medes often
discomfited the Lydians and the Lydians often discomfited the
Medes (and among other things they fought a battle by night); and
yet they still carried on the war with equally balanced
fortitude. In the sixth year a battle took place in which it
happened, when the fight had begun, that suddenly the day became
night. And this change of the day Thales, the Milesian, had
foretold to the Ionians, laying down as a limit this very year in
which the change took place. The Lydians, however, and the Medes,
when they saw that it had become night instead of day, ceased
from their fighting and were much more eager, both of them, that
peace should be made between them."

This memorable incident occurred while Alyattus, father of
Croesus, was king of the Lydians. The modern astronomer,
reckoning backward, estimates this eclipse as occurring probably
May 25th, 585 B.C. The date is important as fixing a mile-stone
in the chronology of ancient history, but it is doubly memorable
because it is the first recorded instance of a predicted eclipse.
Herodotus, who tells the story, was not born until about one
hundred years after the incident occurred, but time had not
dimmed the fame of the man who had performed the necromantic feat
of prophecy. Thales, the Milesian, thanks in part at least to
this accomplishment, had been known in life as first on the list
of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, and had passed into history as
the father of Greek philosophy. We may add that he had even found
wider popular fame through being named by Hippolytus, and then by
Father aesop, as the philosopher who, intent on studying the
heavens, fell into a well; "whereupon," says Hippolytus, "a
maid-servant named Thratta laughed at him and said, 'In his
search for things in the sky he does not see what is at his
feet.' "

Such citations as these serve to bring vividly to mind the fact
that we are entering a new epoch of thought. Hitherto our studies
have been impersonal. Among Egyptians and Babylonians alike we
have had to deal with classes of scientific records, but we have
scarcely come across a single name. Now, however, we shall begin
to find records of the work of individual investigators. In
general, from now on, we shall be able to trace each great idea,
if not to its originator, at least to some one man of genius who
was prominent in bringing it before the world. The first of these
vitalizers of thought, who stands out at the beginnings of Greek
history, is this same Thales, of Miletus. His is not a very
sharply defined personality as we look back upon it, and we can
by no means be certain that all the discoveries which are
ascribed to him are specifically his. Of his individuality as a
man we know very little. It is not even quite certain as to where
he was born; Miletus is usually accepted as his birthplace, but
one tradition makes him by birth a Phenician. It is not at all in
question, however, that by blood he was at least in part an
Ionian Greek. It will be recalled that in the seventh century
B.C., when Thales was born--and for a long time thereafter--the
eastern shores of the aegean Sea were quite as prominently the
centre of Greek influence as was the peninsula of Greece itself.
Not merely Thales, but his followers and disciples, Anaximander
and Anaximenes, were born there. So also was Herodotas, the
Father of History, not to extend the list. There is nothing
anomalous, then, in the fact that Thales, the father of Greek
thought, was born and passed his life on soil that was not
geographically a part of Greece; but the fact has an important
significance of another kind. Thanks to his environment, Thales
was necessarily brought more or less in contact with Oriental
ideas. There was close commercial contact between the land of his
nativity and the great Babylonian capital off to the east, as
also with Egypt. Doubtless this association was of influence in
shaping the development of Thales's mind. Indeed, it was an
accepted tradition throughout classical times that the Milesian
philosopher had travelled in Egypt, and had there gained at least
the rudiments of his knowledge of geometry. In the fullest sense,
then, Thales may be regarded as representing a link in the chain
of thought connecting the learning of the old Orient with the
nascent scholarship of the new Occident. Occupying this position,
it is fitting that the personality of Thales should partake
somewhat of mystery; that the scene may not be shifted too
suddenly from the vague, impersonal East to the individualism of
Europe.

All of this, however, must not be taken as casting any doubt upon
the existence of Thales as a real person. Even the dates of his
life--640 to 546 B.C.--may be accepted as at least approximately
trustworthy; and the specific discoveries ascribed to him
illustrate equally well the stage of development of Greek
thought, whether Thales himself or one of his immediate disciples
were the discoverer. We have already mentioned the feat which was
said to have given Thales his great reputation. That Thales was
universally credited with having predicted the famous eclipse is
beyond question. That he actually did predict it in any precise
sense of the word is open to doubt. At all events, his prediction
was not based upon any such precise knowledge as that of the
modern astronomer. There is, indeed, only one way in which he
could have foretold the eclipse, and that is through knowledge of
the regular succession of preceding eclipses. But that knowledge
implies access on the part of some one to long series of records
of practical observations of the heavens. Such records, as we
have seen, existed in Egypt and even more notably in Babylonia.
That these records were the source of the information which
established the reputation of Thales is an unavoidable inference.
In other words, the magical prevision of the father of Greek
thought was but a reflex of Oriental wisdom. Nevertheless, it
sufficed to establish Thales as the father of Greek astronomy. In
point of fact, his actual astronomical attainments would appear
to have been meagre enough. There is nothing to show that he
gained an inkling of the true character of the solar system. He
did not even recognize the sphericity of the earth, but held,
still following the Oriental authorities, that the world is a
flat disk. Even his famous cosmogonic guess, according to which
water is the essence of all things and the primordial element out
of which the earth was developed, is but an elaboration of the
Babylonian conception.

When we turn to the other field of thought with which the name of
Thales is associated--namely, geometry--we again find evidence of
the Oriental influence. The science of geometry, Herodotus
assures us, was invented in Egypt. It was there an eminently
practical science, being applied, as the name literally suggests,
to the measurement of the earth's surface. Herodotus tells us
that the Egyptians were obliged to cultivate the science because
the periodical inundations washed away the boundary-lines between
their farms. The primitive geometer, then, was a surveyor. The
Egyptian records, as now revealed to us, show that the science
had not been carried far in the land of its birth. The Egyptian
geometer was able to measure irregular pieces of land only
approximately. He never fully grasped the idea of the
perpendicular as the true index of measurement for the triangle,
but based his calculations upon measurements of the actual side
of that figure. Nevertheless, he had learned to square the circle
with a close approximation to the truth, and, in general, his
measurement sufficed for all his practical needs. Just how much
of the geometrical knowledge which added to the fame of Thales
was borrowed directly from the Egyptians, and how much he
actually created we cannot be sure. Nor is the question raised in
disparagement of his genius. Receptivity is the first
prerequisite to progressive thinking, and that Thales reached out
after and imbibed portions of Oriental wisdom argues in itself
for the creative character of his genius. Whether borrower of
originator, however, Thales is credited with the expression of
the following geometrical truths:

1. That the circle is bisected by its diameter.

2. That the angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are
equal.

3. That when two straight lines cut each other the vertical
opposite angles are equal.

4. That the angle in a semicircle is a right angle.

5. That one side and one acute angle of a right-angle triangle
determine the other sides of the triangle.

It was by the application of the last of these principles that
Thales is said to have performed the really notable feat of
measuring the distance of a ship from the shore, his method being
precisely the same in principle as that by which the guns are
sighted on a modern man-of-war. Another practical demonstration
which Thales was credited with making, and to which also his
geometrical studies led him, was the measurement of any tall
object, such as a pyramid or building or tree, by means of its
shadow. The method, though simple enough, was ingenious. It
consisted merely in observing the moment of the day when a
perpendicular stick casts a shadow equal to its own length.
Obviously the tree or monument would also cast a shadow equal to
its own height at the same moment. It remains then but to measure
the length of this shadow to determine the height of the object.
Such feats as this evidence the practicality of the genius of
Thales. They suggest that Greek science, guided by imagination,
was starting on the high-road of observation. We are told that
Thales conceived for the first time the geometry of lines, and
that this, indeed, constituted his real advance upon the
Egyptians. We are told also that he conceived the eclipse of the
sun as a purely natural phenomenon, and that herein lay his
advance upon the Chaldean point of view. But if this be true
Thales was greatly in advance of his time, for it will be
recalled that fully two hundred years later the Greeks under
Nicias before Syracuse were so disconcerted by the appearance of
an eclipse, which was interpreted as a direct omen and warning,
that Nicias threw away the last opportunity to rescue his army.
Thucydides, it is true, in recording this fact speaks
disparagingly of the superstitious bent of the mind of Nicias,
but Thucydides also was a man far in advance of his time.

All that we know of the psychology of Thales is summed up in the
famous maxim, "Know thyself," a maxim which, taken in connection
with the proven receptivity of the philosopher's mind, suggests
to us a marvellously rounded personality.

The disciples or successors of Thales, Anaximander and
Anaximenes, were credited with advancing knowledge through the
invention or introduction of the sundial. We may be sure,
however, that the gnomon, which is the rudimentary sundial, had
been known and used from remote periods in the Orient, and the
most that is probable is that Anaximander may have elaborated
some special design, possibly the bowl- shaped sundial, through
which the shadow of the gnomon would indicate the time. The same
philosopher is said to have made the first sketch of a
geographical map, but this again is a statement which modern
researches have shown to be fallacious, since a Babylonian
attempt at depicting the geography of the world is still
preserved to us on a clay tablet. Anaximander may, however, have
been the first Greek to make an attempt of this kind. Here again
the influence of Babylonian science upon the germinating Western
thought is suggested.

It is said that Anaximander departed from Thales's conception of
the earth, and, it may be added, from the Babylonian conception
also, in that he conceived it as a cylinder, or rather as a
truncated cone, the upper end of which is the habitable portion.
This conception is perhaps the first of these guesses through
which the Greek mind attempted to explain the apparent fixity of
the earth. To ask what supports the earth in space is most
natural, but the answer given by Anaximander, like that more
familiar Greek solution which transformed the cone, or cylinder,
into the giant Atlas, is but another illustration of that
substitution of unwarranted inference for scientific induction
which we have already so often pointed out as characteristic of
the primitive stages of thought.

Anaximander held at least one theory which, as vouched for by
various copyists and commentators, entitles him to be considered
perhaps the first teacher of the idea of organic evolution.
According to this idea, man developed from a fishlike ancestor,
"growing up as sharks do until able to help himself and then
coming forth on dry land."[1] The thought here expressed finds
its germ, perhaps, in the Babylonian conception that everything
came forth from a chaos of waters. Yet the fact that the thought
of Anaximander has come down to posterity through such various
channels suggests that the Greek thinker had got far enough away
from the Oriental conception to make his view seem to his
contemporaries a novel and individual one. Indeed, nothing we
know of the Oriental line of thought conveys any suggestion of
the idea of transformation of species, whereas that idea is
distinctly formulated in the traditional views of Anaximander.



VI. THE EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY

Diogenes Laertius tells a story about a youth who, clad in a
purple toga, entered the arena at the Olympian games and asked to
compete with the other youths in boxing. He was derisively denied
admission, presumably because he was beyond the legitimate age
for juvenile contestants. Nothing daunted, the youth entered the
lists of men, and turned the laugh on his critics by coming off
victor. The youth who performed this feat was named Pythagoras.
He was the same man, if we may credit the story, who afterwards
migrated to Italy and became the founder of the famous Crotonian
School of Philosophy; the man who developed the religion of the
Orphic mysteries; who conceived the idea of the music of the
spheres; who promulgated the doctrine of metempsychosis; who
first, perhaps, of all men clearly conceived the notion that this
world on which we live is a ball which moves in space and which
may be habitable on every side.

A strange development that for a stripling pugilist. But we must
not forget that in the Greek world athletics held a peculiar
place. The chief winner of Olympian games gave his name to an
epoch (the ensuing Olympiad of four years), and was honored
almost before all others in the land. A sound mind in a sound
body was the motto of the day. To excel in feats of strength and
dexterity was an accomplishment that even a philosopher need not
scorn. It will be recalled that aeschylus distinguished himself
at the battle of Marathon; that Thucydides, the greatest of Greek
historians, was a general in the Peloponnesian War; that
Xenophon, the pupil and biographer of Socrates, was chiefly famed
for having led the Ten Thousand in the memorable campaign of
Cyrus the Younger; that Plato himself was credited with having
shown great aptitude in early life as a wrestler. If, then,
Pythagoras the philosopher was really the Pythagoras who won the
boxing contest, we may suppose that in looking back upon this
athletic feat from the heights of his priesthood--for he came to
be almost deified--he regarded it not as an indiscretion of his
youth, but as one of the greatest achievements of his life. Not
unlikely he recalled with pride that he was credited with being
no less an innovator in athletics than in philosophy. At all
events, tradition credits him with the invention of "scientific"
boxing. Was it he, perhaps, who taught the Greeks to strike a
rising and swinging blow from the hip, as depicted in the famous
metopes of the Parthenon? If so, the innovation of Pythagoras was
as little heeded in this regard in a subsequent age as was his
theory of the motion of the earth; for to strike a swinging blow
from the hip, rather than from the shoulder, is a trick which the
pugilist learned anew in our own day.

But enough of pugilism and of what, at best, is a doubtful
tradition. Our concern is with another "science" than that of the
arena. We must follow the purple-robed victor to Italy--if,
indeed, we be not over-credulous in accepting the tradition--and
learn of triumphs of a different kind that have placed the name
of Pythagoras high on the list of the fathers of Grecian thought.
To Italy? Yes, to the western limits of the Greek world. Here it
was, beyond the confines of actual Greek territory, that Hellenic
thought found its second home, its first home being, as we have
seen, in Asia Minor. Pythagoras, indeed, to whom we have just
been introduced, was born on the island of Samos, which lies near
the coast of Asia Minor, but he probably migrated at an early day
to Crotona, in Italy. There he lived, taught, and developed his
philosophy until rather late in life, when, having incurred the
displeasure of his fellow-citizens, he suffered the not unusual
penalty of banishment.

Of the three other great Italic leaders of thought of the early
period, Xenophanes came rather late in life to Elea and founded
the famous Eleatic School, of which Parmenides became the most
distinguished ornament. These two were Ionians, and they lived in
the sixth century before our era. Empedocles, the Sicilian, was
of Doric origin. He lived about the middle of the fifth century
B.C., at a time, therefore, when Athens had attained a position
of chief glory among the Greek states; but there is no evidence
that Empedocles ever visited that city, though it was rumored
that he returned to the Peloponnesus to die. The other great
Italic philosophers just named, living, as we have seen, in the
previous century, can scarcely have thought of Athens as a centre
of Greek thought. Indeed, the very fact that these men lived in
Italy made that peninsula, rather than the mother-land of Greece,
the centre of Hellenic influence. But all these men, it must
constantly be borne in mind, were Greeks by birth and language,
fully recognized as such in their own time and by posterity. Yet
the fact that they lived in a land which was at no time a part of
the geographical territory of Greece must not be forgotten. They,
or their ancestors of recent generations, had been pioneers among
those venturesome colonists who reached out into distant portions
of the world, and made homes for themselves in much the same
spirit in which colonists from Europe began to populate America
some two thousand years later. In general, colonists from the
different parts of Greece localized themselves somewhat
definitely in their new homes; yet there must naturally have been
a good deal of commingling among the various families of
pioneers, and, to a certain extent, a mingling also with the
earlier inhabitants of the country. This racial mingling,
combined with the well-known vitalizing influence of the pioneer
life, led, we may suppose, to a more rapid and more varied
development than occurred among the home-staying Greeks. In proof
of this, witness the remarkable schools of philosophy which, as
we have seen, were thus developed at the confines of the Greek
world, and which were presently to invade and, as it were, take
by storm the mother-country itself.

As to the personality of these pioneer philosophers of the West,
our knowledge is for the most part more or less traditional. What
has been said of Thales may be repeated, in the main, regarding
Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Empedocles. That they were real
persons is not at all in question, but much that is merely
traditional has come to be associated with their names.
Pythagoras was the senior, and doubtless his ideas may have
influenced the others more or less, though each is usually spoken
of as the founder of an independent school. Much confusion has
all along existed, however, as to the precise ideas which were to
be ascribed to each of the leaders. Numberless commentators,
indeed, have endeavored to pick out from among the traditions of
antiquity, aided by such fragments, of the writing of the
philosophers as have come down to us, the particular ideas that
characterized each thinker, and to weave these ideas into
systems. But such efforts, notwithstanding the mental energy that
has been expended upon them, were, of necessity, futile, since,
in the first place, the ancient philosophers themselves did not
specialize and systematize their ideas according to modern
notions, and, in the second place, the records of their
individual teachings have been too scantily preserved to serve
for the purpose of classification. It is freely admitted that
fable has woven an impenetrable mesh of contradictions about the
personalities of these ancient thinkers, and it would be folly to
hope that this same artificer had been less busy with their
beliefs and theories. When one reads that Pythagoras advocated an
exclusively vegetable diet, yet that he was the first to train
athletes on meat diet; that he sacrificed only inanimate things,
yet that he offered up a hundred oxen in honor of his great
discovery regarding the sides of a triangle, and such like
inconsistencies in the same biography, one gains a realizing
sense of the extent to which diverse traditions enter into the
story as it has come down to us. And yet we must reflect that
most men change their opinions in the course of a long lifetime,
and that the antagonistic reports may both be true.

True or false, these fables have an abiding interest, since they
prove the unique and extraordinary character of the personality
about which they are woven. The alleged witticisms of a Whistler,
in our own day, were doubtless, for the most part, quite unknown
to Whistler himself, yet they never would have been ascribed to
him were they not akin to witticisms that he did originate--were
they not, in short, typical expressions of his personality. And
so of the heroes of the past. "It is no ordinary man," said
George Henry Lewes, speaking of Pythagoras, "whom fable exalts
into the poetic region. Whenever you find romantic or miraculous
deeds attributed, be certain that the hero was great enough to
maintain the weight of the crown of this fabulous glory."[1] We
may not doubt, then, that Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Empedocles,
with whose names fable was so busy throughout antiquity, were men
of extraordinary personality. We are here chiefly concerned,
however, neither with the personality of the man nor yet with the
precise doctrines which each one of them taught. A knowledge of
the latter would be interesting were it attainable, but in the
confused state of the reports that have come down to us we cannot
hope to be able to ascribe each idea with precision to its proper
source. At best we can merely outline, even here not too
precisely, the scientific doctrines which the Italic philosophers
as a whole seem to have advocated.

First and foremost, there is the doctrine that the earth is a
sphere. Pythagoras is said to have been the first advocate of
this theory; but, unfortunately, it is reported also that
Parmenides was its author. This rivalship for the discovery of an
important truth we shall see repeated over and over in more
recent times. Could we know the whole truth, it would perhaps
appear that the idea of the sphericity of the earth was
originated long before the time of the Greek philosophers. But it
must be admitted that there is no record of any sort to give
tangible support to such an assumption. So far as we can
ascertain, no Egyptian or Babylonian astronomer ever grasped the
wonderful conception that the earth is round. That the Italic
Greeks should have conceived that idea was perhaps not so much
because they were astronomers as because they were practical
geographers and geometers. Pythagoras, as we have noted, was born
at Samos, and, therefore, made a relatively long sea voyage in
passing to Italy. Now, as every one knows, the most simple and
tangible demonstration of the convexity of the earth's surface is
furnished by observation of an approaching ship at sea. On a
clear day a keen eye may discern the mast and sails rising
gradually above the horizon, to be followed in due course by the
hull. Similarly, on approaching the shore, high objects become
visible before those that lie nearer the water. It is at least a
plausible supposition that Pythagoras may have made such
observations as these during the voyage in question, and that
therein may lie the germ of that wonderful conception of the
world as a sphere.

To what extent further proof, based on the fact that the earth's
shadow when the moon is eclipsed is always convex, may have been
known to Pythagoras we cannot say. There is no proof that any of
the Italic philosophers made extensive records of astronomical
observations as did the Egyptians and Babylonians; but we must
constantly recall that the writings of classical antiquity have
been almost altogether destroyed. The absence of astronomical
records is, therefore, no proof that such records never existed.
Pythagoras, it should be said, is reported to have travelled in
Egypt, and he must there have gained an inkling of astronomical
methods. Indeed, he speaks of himself specifically, in a letter
quoted by Diogenes, as one who is accustomed to study astronomy.
Yet a later sentence of the letter, which asserts that the
philosopher is not always occupied about speculations of his own
fancy, suggesting, as it does, the dreamer rather than the
observer, gives us probably a truer glimpse into the
philosopher's mind. There is, indeed, reason to suppose that the
doctrine of the sphericity of the earth appealed to Pythagoras
chiefly because it accorded with his conception that the sphere
is the most perfect solid, just as the circle is the most perfect
plane surface. Be that as it may, the fact remains that we have
here, as far as we can trace its origin, the first expression of
the scientific theory that the earth is round. Had the Italic
philosophers accomplished nothing more than this, their
accomplishment would none the less mark an epoch in the progress
of thought.

That Pythagoras was an observer of the heavens is further
evidenced by the statement made by Diogenes, on the authority of
Parmenides, that Pythagoras was the first person who discovered
or asserted the identity of Hesperus and Lucifer--that is to say,
of the morning and the evening star. This was really a remarkable
discovery, and one that was no doubt instrumental later on in
determining that theory of the mechanics of the heavens which we
shall see elaborated presently. To have made such a discovery
argues again for the practicality of the mind of Pythagoras. His,
indeed, would seem to have been a mind in which practical
common-sense was strangely blended with the capacity for wide and
imaginative generalization. As further evidence of his
practicality, it is asserted that he was the first person who
introduced measures and weights among the Greeks, this assertion
being made on the authority of Aristoxenus. It will be observed
that he is said to have introduced, not to have invented, weights
and measures, a statement which suggests a knowledge on the part
of the Greeks that weights and measures were previously employed
in Egypt and Babylonia.

The mind that could conceive the world as a sphere and that
interested itself in weights and measures was, obviously, a mind
of the visualizing type. It is characteristic of this type of
mind to be interested in the tangibilities of geometry, hence it
is not surprising to be told that Pythagoras "carried that
science to perfection." The most famous discovery of Pythagoras
in this field was that the square of the hypotenuse of a
right-angled triangle is equal to the squares of the other sides
of the triangle. We have already noted the fable that his
enthusiasm over this discovery led him to sacrifice a hecatomb.
Doubtless the story is apocryphal, but doubtless, also, it
expresses the truth as to the fervid joy with which the
philosopher must have contemplated the results of his creative
imagination.

No line alleged to have been written by Pythagoras has come down
to us. We are told that he refrained from publishing his
doctrines, except by word of mouth. "The Lucanians and the
Peucetians, and the Messapians and the Romans," we are assured,
"flocked around him, coming with eagerness to hear his
discourses; no fewer than six hundred came to him every night;
and if any one of them had ever been permitted to see the master,
they wrote of it to their friends as if they had gained some
great advantage." Nevertheless, we are assured that until the
time of Philolaus no doctrines of Pythagoras were ever published,
to which statement it is added that "when the three celebrated
books were published, Plato wrote to have them purchased for him
for a hundred minas."[2] But if such books existed, they are lost
to the modern world, and we are obliged to accept the assertions
of relatively late writers as to the theories of the great
Crotonian.

Perhaps we cannot do better than quote at length from an
important summary of the remaining doctrines of Pythagoras, which
Diogenes himself quoted from the work of a predecessor.[3]
Despite its somewhat inchoate character, this summary is a most
remarkable one, as a brief analysis of its contents will show. It
should be explained that Alexander (whose work is now lost) is
said to have found these dogmas set down in the commentaries of
Pythagoras. If this assertion be accepted, we are brought one
step nearer the philosopher himself. The summary is as follows:


"That the monad was the beginning of everything. From the monad
proceeds an indefinite duad, which is subordinate to the monad as
to its cause. That from the monad and the indefinite duad proceed
numbers. And from numbers signs. And from these last, lines of
which plane figures consist. And from plane figures are derived
solid bodies. And from solid bodies sensible bodies, of which
last there are four elements--fire, water, earth, and air. And
that the world, which is indued with life and intellect, and
which is of a spherical figure, having the earth, which is also
spherical, and inhabited all over in its centre,[4] results from
a combination of these elements, and derives its motion from
them; and also that there are antipodes, and that what is below,
as respects us, is above in respect of them.

"He also taught that light and darkness, and cold and heat, and
dryness and moisture, were equally divided in the world; and that
while heat was predominant it was summer; while cold had the
mastery, it was winter; when dryness prevailed, it was spring;
and when moisture preponderated, winter. And while all these
qualities were on a level, then was the loveliest season of the
year; of which the flourishing spring was the wholesome period,
and the season of autumn the most pernicious one. Of the day, he
said that the flourishing period was the morning, and the fading
one the evening; on which account that also was the least healthy
time.

"Another of his theories was that the air around the earth was
immovable and pregnant with disease, and that everything in it
was mortal; but that the upper air was in perpetual motion, and
pure and salubrious, and that everything in that was immortal,
and on that account divine. And that the sun and the moon and the
stars were all gods; for in them the warm principle predominates
which is the cause of life. And that the moon derives its light
from the sun. And that there is a relationship between men and
the gods, because men partake of the divine principle; on which
account, also, God exercises his providence for our advantage.
Also, that Fate is the cause of the arrangement of the world both
generally and particularly. Moreover, that a ray from the sun
penetrated both the cold aether and the dense aether; and they
call the air the cold aether, and the sea and moisture they call
the dense aether. And this ray descends into the depths, and in
this way vivifies everything. And everything which partakes of
the principle of heat lives, on which account, also, plants are
animated beings; but that all living things have not necessarily
souls. And that the soul is a something tom off from the aether,
both warm and cold, from its partaking of the cold aether. And
that the soul is something different from life. Also, that it is
immortal, because that from which it has been detached is
immortal.

"Also, that animals are born from one another by seeds, and that
it is impossible for there to be any spontaneous production by
the earth. And that seed is a drop from the brain which contains
in itself a warm vapor; and that when this is applied to the womb
it transmits virtue and moisture and blood from the brain, from
which flesh and sinews and bones and hair and the whole body are
produced. And from the vapor is produced the soul, and also
sensation. And that the infant first becomes a solid body at the
end of forty days; but, according to the principles of harmony,
it is not perfect till seven, or perhaps nine, or at most ten
months, and then it is brought forth. And that it contains in
itself all the principles of life, which are all connected
together, and by their union and combination form a harmonious
whole, each of them developing itself at the appointed time.

"The senses in general, and especially the sight, are a vapor of
excessive warmth, and on this account a man is said to see
through air and through water. For the hot principle is opposed
by the cold one; since, if the vapor in the eyes were cold, it
would have the same temperature as the air, and so would be
dissipated. As it is, in some passages he calls the eyes the
gates of the sun; and he speaks in a similar manner of hearing
and of the other senses.

"He also says that the soul of man is divided into three parts:
into intuition and reason and mind, and that the first and last
divisions are found also in other animals, but that the middle
one, reason, is only found in man. And that the chief abode of
the soul is in those parts of the body which are between the
heart and the brain. And that that portion of it which is in the
heart is the mind; but that deliberation and reason reside in the
brain.

Moreover, that the senses are drops from them; and that the
reasoning sense is immortal, but the others are mortal. And that
the soul is nourished by the blood; and that reasons are the
winds of the soul. That it is invisible, and so are its reasons,
since the aether itself is invisible. That the links of the soul
are the veins and the arteries and the nerves. But that when it
is vigorous, and is by itself in a quiescent state, then its
links are words and actions. That when it is cast forth upon the
earth it wanders about, resembling the body. Moreover, that
Mercury is the steward of the souls, and that on this account he
has the name of Conductor, and Commercial, and Infernal, since it
is he who conducts the souls from their bodies, and from earth
and sea; and that he conducts the pure souls to the highest
region, and that he does not allow the impure ones to approach
them, nor to come near one another, but commits them to be bound
in indissoluble fetters by the Furies. The Pythagoreans also
assert that the whole air is full of souls, and that these are
those which are accounted daemons and heroes. Also, that it is by
them that dreams are sent among men, and also the tokens of
disease and health; these last, too, being sent not only to men,
but to sheep also, and other cattle. Also that it is they who are
concerned with purifications and expiations and all kinds of
divination and oracular predictions, and things of that kind."[5]


A brief consideration of this summary of the doctrines of
Pythagoras will show that it at least outlines a most
extraordinary variety of scientific ideas. (1) There is suggested
a theory of monads and the conception of the development from
simple to more complex bodies, passing through the stages of
lines, plain figures, and solids to sensible bodies. (2) The
doctrine of the four elements--fire, water, earth, and air--as
the basis of all organisms is put forward. (3) The idea, not
merely of the sphericity of the earth, but an explicit conception
of the antipodes, is expressed. (4) A conception of the sanitary
influence of the air is clearly expressed. (5) An idea of the
problems of generation and heredity is shown, together with a
distinct disavowal of the doctrine of spontaneous generation-- a
doctrine which, it may be added, remained in vogue, nevertheless,
for some twenty-four hundred years after the time of Pythagoras.
(6) A remarkable analysis of mind is made, and a distinction
between animal minds and the human mind is based on this
analysis. The physiological doctrine that the heart is the organ
of one department of mind is offset by the clear statement that
the remaining factors of mind reside in the brain. This early
recognition of brain as the organ of mind must not be forgotten
in our later studies. It should be recalled, however, that a
Crotonian physician, Alemaean, a younger contemporary of
Pythagoras, is also credited with the same theory. (7) A
knowledge of anatomy is at least vaguely foreshadowed in the
assertion that veins, arteries, and nerves are the links of the
soul. In this connection it should be recalled that Pythagoras
was a practical physician.

As against these scientific doctrines, however, some of them
being at least remarkable guesses at the truth, attention must be
called to the concluding paragraph of our quotation, in which the
old familiar daemonology is outlined, quite after the Oriental
fashion. We shall have occasion to say more as to this phase of
the subject later on. Meantime, before leaving Pythagoras, let us
note that his practical studies of humanity led him to assert the
doctrine that "the property of friends is common, and that
friendship is equality." His disciples, we are told, used to put
all their possessions together in one store and use them in
common. Here, then, seemingly, is the doctrine of communism put
to the test of experiment at this early day. If it seem that
reference to this carries us beyond the bounds of science, it may
be replied that questions such as this will not lie beyond the
bounds of the science of the near future.


XENOPHANES AND PARMENIDES

There is a whimsical tale about Pythagoras, according to which
the philosopher was wont to declare that in an earlier state he
had visited Hades, and had there seen Homer and Hesiod tortured
because of the absurd things they had said about the gods.
Apocrypbal or otherwise, the tale suggests that Pythagoras was an
agnostic as regards the current Greek religion of his time. The
same thing is perhaps true of most of the great thinkers of this
earliest period. But one among them was remembered in later times
as having had a peculiar aversion to the anthropomorphic
conceptions of his fellows. This was Xenophanes, who was born at
Colophon probably about the year 580 B.C., and who, after a life
of wandering, settled finally in Italy and became the founder of
the so-called Eleatic School.

A few fragments of the philosophical poem in which Xenophanes
expressed his views have come down to us, and these fragments
include a tolerably definite avowal of his faith. "God is one
supreme among gods and men, and not like mortals in body or in
mind," says Xenophanes. Again he asserts that "mortals suppose
that the gods are born (as they themselves are), that they wear
man's clothing and have human voice and body; but," he continues,
"if cattle or lions had hands so as to paint with their hands and
produce works of art as men do, they would paint their gods and
give them bodies in form like their own--horses like horses,
cattle like cattle." Elsewhere he says, with great acumen: "There
has not been a man, nor will there be, who knows distinctly what
I say about the gods or in regard to all things. For even if one
chance for the most part to say what is true, still he would not
know; but every one thinks that he knows."[6]

In the same spirit Xenophanes speaks of the battles of Titans, of
giants, and of centaurs as "fictions of former ages." All this
tells of the questioning spirit which distinguishes the
scientific investigator. Precisely whither this spirit led him we
do not know, but the writers of a later time have preserved a
tradition regarding a belief of Xenophanes that perhaps entitles
him to be considered the father of geology. Thus Hippolytus
records that Xenophanes studied the fossils to be found in
quarries, and drew from their observation remarkable conclusions.
His words are as follows: "Xenophanes believes that once the
earth was mingled with the sea, but in the course of time it
became freed from moisture; and his proofs are such as these:
that shells are found in the midst of the land and among the
mountains, that in the quarries of Syracuse the imprints of a
fish and of seals had been found, and in Paros the imprint of an
anchovy at some depth in the stone, and in Melite shallow
impressions of all sorts of sea products. He says that these
imprints were made when everything long ago was covered with mud,
and then the imprint dried in the mud. Further, he says that all
men will be destroyed when the earth sinks into the sea and
becomes mud, and that the race will begin anew from the
beginning; and this transformation takes place for all
worlds."[7] Here, then, we see this earliest of paleontologists
studying the fossil-bearing strata of the earth, and drawing from
his observations a marvellously scientific induction. Almost two
thousand years later another famous citizen of Italy, Leonardo da
Vinci, was independently to think out similar conclusions from
like observations. But not until the nineteenth century of our
era, some twenty-four hundred years after the time of Xenophanes,
was the old Greek's doctrine to be accepted by the scientific
world. The ideas of Xenophanes were known to his contemporaries
and, as we see, quoted for a few centuries by his successors,
then they were ignored or quite forgotten; and if any philosopher
of an ensuing age before the time of Leonardo championed a like
rational explanation of the fossils, we have no record of the
fact. The geological doctrine of Xenophanes, then, must be listed
among those remarkable Greek anticipations of nineteenth -century
science which suffered almost total eclipse in the intervening
centuries.

Among the pupils of Xenophanes was Parmenides, the thinker who
was destined to carry on the work of his master along the same
scientific lines, though at the same time mingling his scientific
conceptions with the mysticism of the poet. We have already had
occasion to mention that Parmenides championed the idea that the
earth is round; noting also that doubts exist as to whether he or
Pythagoras originated this doctrine. No explicit answer to this
question can possibly be hoped for. It seems clear, however, that
for a long time the Italic School, to which both these
philosophers belonged, had a monopoly of the belief in question.
Parmenides, like Pythagoras, is credited with having believed in
the motion of the earth, though the evidence furnished by the
writings of the philosopher himself is not as demonstrative as
one could wish. Unfortunately, the copyists of a later age were
more concerned with metaphysical speculations than with more
tangible things. But as far as the fragmentary references to the
ideas of Parmenides may be accepted, they do not support the idea
of the earth's motion. Indeed, Parmenides is made to say
explicitly, in preserved fragments, that "the world is immovable,
limited, and spheroidal in form."[8]

Nevertheless, some modern interpreters have found an opposite
meaning in Parmenides. Thus Ritter interprets him as supposing
"that the earth is in the centre spherical, and maintained in
rotary motion by its equiponderance; around it lie certain rings,
the highest composed of the rare element fire, the next lower a
compound of light and darkness, and lowest of all one wholly of
night, which probably indicated to his mind the surface of the
earth, the centre of which again he probably considered to be
fire."[9] But this, like too many interpretations of ancient
thought, appears to read into the fragments ideas which the words
themselves do not warrant. There seems no reason to doubt,
however, that Parmenides actually held the doctrine of the
earth's sphericity. Another glimpse of his astronomical doctrines
is furnished us by a fragment which tells us that he conceived
the morning and the evening stars to be the same, a doctrine
which, as we have seen, was ascribed also to Pythagoras. Indeed,
we may repeat that it is quite impossible to distinguish between
the astronomical doctrines of these two philosophers.

The poem of Parmenides in which the cosmogonic speculations occur
treats also of the origin of man. The author seems to have had a
clear conception that intelligence depends on bodily organism,
and that the more elaborately developed the organism the higher
the intelligence. But in the interpretation of this thought we
are hampered by the characteristic vagueness of expression, which
may best be evidenced by putting before the reader two English
translations of the same stanza. Here is Ritter's rendering, as
made into English by his translator, Morrison:

 "For exactly as each has the state of his limbs many-jointed, 
So invariably stands it with men in their mind and their     
reason;  For the system of limbs is that which thinketh in
mankind  Alike in all and in each: for thought is the
fulness."[10]

The same stanza is given thus by George Henry Lewes:

 "Such as to each man is the nature of his many-jointed limbs, 
Such also is the intelligence of each man; for it is  The nature
of limbs (organization) which thinketh in men,  Both in one and
in all; for the highest degree of organization      gives the
highest degree of thought."[11]


Here it will be observed that there is virtual agreement between
the translators except as to the last clause, but that clause is
most essential. The Greek phrase is .
Ritter, it will be observed, renders this, "for thought is the
fulness." Lewes paraphrases it, "for the highest degree of
organization gives the highest degree of thought." The difference
is intentional, since Lewes himself criticises the translation of
Ritter. Ritter's translation is certainly the more literal, but
the fact that such diversity is possible suggests one of the
chief elements of uncertainty that hamper our interpretation of
the thought of antiquity. Unfortunately, the mind of the
commentator has usually been directed towards such subtleties,
rather than towards the expression of precise knowledge. Hence it
is that the philosophers of Greece are usually thought of as mere
dreamers, and that their true status as scientific discoverers is
so often overlooked. With these intangibilities we have no
present concern beyond this bare mention; for us it suffices to
gain as clear an idea as we may of the really scientific
conceptions of these thinkers, leaving the subtleties of their
deductive reasoning for the most part untouched.


EMPEDOCLES

The latest of the important pre-Socratic philosophers of the
Italic school was Empedocles, who was born about 494 B.C. and
lived to the age of sixty. These dates make Empedocles strictly
contemporary with Anaxagoras, a fact which we shall do well to
bear in mind when we come to consider the latter's philosophy in
the succeeding chapter. Like Pythagoras, Empedocles is an
imposing figure. Indeed, there is much of similarity between the
personalities, as between the doctrines, of the two men.
Empedocles, like Pythagoras, was a physician; like him also he
was the founder of a cult. As statesman, prophet, physicist,
physician, reformer, and poet he showed a versatility that,
coupled with profundity, marks the highest genius. In point of
versatility we shall perhaps hardly find his equal at a later
day--unless, indeed, an exception be made of Eratosthenes. The
myths that have grown about the name of Empedocles show that he
was a remarkable personality. He is said to have been an
awe-inspiring figure, clothing himself in Oriental splendor and
moving among mankind as a superior being. Tradition has it that
he threw himself into the crater of a volcano that his otherwise
unexplained disappearance might lead his disciples to believe
that he had been miraculously translated; but tradition goes on
to say that one of the brazen slippers of the philosopher was
thrown up by the volcano, thus revealing his subterfuge. Another
tradition of far more credible aspect asserts that Empedocles
retreated from Italy, returning to the home of his fathers in
Peloponnesus to die there obscurely. It seems odd that the facts
regarding the death of so great a man, at so comparatively late a
period, should be obscure; but this, perhaps, is in keeping with
the personality of the man himself. His disciples would hesitate
to ascribe a merely natural death to so inspired a prophet.

Empedocles appears to have been at once an observer and a
dreamer. He is credited with noting that the pressure of air will
sustain the weight of water in an inverted tube; with divining,
without the possibility of proof, that light has actual motion in
space; and with asserting that centrifugal motion must keep the
heavens from falling. He is credited with a great sanitary feat
in the draining of a marsh, and his knowledge of medicine was
held to be supernatural. Fortunately, some fragments of the
writings of Empedocles have come down to us, enabling us to judge
at first hand as to part of his doctrines; while still more is
known through the references made to him by Plato, Aristotle, and
other commentators. Empedocles was a poet whose verses stood the
test of criticism. In this regard he is in a like position with
Parmenides; but in neither case are the preserved fragments
sufficient to enable us fully to estimate their author's
scientific attainments. Philosophical writings are obscure enough
at the best, and they perforce become doubly so when expressed in
verse. Yet there are certain passages of Empedocles that are
unequivocal and full of interest. Perhaps the most important
conception which the works of Empedocles reveal to us is the
denial of anthropomorphism as applied to deity. We have seen how
early the anthropomorphic conception was developed and how
closely it was all along clung to; to shake the mind free from it
then was a remarkable feat, in accomplishing which Empedocles
took a long step in the direction of rationalism. His conception
is paralleled by that of another physician, Alcmaeon, of Proton,
who contended that man's ideas of the gods amounted to mere
suppositions at the very most. A rationalistic or sceptical
tendency has been the accompaniment of medical training in all
ages.

The words in which Empedocles expresses his conception of deity
have been preserved and are well worth quoting: "It is not
impossible," he says, "to draw near (to god) even with the eyes
or to take hold of him with our hands, which in truth is the best
highway of persuasion in the mind of man; for he has no human
head fitted to a body, nor do two shoots branch out from the
trunk, nor has he feet, nor swift legs, nor hairy parts, but he
is sacred and ineffable mind alone, darting through the whole
world with swift thoughts."[8]

How far Empedocles carried his denial of anthropomorphism is
illustrated by a reference of Aristotle, who asserts "that
Empedocles regards god as most lacking in the power of
perception; for he alone does not know one of the elements,
Strife (hence), of perishable things." It is difficult to avoid
the feeling that Empedocles here approaches the modern
philosophical conception that God, however postulated as
immutable, must also be postulated as unconscious, since
intelligence, as we know it, is dependent upon the transmutations
of matter. But to urge this thought would be to yield to that
philosophizing tendency which has been the bane of interpretation
as applied to the ancient thinkers.

Considering for a moment the more tangible accomplishments of
Empedocles, we find it alleged that one of his "miracles"
consisted of the preservation of a dead body without putrefaction
for some weeks after death. We may assume from this that he had
gained in some way a knowledge of embalming. As he was
notoriously fond of experiment, and as the body in question
(assuming for the moment the authenticity of the legend) must
have been preserved without disfigurement, it is conceivable even
that he had hit upon the idea of injecting the arteries. This, of
course, is pure conjecture; yet it finds a certain warrant, both
in the fact that the words of Pythagoras lead us to believe that
the arteries were known and studied, and in the fact that
Empedocles' own words reveal him also as a student of the
vascular system. Thus Plutarch cites Empedocles as believing
"that the ruling part is not in the head or in the breast, but in
the blood; wherefore in whatever part of the body the more of
this is spread in that part men excel."[13] And Empedocles' own
words, as preserved by Stobaeus, assert "(the heart) lies in seas
of blood which dart in opposite directions, and there most of all
intelligence centres for men; for blood about the heart is
intelligence in the case of man." All this implies a really
remarkable appreciation of the dependence of vital activities
upon the blood.

This correct physiological conception, however, was by no means
the most remarkable of the ideas to which Empedoeles was led by
his anatomical studies. His greatest accomplishment was to have
conceived and clearly expressed an idea which the modern
evolutionist connotes when he speaks of homologous parts--an idea
which found a famous modern expositor in Goethe, as we shall see
when we come to deal with eighteenth-century science. Empedocles
expresses the idea in these words: "Hair, and leaves, and thick
feathers of birds, are the same thing in origin, and reptile
scales too on strong limbs. But on hedgehogs sharp-pointed hair
bristles on their backs."[14] That the idea of transmutation of
parts, as well as of mere homology, was in mind is evidenced by a
very remarkable sentence in which Aristotle asserts, "Empedocles
says that fingernails rise from sinew from hardening." Nor is
this quite all, for surely we find the germ of the Lamarckian
conception of evolution through the transmission of acquired
characters in the assertion that "many characteristics appear in
animals because it happened to be thus in their birth, as that
they have such a spine because they happen to be descended from
one that bent itself backward."[15] Aristotle, in quoting this
remark, asserts, with the dogmatism which characterizes the
philosophical commentators of every age, that "Empedocles is
wrong," in making this assertion; but Lamarck, who lived
twenty-three hundred years after Empedocles, is famous in the
history of the doctrine of evolution for elaborating this very
idea.

It is fair to add, however, that the dreamings of Empedocles
regarding the origin of living organisms led him to some
conceptions that were much less luminous. On occasion, Empedocles
the poet got the better of Empedocles the scientist, and we are
presented with a conception of creation as grotesque as that
which delighted the readers of Paradise Lost at a later day.
Empedocles assures us that "many heads grow up without necks, and
arms were wandering about, necks bereft of shoulders, and eyes
roamed about alone with no foreheads."[16] This chaotic
condition, so the poet dreamed, led to the union of many
incongruous parts, producing "creatures with double faces,
offspring of oxen with human faces, and children of men with oxen
heads." But out of this chaos came, finally, we are led to infer,
a harmonious aggregation of parts, producing ultimately the
perfected organisms that we see. Unfortunately the preserved
portions of the writings of Empedocles do not enlighten us as to
the precise way in which final evolution was supposed to be
effected; although the idea of endless experimentation until
natural selection resulted in survival of the fittest seems not
far afield from certain of the poetical assertions. Thus: "As
divinity was mingled yet more with divinity, these things (the
various members) kept coming together in whatever way each might
chance." Again: "At one time all the limbs which form the body
united into one by love grew vigorously in the prime of life; but
yet at another time, separated by evil Strife, they wander each
in different directions along the breakers of the sea of life.
Just so is it with plants, and with fishes dwelling in watery
halls, and beasts whose lair is in the mountains, and birds borne
on wings."[17]

All this is poetry rather than science, yet such imaginings could
come only to one who was groping towards what we moderns should
term an evolutionary conception of the origins of organic life;
and however grotesque some of these expressions may appear, it
must be admitted that the morphological ideas of Empedocles, as
above quoted, give the Sicilian philosopher a secure place among
the anticipators of the modern evolutionist.



VII. GREEK SCIENCE IN THE EARLY ATTIC PERIOD

We have travelled rather far in our study of Greek science, and
yet we have not until now come to Greece itself. And even now,
the men whose names we are to consider were, for the most part,
born in out- lying portions of the empire; they differed from the
others we have considered only in the fact that they were drawn
presently to the capital. The change is due to a most interesting
sequence of historical events. In the day when Thales and his
immediate successors taught in Miletus, when the great men of the
Italic school were in their prime, there was no single undisputed
Centre of Greek influence. The Greeks were a disorganized company
of petty nations, welded together chiefly by unity of speech; but
now, early in the fifth century B.C., occurred that famous attack
upon the Western world by the Persians under Darius and his son
and successor Xerxes. A few months of battling determined the
fate of the Western world. The Orientals were hurled back; the
glorious memories of Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea stimulated
the patriotism and enthusiasm of all children of the Greek race.
The Greeks, for the first time, occupied the centre of the
historical stage; for the brief interval of about half a century
the different Grecian principalities lived together in relative
harmony. One city was recognized as the metropolis of the loosely
bound empire; one city became the home of culture and the Mecca
towards which all eyes turned; that city, of course, was Athens.
For a brief time all roads led to Athens, as, at a later date,
they all led to Rome. The waterways which alone bound the widely
scattered parts of Hellas into a united whole led out from Athens
and back to Athens, as the spokes of a wheel to its hub. Athens
was the commercial centre, and, largely for that reason, it
became the centre of culture and intellectual influence also. The
wise men from the colonies visited the metropolis, and the wise
Athenians went out to the colonies. Whoever aspired to become a
leader in politics, in art, in literature, or in philosophy, made
his way to the capital, and so, with almost bewildering
suddenness, there blossomed the civilization of the age of
Pericles; the civilization which produced aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides, Herodotus, and Thucydides; the civilization which made
possible the building of the Parthenon.


ANAXAGORAS

Sometime during the early part of this golden age there came to
Athens a middle-aged man from Clazomenae, who, from our present
stand-point, was a more interesting personality than perhaps any
other in the great galaxy of remarkable men assembled there. The
name of this new-comer was Anaxagoras. It was said in after-time,
we know not with what degree of truth, that he had been a pupil
of Anaximenes. If so, he was a pupil who departed far from the
teachings of his master. What we know for certain is that
Anaxagoras was a truly original thinker, and that he became a
close friend--in a sense the teacher--of Pericles and of
Euripides. Just how long he remained at Athens is not certain;
but the time came when he had made himself in some way
objectionable to the Athenian populace through his teachings.
Filled with the spirit of the investigator, he could not accept
the current conceptions as to the gods. He was a sceptic, an
innovator. Such men are never welcome; they are the chief factors
in the progress of thought, but they must look always to
posterity for recognition of their worth; from their
contemporaries they receive, not thanks, but persecution.
Sometimes this persecution takes one form, sometimes another; to
the credit of the Greeks be it said, that with them it usually
led to nothing more severe than banishment. In the case of
Anaxagoras, it is alleged that the sentence pronounced was death;
but that, thanks to the influence of Pericles, this sentence was
commuted to banishment. In any event, the aged philosopher was
sent away from the city of his adoption. He retired to Lampsacus.
"It is not I that have lost the Athenians," he said; "it is the
Athenians that have lost me."

The exact position which Anaxagoras had among his contemporaries,
and his exact place in the development of philosophy, have always
been somewhat in dispute. It is not known, of a certainty, that
he even held an open school at Athens. Ritter thinks it doubtful
that he did. It was his fate to be misunderstood, or
underestimated, by Aristotle; that in itself would have sufficed
greatly to dim his fame--might, indeed, have led to his almost
entire neglect had he not been a truly remarkable thinker. With
most of the questions that have exercised the commentators we
have but scant concern. Following Aristotle, most historians of
philosophy have been metaphysicians; they have concerned
themselves far less with what the ancient thinkers really knew
than with what they thought. A chance using of a verbal quibble,
an esoteric phrase, the expression of a vague mysticism--these
would suffice to call forth reams of exposition. It has been the
favorite pastime of historians to weave their own anachronistic
theories upon the scanty woof of the half- remembered thoughts of
the ancient philosophers. To make such cloth of the imagination
as this is an alluring pastime, but one that must not divert us
here. Our point of view reverses that of the philosophers. We are
chiefly concerned, not with some vague saying of Anaxagoras, but
with what he really knew regarding the phenomena of nature; with
what he observed, and with the comprehensible deductions that he
derived from his observations. In attempting to answer these
inquiries, we are obliged, in part, to take our evidence at
second-hand; but, fortunately, some fragments of writings of
Anaxagoras have come down to us. We are told that he wrote only a
single book. It was said even (by Diogenes) that he was the first
man that ever wrote a work in prose. The latter statement would
not bear too close an examination, yet it is true that no
extensive prose compositions of an earlier day than this have
been preserved, though numerous others are known by their
fragments. Herodotus, "the father of prose," was a slightly
younger contemporary of the Clazomenaean philosopher; not
unlikely the two men may have met at Athens.

Notwithstanding the loss of the greater part of the writings of
Anaxagoras, however, a tolerably precise account of his
scientific doctrines is accessible. Diogenes Laertius expresses
some of them in very clear and precise terms. We have already
pointed out the uncertainty that attaches to such evidence as
this, but it is as valid for Anaxagoras as for another. If we
reject such evidence, we shall often have almost nothing left; in
accepting it we may at least feel certain that we are viewing the
thinker as his contemporaries and immediate successors viewed
him. Following Diogenes, then, we shall find some remarkable
scientific opinions ascribed to Anaxagoras. "He asserted," we are
told, "that the sun was a mass of burning iron, greater than
Peloponnesus, and that the moon contained houses and also hills
and ravines." In corroboration of this, Plato represents him as
having conjectured the right explanation of the moon's light, and
of the solar and lunar eclipses. He had other astronomical
theories that were more fanciful; thus "he said that the stars
originally moved about in irregular confusion, so that at first
the pole-star, which is continually visible, always appeared in
the zenith, but that afterwards it acquired a certain
declination, and that the Milky Way was a reflection of the light
of the sun when the stars did not appear. The comets he
considered to be a concourse of planets emitting rays, and the
shooting- stars he thought were sparks, as it were, leaping from
the firmament."

Much of this is far enough from the truth, as we now know it, yet
all of it shows an earnest endeavor to explain the observed
phenomena of the heavens on rational principles. To have
predicated the sun as a great molten mass of iron was indeed a
wonderful anticipation of the results of the modern spectroscope.
Nor can it be said that this hypothesis of Anaxagoras was a
purely visionary guess. It was in all probability a scientific
deduction from the observed character of meteoric stones.
Reference has already been made to the alleged prediction of the
fall of the famous meteor at aegespotomi by Anaxagoras. The
assertion that he actually predicted this fall in any proper
sense of the word would be obviously absurd. Yet the fact that
his name is associated with it suggests that he had studied
similar meteorites, or else that he studied this particular one,
since it is not quite clear whether it was before or after this
fall that he made the famous assertion that space is full of
falling stones. We should stretch the probabilities were we to
assert that Anaxagoras knew that shooting-stars and meteors were
the same, yet there is an interesting suggestiveness in his
likening the shooting-stars to sparks leaping from the firmament,
taken in connection with his observation on meteorites. Be this
as it may, the fact that something which falls from heaven as a
blazing light turns out to be an iron-like mass may very well
have suggested to the most rational of thinkers that the great
blazing light called the sun has the same composition. This idea
grasped, it was a not unnatural extension to conceive the other
heavenly bodies as having the same composition.

This led to a truly startling thought. Since the heavenly bodies
are of the same composition as the earth, and since they are
observed to be whirling about the earth in space, may we not
suppose that they were once a part of the earth itself, and that
they have been thrown off by the force of a whirling motion? Such
was the conclusion which Anaxagoras reached; such his explanation
of the origin of the heavenly bodies. It was a marvellous guess.
Deduct from it all that recent science has shown to be untrue;
bear in mind that the stars are suns, compared with which the
earth is a mere speck of dust; recall that the sun is parent, not
daughter, of the earth, and despite all these deductions, the
cosmogonic guess of Anaxagoras remains, as it seems to us, one of
the most marvellous feats of human intelligence. It was the first
explanation of the cosmic bodies that could be called, in any
sense, an anticipation of what the science of our own day accepts
as a true explanation of cosmic origins. Moreover, let us urge
again that this was no mere accidental flight of the imagination;
it was a scientific induction based on the only data available;
perhaps it is not too much to say that it was the only scientific
induction which these data would fairly sustain. Of course it is
not for a moment to be inferred that Anaxagoras understood, in
the modern sense, the character of that whirling force which we
call centrifugal. About two thousand years were yet to elapse
before that force was explained as elementary inertia; and even
that explanation, let us not forget, merely sufficed to push back
the barriers of mystery by one other stage; for even in our day
inertia is a statement of fact rather than an explanation.

But however little Anaxagoras could explain the centrifugal force
on mechanical principles, the practical powers of that force were
sufficiently open to his observation. The mere experiment of
throwing a stone from a sling would, to an observing mind, be
full of suggestiveness. It would be obvious that by whirling the
sling about, the stone which it held would be sustained in its
circling path about the hand in seeming defiance of the earth's
pull, and after the stone had left the sling, it could fly away
from the earth to a distance which the most casual observation
would prove to be proportionate to the speed of its flight.
Extremely rapid motion, then, might project bodies from the
earth's surface off into space; a sufficiently rapid whirl would
keep them there. Anaxagoras conceived that this was precisely
what had occurred. His imagination even carried him a step
farther--to a conception of a slackening of speed, through which
the heavenly bodies would lose their centrifugal force, and,
responding to the perpetual pull of gravitation, would fall back
to the earth, just as the great stone at aegespotomi had been
observed to do.

Here we would seem to have a clear conception of the idea of
universal gravitation, and Anaxagoras stands before us as the
anticipator of Newton. Were it not for one scientific maxim, we
might exalt the old Greek above the greatest of modern natural
philosophers; but that maxim bids us pause. It is phrased thus,
"He discovers who proves." Anaxagoras could not prove; his
argument was at best suggestive, not demonstrative. He did not
even know the laws which govern falling bodies; much less could
he apply such laws, even had he known them, to sidereal bodies at
whose size and distance he could only guess in the vaguest terms.
Still his cosmogonic speculation remains as perhaps the most
remarkable one of antiquity. How widely his speculation found
currency among his immediate successors is instanced in a passage
from Plato, where Socrates is represented as scornfully answering
a calumniator in these terms: "He asserts that I say the sun is a
stone and the moon an earth. Do you think of accusing Anaxagoras,
Miletas, and have you so low an opinion of these men, and think
them so unskilled in laws, as not to know that the books of
Anaxagoras the Clazomenaean are full of these doctrines. And
forsooth the young men are learning these matters from me which
sometimes they can buy from the orchestra for a drachma, at the
most, and laugh at Socrates if he pretends they are
his-particularly seeing they are so strange."

The element of error contained in these cosmogonic speculations
of Anaxagoras has led critics to do them something less than
justice. But there is one other astronomical speculation for
which the Clazomenaean philosopher has received full credit. It
is generally admitted that it was he who first found out the
explanation of the phases of the moon; a knowledge that that body
shines only by reflected light, and that its visible forms,
waxing and waning month by month from crescent to disk and from
disk to crescent, merely represent our shifting view of its
sun-illumined face. It is difficult to put ourselves in the place
of the ancient observer and realize how little the appearances
suggest the actual fact. That a body of the same structure as the
earth should shine with the radiance of the moon merely because
sunlight is reflected from it, is in itself a supposition
seemingly contradicted by ordinary experience. It required the
mind of a philosopher, sustained, perhaps, by some experimental
observations, to conceive the idea that what seems so obviously
bright may be in reality dark. The germ of the conception of what
the philosopher speaks of as the noumena, or actualities, back of
phenomena or appearances, had perhaps this crude beginning.
Anaxagoras could surely point to the moon in support of his
seeming paradox that snow, being really composed of water, which
is dark, is in reality black and not white--a contention to which
we shall refer more at length in a moment.

But there is yet another striking thought connected with this new
explanation of the phases of the moon. The explanation implies
not merely the reflection of light by a dark body, but by a dark
body of a particular form. Granted that reflections are in
question, no body but a spherical one could give an appearance
which the moon presents. The moon, then, is not merely a mass of
earth, it is a spherical mass of earth. Here there were no flaws
in the reasoning of Anaxagoras. By scientific induction he passed
from observation to explanation. A new and most important element
was added to the science of astronomy.

Looking back from the latter-day stand-point, it would seem as if
the mind of the philosopher must have taken one other step: the
mind that had conceived sun, moon, stars, and earth to be of one
substance might naturally, we should think, have reached out to
the further induction that, since the moon is a sphere, the other
cosmic bodies, including the earth, must be spheres also. But
generalizer as he was, Anaxagoras was too rigidly scientific a
thinker to make this assumption. The data at his command did not,
as he analyzed them, seem to point to this conclusion. We have
seen that Pythagoras probably, and Parmenides surely, out there
in Italy had conceived the idea of the earth's rotundity, but the
Pythagorean doctrines were not rapidly taken up in the mother-
country, and Parmenides, it must be recalled, was a strict
contemporary of Anaxagoras himself. It is no reproach, therefore,
to the Clazomenaean philosopher that he should have held to the
old idea that the earth is flat, or at most a convex disk--the
latter being the Babylonian conception which probably dominated
that Milesian school to which Anaxagoras harked back.

Anaxagoras may never have seen an eclipse of the moon, and even
if he had he might have reflected that, from certain directions,
a disk may throw precisely the same shadow as a sphere. Moreover,
in reference to the shadow cast by the earth, there was, so
Anaxagoras believed, an observation open to him nightly which, we
may well suppose, was not without influence in suggesting to his
mind the probable shape of the earth. The Milky Way, which
doubtless had puzzled astronomers from the beginnings of history
and which was to continue to puzzle them for many centuries after
the day of Anaxagoras, was explained by the Clazomenaean
philosopher on a theory obviously suggested by the theory of the
moon's phases. Since the earth- like moon shines by reflected
light at night, and since the stars seem obviously brighter on
dark nights, Anaxagoras was but following up a perfectly logical
induction when he propounded the theory that the stars in the
Milky Way seem more numerous and brighter than those of any other
part of the heavens, merely because the Milky Way marks the
shadow of the earth. Of course the inference was wrong, so far as
the shadow of the earth is concerned; yet it contained a part
truth, the force of which was never fully recognized until the
time of Galileo. This consists in the assertion that the
brightness of the Milky Way is merely due to the glow of many
stars. The shadow- theory of Anaxagoras would naturally cease to
have validity so soon as the sphericity of the earth was proved,
and with it, seemingly, fell for the time the companion theory
that the Milky Way is made up of a multitude of stars.

It has been said by a modern critic[1] that the shadow-theory was
childish in that it failed to note that the Milky Way does not
follow the course of the ecliptic. But this criticism only holds
good so long as we reflect on the true character of the earth as
a symmetrical body poised in space. It is quite possible to
conceive a body occupying the position of the earth with
reference to the sun which would cast a shadow having such a
tenuous form as the Milky Way presents. Such a body obviously
would not be a globe, but a long-drawn-out, attenuated figure.
There is, to be sure, no direct evidence preserved to show that
Anaxagoras conceived the world to present such a figure as this,
but what we know of that philosopher's close-reasoning, logical
mind gives some warrant to the assumption--gratuitous though in a
sense it be-- that the author of the theory of the moon's phases
had not failed to ask himself what must be the form of that
terrestrial body which could cast the tenuous shadow of the Milky
Way. Moreover, we must recall that the habitable earth, as known
to the Greeks of that day, was a relatively narrow band of
territory, stretching far to the east and to the west.


Anaxagoras as Meteorologist

The man who had studied the meteorite of aegospotami, and been
put by it on the track of such remarkable inductions, was,
naturally, not oblivious to the other phenomena of the
atmosphere. Indeed, such a mind as that of Anaxagoras was sure to
investigate all manner of natural phenomena, and almost equally
sure to throw new light on any subject that it investigated.
Hence it is not surprising to find Anaxagoras credited with
explaining the winds as due to the rarefactions of the atmosphere
produced by the sun. This explanation gives Anaxagoras full right
to be called "the father of meteorology," a title which, it may
be, no one has thought of applying to him, chiefly because the
science of meteorology did not make its real beginnings until
some twenty-four hundred years after the death of its first great
votary. Not content with explaining the winds, this prototype of
Franklin turned his attention even to the tipper atmosphere.
"Thunder," he is reputed to have said, "was produced by the
collision of the clouds, and lightning by the rubbing together of
the clouds." We dare not go so far as to suggest that this
implies an association in the mind of Anaxagoras between the
friction of the clouds and the observed electrical effects
generated by the friction of such a substance as amber. To make
such a suggestion doubtless would be to fall victim to the old
familiar propensity to read into Homer things that Homer never
knew. Yet the significant fact remains that Anaxagoras ascribed
to thunder and to lightning their true position as strictly
natural phenomena. For him it was no god that menaced humanity
with thundering voice and the flash of his divine fires from the
clouds. Little wonder that the thinker whose science carried him
to such scepticism as this should have felt the wrath of the
superstitious Athenians.


Biological Speculations

Passing from the phenomena of the air to those of the earth
itself, we learn that Anaxagoras explained an earthquake as being
produced by the returning of air into the earth. We cannot be
sure as to the exact meaning here, though the idea that gases are
imprisoned in the substance of the earth seems not far afield.
But a far more remarkable insight than this would imply was shown
by Anaxagoras when he asserted that a certain amount of air is
contained in water, and that fishes breathe this air. The passage
of Aristotle in which this opinion is ascribed to Anaxagoras is
of sufficient interest to be quoted at length:

"Democritus, of Abdera," says Aristotle, "and some others, that
have spoken concerning respiration, have determined nothing
concerning other animals, but seem to have supposed that all
animals respire. But Anaxagoras and Diogenes (Apolloniates), who
say that all animals respire, have also endeavored to explain how
fishes, and all those animals that have a hard, rough shell, such
as oysters, mussels, etc., respire. And Anaxagoras, indeed, says
that fishes, when they emit water through their gills, attract
air from the mouth to the vacuum in the viscera from the water
which surrounds the mouth; as if air was inherent in the
water."[2]

It should be recalled that of the three philosophers thus
mentioned as contending that all animals respire, Anaxagoras was
the elder; he, therefore, was presumably the originator of the
idea. It will be observed, too, that Anaxagoras alone is held
responsible for the idea that fishes respire air through their
gills, "attracting" it from the water. This certainly was one of
the shrewdest physiological guesses of any age, if it be regarded
as a mere guess. With greater justice we might refer to it as a
profound deduction from the principle of the uniformity of
nature.

In making such a deduction, Anaxagoras was far in advance of his
time as illustrated by the fact that Aristotle makes the citation
we have just quoted merely to add that "such things are
impossible," and to refute these "impossible" ideas by means of
metaphysical reasonings that seemed demonstrative not merely to
himself, but to many generations of his followers.

We are told that Anaxagoras alleged that all animals were
originally generated out of moisture, heat, and earth particles.
Just what opinion he held concerning man's development we are not
informed. Yet there is one of his phrases which
suggests--without, perhaps, quite proving--that he was an
evolutionist. This phrase asserts, with insight that is fairly
startling, that man is the most intelligent of animals because he
has hands. The man who could make that assertion must, it would
seem, have had in mind the idea of the development of
intelligence through the use of hands-- an idea the full force of
which was not evident to subsequent generations of thinkers until
the time of Darwin.


Physical Speculations

Anaxagoras is cited by Aristotle as believing that "plants are
animals and feel pleasure and pain, inferring this because they
shed their leaves and let them grow again." The idea is fanciful,
yet it suggests again a truly philosophical conception of the
unity of nature. The man who could conceive that idea was but
little hampered by traditional conceptions. He was exercising a
rare combination of the rigidly scientific spirit with the
poetical imagination. He who possesses these gifts is sure not to
stop in his questionings of nature until he has found some
thinkable explanation of the character of matter itself.
Anaxagoras found such an explanation, and, as good luck would
have it, that explanation has been preserved. Let us examine his
reasoning in some detail. We have already referred to the claim
alleged to have been made by Anaxagoras that snow is not really
white, but black. The philosopher explained his paradox, we are
told, by asserting that snow is really water, and that water is
dark, when viewed under proper conditions--as at the bottom of a
well. That idea contains the germ of the Clazomenaean
philosopher's conception of the nature of matter. Indeed, it is
not unlikely that this theory of matter grew out of his
observation of the changing forms of water. He seems clearly to
have grasped the idea that snow on the one hand, and vapor on the
other, are of the same intimate substance as the water from which
they are derived and into which they may be again transformed.
The fact that steam and snow can be changed back into water, and
by simple manipulation cannot be changed into any other
substance, finds, as we now believe, its true explanation in the
fact that the molecular structure, as we phrase it--that is to
say, the ultimate particle of which water is composed, is not
changed, and this is precisely the explanation which Anaxagoras
gave of the same phenomena. For him the unit particle of water
constituted an elementary body, uncreated, unchangeable,
indestructible. This particle, in association with like
particles, constitutes the substance which we call water. The
same particle in association with particles unlike itself, might
produce totally different substances--as, for example, when water
is taken up by the roots of a plant and becomes, seemingly, a
part of the substance of the plant. But whatever the changed
association, so Anaxagoras reasoned, the ultimate particle of
water remains a particle of water still. And what was true of
water was true also, so he conceived, of every other substance.
Gold, silver, iron, earth, and the various vegetables and animal
tissues--in short, each and every one of all the different
substances with which experience makes us familiar, is made up of
unit particles which maintain their integrity in whatever
combination they may be associated. This implies, obviously, a
multitude of primordial particles, each one having an
individuality of its own; each one, like the particle of water
already cited, uncreated, unchangeable, and indestructible.

Fortunately, we have the philosopher's own words to guide us as
to his speculations here. The fragments of his writings that have
come down to us (chiefly through the quotations of Simplicius)
deal almost exclusively with these ultimate conceptions of his
imagination. In ascribing to him, then, this conception of
diverse, uncreated, primordial elements, which can never be
changed, but can only be mixed together to form substances of the
material world, we are not reading back post-Daltonian knowledge
into the system of Anaxagoras. Here are his words: "The Greeks do
not rightly use the terms 'coming into being' and 'perishing.'
For nothing comes into being, nor, yet, does anything perish; but
there is mixture and separation of things that are. So they would
do right in calling 'coming into being' 'mixture' and 'perishing'
'separation.' For how could hair come from what is not hair? Or
flesh from what is not flesh?"

Elsewhere he tells us that (at one stage of the world's
development) "the dense, the moist, the cold, the dark, collected
there where now is earth; the rare, the warm, the dry, the
bright, departed towards the further part of the aether. The
earth is condensed out of these things that are separated, for
water is separated from the clouds, and earth from the water; and
from the earth stones are condensed by the cold, and these are
separated farther from the water." Here again the influence of
heat and cold in determining physical qualities is kept
pre-eminently in mind. The dense, the moist, the cold, the dark
are contrasted with the rare, the warm, the dry, and bright; and
the formation of stones is spoken of as a specific condensation
due to the influence of cold. Here, then, we have nearly all the
elements of the Daltonian theory of atoms on the one hand, and
the nebular hypothesis of Laplace on the other. But this is not
quite all. In addition to such diverse elementary particles as
those of gold, water, and the rest, Anaxagoras conceived a
species of particles differing from all the others, not merely as
they differ from one another, but constituting a class by
themselves; particles infinitely smaller than the others;
particles that are described as infinite, self-powerful, mixed
with nothing, but existing alone. That is to say (interpreting
the theory in the only way that seems plausible), these most
minute particles do not mix with the other primordial particles
to form material substances in the same way in which these mixed
with one another. But, on the other hand, these "infinite,
self-powerful, and unmixed" particles commingle everywhere and in
every substance whatever with the mixed particles that go to make
up the substances.

There is a distinction here, it will be observed, which at once
suggests the modern distinction between physical processes and
chemical processes, or, putting it otherwise, between molecular
processes and atomic processes; but the reader must be guarded
against supposing that Anaxagoras had any such thought as this in
mind. His ultimate mixable particles can be compared only with
the Daltonian atom, not with the molecule of the modern
physicist, and his "infinite, self- powerful, and unmixable"
particles are not comparable with anything but the ether of the
modern physicist, with which hypothetical substance they have
many points of resemblance. But the "infinite, self- powerful,
and unmixed" particles constituting thus an ether-like plenum
which permeates all material structures, have also, in the mind
of Anaxagoras, a function which carries them perhaps a stage
beyond the province of the modern ether. For these "infinite,
self powerful, and unmixed" particles are imbued with, and,
indeed, themselves constitute, what Anaxagoras terms nous, a word
which the modern translator has usually paraphrased as "mind."
Neither that word nor any other available one probably conveys an
accurate idea of what Anaxagoras meant to imply by the word nous.
For him the word meant not merely "mind" in the sense of
receptive and comprehending intelligence, but directive and
creative intelligence as well. Again let Anaxagoras speak for
himself: "Other things include a portion of everything, but nous
is infinite, and self-powerful, and mixed with nothing, but it
exists alone, itself by itself. For if it were not by itself, but
were mixed with anything else, it would include parts of all
things, if it were mixed with anything; for a portion of
everything exists in every thing, as has been said by me before,
and things mingled with it would prevent it from having power
over anything in the same way that it does now that it is alone
by itself. For it is the most rarefied of all things and the
purest, and it has all knowledge in regard to everything and the
greatest power; over all that has life, both greater and less,
nous rules. And nous ruled the rotation of the whole, so that it
set it in rotation in the beginning. First it began the rotation
from a small beginning, then more and more was included in the
motion, and yet more will be included. Both the mixed and the
separated and distinct, all things nous recognized. And whatever
things were to be, and whatever things were, as many as are now,
and whatever things shall be, all these nous arranged in order;
and it arranged that rotation, according to which now rotate
stars and sun and moon and air and aether, now that they are
separated. Rotation itself caused the separation, and the dense
is separated from the rare, the warm from the cold, the bright
from the dark, the dry from the moist. And when nous began to set
things in motion, there was separation from everything that was
in motion, all this was made distinct. The rotation of the things
that were moved and made distinct caused them to be yet more
distinct."[3]

Nous, then, as Anaxagoras conceives it, is "the most rarefied of
all things, and the purest, and it has knowledge in regard to
everything and the greatest power; over all that has life, both
greater and less, it rules." But these are postulants of
omnipresence and omniscience. In other words, nous is nothing
less than the omnipotent artificer of the material universe. It
lacks nothing of the power of deity, save only that we are not
assured that it created the primordial particles. The creation of
these particles was a conception that for Anaxagoras, as for the
modern Spencer, lay beyond the range of imagination. Nous is the
artificer, working with "uncreated" particles. Back of nous and
the particles lies, for an Anaxagoras as for a Spencer, the
Unknowable. But nous itself is the equivalent of that universal
energy of motion which science recognizes as operating between
the particles of matter, and which the theologist personifies as
Deity. It is Pantheistic deity as Anaxagoras conceives it; his
may be called the first scientific conception of a non-
anthropomorphic god. In elaborating this conception Anaxagoras
proved himself one of the most remarkable scientific dreamers of
antiquity. To have substituted for the Greek Pantheon of
anthropomorphic deities the conception of a non-anthropomorphic
immaterial and ethereal entity, of all things in the world "the
most rarefied and the purest," is to have performed a feat which,
considering the age and the environment in which it was
accomplished, staggers the imagination. As a strictly scientific
accomplishment the great thinker's conception of primordial
elements contained a germ of the truth which was to lie dormant
for 2200 years, but which then, as modified and vitalized by the
genius of Dalton, was to dominate the new chemical science of the
nineteenth century. If there are intimations that the primordial
element of Anaxagoras and of Dalton may turn out in the near
future to be itself a compound, there will still remain the yet
finer particles of the nous of Anaxagoras to baffle the most
subtle analysis of which to-day's science gives us any
pre-vision. All in all, then, the work of Anaxagoras must stand
as that of perhaps the most far-seeing scientific imagination of
pre-Socratic antiquity.


LEUCIPPUS AND DEMOCRITUS

But we must not leave this alluring field of speculation as to
the nature of matter without referring to another scientific
guess, which soon followed that of Anaxagoras and was destined to
gain even wider fame, and which in modern times has been somewhat
unjustly held to eclipse the glory of the other achievement. We
mean, of course, the atomic theory of Leucippus and Democritus.
This theory reduced all matter to primordial elements, called
atoms  because they are by hypothesis incapable of
further division. These atoms, making up the entire material
universe, are in this theory conceived as qualitatively
identical, differing from one another only in size and perhaps in
shape. The union of different-sized atoms in endless combinations
produces the diverse substances with which our senses make us
familiar.

Before we pass to a consideration of this alluring theory, and
particularly to a comparison of it with the theory of Anaxagoras,
we must catch a glimpse of the personality of the men to whom the
theory owes its origin. One of these, Leucippus, presents so
uncertain a figure as to be almost mythical. Indeed, it was long
questioned whether such a man had actually lived, or whether be
were not really an invention of his alleged disciple, Democritus.
Latterday scholarship, however, accepts him as a real personage,
though knowing scarcely more of him than that he was the author
of the famous theory with which his name was associated. It is
suggested that he was a wanderer, like most philosophers of his
time, and that later in life he came to Abdera, in Thrace, and
through this circumstance became the teacher of Democritus. This
fable answers as well as another. What we really know is that
Democritus himself, through whose writings and teachings the
atomic theory gained vogue, was born in Abdera, about the year
460 B.C.--that is to say, just about the time when his great
precursor, Anaxagoras, was migrating to Athens. Democritus, like
most others of the early Greek thinkers, lives in tradition as a
picturesque figure. It is vaguely reported that he travelled for
a time, perhaps in the East and in Egypt, and that then he
settled down to spend the remainder of his life in Abdera.
Whether or not he visited Athens in the course of his wanderings
we do not know. At Abdera he was revered as a sage, but his
influence upon the practical civilization of the time was not
marked. He was pre-eminently a dreamer and a writer. Like his
confreres of the epoch, he entered all fields of thought. He
wrote voluminously, but, unfortunately, his writings have, for
the most part, perished. The fables and traditions of a later day
asserted that Democritus had voluntarily put out his own eyes
that he might turn his thoughts inward with more concentration.
Doubtless this is fiction, yet, as usual with such fictions, it
contains a germ of truth; for we may well suppose that the
promulgator of the atomic theory was a man whose mind was
attracted by the subtleties of thought rather than by the
tangibilities of observation. Yet the term "laughing
philosopher," which seems to have been universally applied to
Democritus, suggests a mind not altogether withdrawn from the
world of practicalities.

So much for Democritus the man. Let us return now to his theory
of atoms. This theory, it must be confessed, made no very great
impression upon his contemporaries. It found an expositor, a
little later, in the philosopher Epicurus, and later still the
poet Lucretius gave it popular expression. But it seemed scarcely
more than the dream of a philosopher or the vagary of a poet
until the day when modern science began to penetrate the
mysteries of matter. When, finally, the researches of Dalton and
his followers had placed the atomic theory on a surer footing as
the foundation of modern chemistry, the ideas of the old laughing
philosopher of Abdera, which all along had been half derisively
remembered, were recalled with a new interest. Now it appeared
that these ideas had curiously foreshadowed nineteenth-century
knowledge. It appeared that away back in the fifth century B.C. a
man had dreamed out a conception of the ultimate nature of matter
which had waited all these centuries for corroboration. And now
the historians of philosophy became more than anxious to do
justice to the memory of Democritus.

It is possible that this effort at poetical restitution has
carried the enthusiast too far. There is, indeed, a curious
suggestiveness in the theory of Democritus; there is
philosophical allurement in his reduction of all matter to a
single element; it contains, it may be, not merely a germ of the
science of the nineteenth-century chemistry, but perhaps the
germs also of the yet undeveloped chemistry of the twentieth
century. Yet we dare suggest that in their enthusiasm for the
atomic theory of Democritus the historians of our generation have
done something less than justice to that philosopher's precursor,
Anaxagoras. And one suspects that the mere accident of a name has
been instrumental in producing this result. Democritus called his
primordial element an atom; Anaxagoras, too, conceived a
primordial element, but he called it merely a seed or thing; he
failed to christen it distinctively. Modern science adopted the
word atom and gave it universal vogue. It owed a debt of
gratitude to Democritus for supplying it the word, but it
somewhat overpaid the debt in too closely linking the new meaning
of the word with its old original one. For, let it be clearly
understood, the Daltonian atom is not precisely comparable with
the atom of Democritus. The atom, as Democritus conceived it, was
monistic; all atoms, according to this hypothesis, are of the
same substance; one atom differs from another merely in size and
shape, but not at all in quality. But the Daltonian hypothesis
conceived, and nearly all the experimental efforts of the
nineteenth century seemed to prove, that there are numerous
classes of atoms, each differing in its very essence from the
others.

As the case stands to-day the chemist deals with seventy-odd
substances, which he calls elements. Each one of these substances
is, as he conceives it, made up of elementary atoms having a
unique personality, each differing in quality from all the
others. As far as experiment has thus far safely carried us, the
atom of gold is a primordial element which remains an atom of
gold and nothing else, no matter with what other atoms it is
associated. So, too, of the atom of silver, or zinc, or
sodium--in short, of each and every one of the seventy-odd
elements. There are, indeed, as we shall see, experiments that
suggest the dissolution of the atom--that suggest, in short, that
the Daltonian atom is misnamed, being a structure that may, under
certain conditions, be broken asunder. But these experiments
have, as yet, the warrant rather of philosophy than of pure
science, and to-day we demand that the philosophy of science
shall be the handmaid of experiment.

When experiment shall have demonstrated that the Daltonian atom
is a compound, and that in truth there is but a single true atom,
which, combining with its fellows perhaps in varying numbers and
in different special relations, produces the Daltonian atoms,
then the philosophical theory of monism will have the
experimental warrant which to-day it lacks; then we shall be a
step nearer to the atom of Democritus in one direction, a step
farther away in the other. We shall be nearer, in that the
conception of Democritus was, in a sense, monistic; farther away,
in that all the atoms of Democritus, large and small alike, were
considered as permanently fixed in size. Democritus postulated
all his atoms as of the same substance, differing not at all in
quality; yet he was obliged to conceive that the varying size of
the atoms gave to them varying functions which amounted to
qualitative differences. He might claim for his largest atom the
same quality of substance as for his smallest, but so long as he
conceived that the large atoms, when adjusted together to form a
tangible substance, formed a substance different in quality from
the substance which the small atoms would make up when similarly
grouped, this concession amounts to the predication of difference
of quality between the atoms themselves. The entire question
reduces itself virtually to a quibble over the word quality, So
long as one atom conceived to be primordial and indivisible is
conceded to be of such a nature as necessarily to produce a
different impression on our senses, when grouped with its
fellows, from the impression produced by other atoms when
similarly grouped, such primordial atoms do differ among
themselves in precisely the same way for all practical purposes
as do the primordial elements of Anaxagoras.

The monistic conception towards which twentieth- century
chemistry seems to be carrying us may perhaps show that all the
so-called atoms are compounded of a single element. All the true
atoms making up that element may then properly be said to have
the same quality, but none the less will it remain true that the
combinations of that element that go to make up the different
Daltonian atoms differ from one another in quality in precisely
the same sense in which such tangible substances as gold, and
oxygen, and mercury, and diamonds differ from one another. In the
last analysis of the monistic philosophy, there is but one
substance and one quality in the universe. In the widest view of
that philosophy, gold and oxygen and mercury and diamonds are one
substance, and, if you please, one quality. But such refinements
of analysis as this are for the transcendental philosopher, and
not for the scientist. Whatever the allurement of such reasoning,
we must for the purpose of science let words have a specific
meaning, nor must we let a mere word-jugglery blind us to the
evidence of facts. That was the rock on which Greek science
foundered; it is the rock which the modern helmsman sometimes
finds it difficult to avoid. And if we mistake not, this case of
the atom of Democritus is precisely a case in point. Because
Democritus said that his atoms did not differ in quality, the
modern philosopher has seen in his theory the essentials of
monism; has discovered in it not merely a forecast of the
chemistry of the nineteenth century, but a forecast of the
hypothetical chemistry of the future. And, on the other hand,
because Anaxagoras predicted a different quality for his
primordial elements, the philosopher of our day has discredited
the primordial element of Anaxagoras.

Yet if our analysis does not lead us astray, the theory of
Democritus was not truly monistic; his indestructible atoms,
differing from one another in size and shape, utterly incapable
of being changed from the form which they had maintained from the
beginning, were in reality as truly and primordially different as
are the primordial elements of Anaxagoras. In other words, the
atom of Democritus is nothing less than the primordial seed of
Anaxagoras, a little more tangibly visualized and given a
distinctive name. Anaxagoras explicitly conceived his elements as
invisibly small, as infinite in number, and as made up of an
indefinite number of kinds--one for each distinctive substance in
the world. But precisely the same postulates are made of the atom
of Democritus. These also are invisibly small; these also are
infinite in number; these also are made up of an indefinite
number of kinds, corresponding with the observed difference of
substances in the world. "Primitive seeds," or "atoms," were
alike conceived to be primordial, un- changeable, and
indestructible. Wherein then lies the difference? We answer,
chiefly in a name; almost solely in the fact that Anaxagoras did
not attempt to postulate the physical properties of the elements
beyond stating that each has a distinctive personality, while
Democritus did attempt to postulate these properties. He, too,
admitted that each kind of element has its distinctive
personality, and he attempted to visualize and describe the
characteristics of the personality.

Thus while Anaxagoras tells us nothing of his elements except
that they differ from one another, Democritus postulates a
difference in size, imagines some elements as heavier and some as
lighter, and conceives even that the elements may be provided
with projecting hooks, with the aid of which they link themselves
one with another. No one to-day takes these crude visualizings
seriously as to their details. The sole element of truth which
these dreamings contain, as distinguishing them from the
dreamings of Anaxagoras, is in the conception that the various
atoms differ in size and weight. Here, indeed, is a vague
fore-shadowing of that chemistry of form which began to come into
prominence towards the close of the nineteenth century. To have
forecast even dimly this newest phase of chemical knowledge,
across the abyss of centuries, is indeed a feat to put Democritus
in the front rank of thinkers. But this estimate should not blind
us to the fact that the pre-vision of Democritus was but a slight
elaboration of a theory which had its origin with another
thinker. The association between Anaxagoras and Democritus cannot
be directly traced, but it is an association which the historian
of ideas should never for a moment forget. If we are not to be
misled by mere word-jugglery, we shall recognize the founder of
the atomic theory of matter in Anaxagoras; its expositors along
slightly different lines in Leucippus and Democritus; its
re-discoverer of the nineteenth century in Dalton. All in all,
then, just as Anaxagoras preceded Democritus in time, so must he
take precedence over him also as an inductive thinker, who
carried the use of the scientific imagination to its farthest
reach.

An analysis of the theories of the two men leads to somewhat the
same conclusion that might be reached from a comparison of their
lives. Anaxagoras was a sceptical, experimental scientist, gifted
also with the prophetic imagination. He reasoned always from the
particular to the general, after the manner of true induction,
and he scarcely took a step beyond the confines of secure
induction. True scientist that he was, he could content himself
with postulating different qualities for his elements, without
pretending to know how these qualities could be defined. His
elements were by hypothesis invisible, hence he would not attempt
to visualize them. Democritus, on the other hand, refused to
recognize this barrier. Where he could not know, he still did not
hesitate to guess. Just as he conceived his atom of a definite
form with a definite structure, even so he conceived that the
atmosphere about him was full of invisible spirits; he accepted
the current superstitions of his time. Like the average Greeks of
his day, he even believed in such omens as those furnished by
inspecting the entrails of a fowl. These chance bits of biography
are weather- vanes of the mind of Democritus. They tend to
substantiate our conviction that Democritus must rank below
Anaxagoras as a devotee of pure science. But, after all, such
comparisons and estimates as this are utterly futile. The
essential fact for us is that here, in the fifth century before
our era, we find put forward the most penetrating guess as to the
constitution of matter that the history of ancient thought has to
present to us. In one direction, the avenue of progress is
barred; there will be no farther step that way till we come down
the centuries to the time of Dalton.


HIPPOCRATES AND GREEK MEDICINE

These studies of the constitution of matter have carried us to
the limits of the field of scientific imagination in antiquity;
let us now turn sharply and consider a department of science in
which theory joins hands with practicality. Let us witness the
beginnings of scientific therapeutics.

Medicine among the early Greeks, before the time of Hippocrates,
was a crude mixture of religion, necromancy, and mysticism.
Temples were erected to the god of medicine, aesculapius, and
sick persons made their way, or were carried, to these temples,
where they sought to gain the favor of the god by suitable
offerings, and learn the way to regain their health through
remedies or methods revealed to them in dreams by the god. When
the patient had been thus cured, he placed a tablet in the temple
describing his sickness, and telling by what method the god had
cured him. He again made suitable offerings at the temple, which
were sometimes in the form of gold or silver representations of
the diseased organ--a gold or silver model of a heart, hand,
foot, etc.

Nevertheless, despite this belief in the supernatural, many drugs
and healing lotions were employed, and the Greek physicians
possessed considerable skill in dressing wounds and bandaging.
But they did not depend upon these surgical dressings alone,
using with them certain appropriate prayers and incantations,
recited over the injured member at the time of applying the
dressings.

Even the very early Greeks had learned something of anatomy. The
daily contact with wounds and broken bones must of necessity lead
to a crude understanding of anatomy in general. The first Greek
anatomist, however, who is recognized as such, is said to have
been Alcmaeon. He is said to have made extensive dissections of
the lower animals, and to have described many hitherto unknown
structures, such as the optic nerve and the Eustachian canal--the
small tube leading into the throat from the ear. He is credited
with many unique explanations of natural phenomena, such as, for
example, the explanation that "hearing is produced by the hollow
bone behind the ear; for all hollow things are sonorous." He was
a rationalist, and he taught that the brain is the organ of mind.
The sources of our information about his work, however, are
unreliable.

Democedes, who lived in the sixth century B.C., is the first
physician of whom we have any trustworthy history. We learn from
Herodotus that he came from Croton to aegina, where, in
recognition of his skill, he was appointed medical officer of the
city. From aegina he was called to Athens at an increased salary,
and later was in charge of medical affairs in several other Greek
cities. He was finally called to Samos by the tyrant Polycrates,
who reigned there from about 536 to 522 B.C. But on the death of
Polycrates, who was murdered by the Persians, Democedes became a
slave. His fame as a physician, however, had reached the ears of
the Persian monarch, and shortly after his capture he was
permitted to show his skill upon King Darius himself. The Persian
monarch was suffering from a sprained ankle, which his Egyptian
surgeons had been unable to cure. Democedes not only cured the
injured member but used his influence in saving the lives of his
Egyptian rivals, who had been condemned to death by the king.

At another time he showed his skill by curing the queen, who was
suffering from a chronic abscess of long standing. This so
pleased the monarch that he offered him as a reward anything he
might desire, except his liberty. But the costly gifts of Darius
did not satisfy him so long as he remained a slave; and
determined to secure his freedom at any cost, he volunteered to
lead some Persian spies into his native country, promising to use
his influence in converting some of the leading men of his nation
to the Persian cause. Laden with the wealth that had been heaped
upon him by Darius, he set forth upon his mission, but upon
reaching his native city of Croton he threw off his mask,
renounced his Persian mission, and became once more a free Greek.

While the story of Democedes throws little light upon the medical
practices of the time, it shows that paid city medical officers
existed in Greece as early as the fifth and sixth centuries B.C.
Even then there were different "schools" of medicine, whose
disciples disagreed radically in their methods of treating
diseases; and there were also specialists in certain diseases,
quacks, and charlatans. Some physicians depended entirely upon
external lotions for healing all disorders; others were
"hydrotherapeutists" or "bath- physicians"; while there were a
host of physicians who administered a great variety of herbs and
drugs. There were also magicians who pretended to heal by
sorcery, and great numbers of bone-setters, oculists, and
dentists.

Many of the wealthy physicians had hospitals, or clinics, where
patients were operated upon and treated. They were not hospitals
in our modern understanding of the term, but were more like
dispensaries, where patients were treated temporarily, but were
not allowed to remain for any length of time. Certain communities
established and supported these dispensaries for the care of the
poor.

But anything approaching a rational system of medicine was not
established, until Hippocrates of Cos, the "father of medicine,"
came upon the scene. In an age that produced Phidias, Lysias,
Herodotus, Sophocles, and Pericles, it seems but natural that the
medical art should find an exponent who would rise above
superstitious dogmas and lay the foundation for a medical
science. His rejection of the supernatural alone stamps the
greatness of his genius. But, besides this, he introduced more
detailed observation of diseases, and demonstrated the importance
that attaches to prognosis.

Hippocrates was born at Cos, about 460 B.C., but spent most of
his life at Larissa, in Thessaly. He was educated as a physician
by his father, and travelled extensively as an itinerant
practitioner for several years. His travels in different climates
and among many different people undoubtedly tended to sharpen his
keen sense of observation. He was a practical physician as well
as a theorist, and, withal, a clear and concise writer. "Life is
short," he says, "opportunity fleeting, judgment difficult,
treatment easy, but treatment after thought is proper and
profitable."

His knowledge of anatomy was necessarily very imperfect, and was
gained largely from his predecessors, to whom he gave full
credit. Dissections of the human body were forbidden him, and he
was obliged to confine his experimental researches to operations
on the lower animals. His knowledge of the structure and
arrangement of the bones, however, was fairly accurate, but the
anatomy of the softer tissues, as he conceived it, was a queer
jumbling together of blood-vessels, muscles, and tendons. He does
refer to "nerves," to be sure, but apparently the structures
referred to are the tendons and ligaments, rather than the nerves
themselves. He was better acquainted with the principal organs in
the cavities of the body, and knew, for example, that the heart
is divided into four cavities, two of which he supposed to
contain blood, and the other two air.

His most revolutionary step was his divorcing of the supernatural
from the natural, and establishing the fact that disease is due
to natural causes and should be treated accordingly. The effect
of such an attitude can hardly be over-estimated. The
establishment of such a theory was naturally followed by a close
observation as to the course of diseases and the effects of
treatment. To facilitate this, he introduced the custom of
writing down his observations as he made them--the "clinical
history" of the case. Such clinical records are in use all over
the world to-day, and their importance is so obvious that it is
almost incomprehensible that they should have fallen into disuse
shortly after the time of Hippocrates, and not brought into
general use again until almost two thousand years later.

But scarcely less important than his recognition of disease as a
natural phenomenon was the importance he attributed to prognosis.
Prognosis, in the sense of prophecy, was common before the time
of Hippocrates. But prognosis, as he practised it and as we
understand it to-day, is prophecy based on careful observation of
the course of diseases--something more than superstitious
conjecture.

Although Hippocratic medicine rested on the belief in natural
causes, nevertheless, dogma and theory held an important place.
The humoral theory of disease was an all-important one, and so
fully was this theory accepted that it influenced the science of
medicine all through succeeding centuries. According to this
celebrated theory there are four humors in the body-- blood,
phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. When these humors are mixed
in exact proportions they constitute health; but any deviations
from these proportions produce disease. In treating diseases the
aim of the physician was to discover which of these humors were
out of proportion and to restore them to their natural
equilibrium. It was in the methods employed in this restitution,
rather than a disagreement about the humors themselves, that
resulted in the various "schools" of medicine.

In many ways the surgery of Hippocrates showed a better
understanding of the structure of the organs than of their
functions. Some of the surgical procedures as described by him
are followed, with slight modifications, to-day. Many of his
methods were entirely lost sight of until modern times, and one,
the treatment of dislocation of the outer end of the collar-bone,
was not revived until some time in the eighteenth century.

Hippocrates, it seems, like modern physicians, sometimes suffered
from the ingratitude of his patients. "The physician visits a
patient suffering from fever or a wound, and prescribes for him,"
he says; "on the next day, if the patient feels worse the blame
is laid upon the physician; if, on the other hand, he feels
better, nature is extolled, and the physician reaps no praise."
The essence of this has been repeated in rhyme and prose by
writers in every age and country, but the "father of medicine"
cautions physicians against allowing it to influence their
attitude towards their profession.



VIII. POST-SOCRATIC SCIENCE AT ATHENS--PLATO, ARISTOTLE, AND
THEOPHRASTUS

Doubtless it has been noticed that our earlier scientists were as
far removed as possible from the limitations of specialism. In
point of fact, in this early day, knowledge had not been
classified as it came to be later on. The philosopher was, as his
name implied, a lover of knowledge, and he did not find it beyond
the reach of his capacity to apply himself to all departments of
the field of human investigation. It is nothing strange to
discover that Anaximander and the Pythagoreans and Anaxagoras
have propounded theories regarding the structure of the cosmos,
the origin and development of animals and man, and the nature of
matter itself. Nowadays, so enormously involved has become the
mass of mere facts regarding each of these departments of
knowledge that no one man has the temerity to attempt to master
them all. But it was different in those days of beginnings. Then
the methods of observation were still crude, and it was quite the
custom for a thinker of forceful personality to find an eager
following among disciples who never thought of putting his
theories to the test of experiment. The great lesson that true
science in the last resort depends upon observation and
measurement, upon compass and balance, had not yet been learned,
though here and there a thinker like Anaxagoras had gained an
inkling of it.

For the moment, indeed, there in Attica, which was now, thanks to
that outburst of Periclean culture, the centre of the world's
civilization, the trend of thought was to take quite another
direction. The very year which saw the birth of Democritus at
Abdera, and of Hippocrates, marked also the birth, at Athens, of
another remarkable man, whose influence it would scarcely be
possible to over-estimate. This man was Socrates. The main facts
of his history are familiar to every one. It will be recalled
that Socrates spent his entire life in Athens, mingling
everywhere with the populace; haranguing, so the tradition goes,
every one who would listen; inculcating moral lessons, and
finally incurring the disapprobation of at least a voting
majority of his fellow-citizens. He gathered about him a company
of remarkable men with Plato at their head, but this could not
save him from the disapprobation of the multitudes, at whose
hands he suffered death, legally administered after a public
trial. The facts at command as to certain customs of the Greeks
at this period make it possible to raise a question as to whether
the alleged "corruption of youth," with which Socrates was
charged, may not have had a different implication from what
posterity has preferred to ascribe to it. But this thought,
almost shocking to the modern mind and seeming altogether
sacrilegious to most students of Greek philosophy, need not here
detain us; neither have we much concern in the present connection
with any part of the teaching of the martyred philosopher. For
the historian of metaphysics, Socrates marks an epoch, but for
the historian of science he is a much less consequential figure.

Similarly regarding Plato, the aristocratic Athenian who sat at
the feet of Socrates, and through whose writings the teachings of
the master found widest currency. Some students of philosophy
find in Plato "the greatest thinker and writer of all time."[1]
The student of science must recognize in him a thinker whose
point of view was essentially non-scientific; one who tended
always to reason from the general to the particular rather than
from the particular to the general. Plato's writings covered
almost the entire field of thought, and his ideas were presented
with such literary charm that successive generations of readers
turned to them with unflagging interest, and gave them wide
currency through copies that finally preserved them to our own
time. Thus we are not obliged in his case, as we are in the case
of every other Greek philosopher, to estimate his teachings
largely from hearsay evidence. Plato himself speaks to us
directly. It is true, the literary form which he always adopted,
namely, the dialogue, does not give quite the same certainty as
to when he is expressing his own opinions that a more direct
narrative would have given; yet, in the main, there is little
doubt as to the tenor of his own opinions--except, indeed, such
doubt as always attaches to the philosophical reasoning of the
abstract thinker.

What is chiefly significant from our present standpoint is that
the great ethical teacher had no significant message to give the
world regarding the physical sciences. He apparently had no
sharply defined opinions as to the mechanism of the universe; no
clear conception as to the origin or development of organic
beings; no tangible ideas as to the problems of physics; no
favorite dreams as to the nature of matter. Virtually his back
was turned on this entire field of thought. He was under the sway
of those innate ideas which, as we have urged, were among the
earliest inductions of science. But he never for a moment
suspected such an origin for these ideas. He supposed his
conceptions of being, his standards of ethics, to lie back of all
experience; for him they were the most fundamental and most
dependable of facts. He criticised Anaxagoras for having tended
to deduce general laws from observation. As we moderns see it,
such criticism is the highest possible praise. It is a criticism
that marks the distinction between the scientist who is also a
philosopher and the philosopher who has but a vague notion of
physical science. Plato seemed, indeed, to realize the value of
scientific investigation; he referred to the astronomical studies
of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and spoke hopefully of the
results that might accrue were such studies to be taken up by
that Greek mind which, as he justly conceived, had the power to
vitalize and enrich all that it touched. But he told here of what
he would have others do, not of what he himself thought of doing.
His voice was prophetic, but it stimulated no worker of his own
time.

Plato himself had travelled widely. It is a familiar legend that
he lived for years in Egypt, endeavoring there to penetrate the
mysteries of Egyptian science. It is said even that the rudiments
of geometry which he acquired there influenced all his later
teachings. But be that as it may, the historian of science must
recognize in the founder of the Academy a moral teacher and
metaphysical dreamer and sociologist, but not, in the modern
acceptance of the term, a scientist. Those wider phases of
biological science which find their expression in metaphysics, in
ethics, in political economy, lie without our present scope; and
for the development of those subjects with which we are more
directly concerned, Plato, like his master, has a negative
significance.


ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)

When we pass to that third great Athenian teacher, Aristotle, the
case is far different. Here was a man whose name was to be
received as almost a synonym for Greek science for more than a
thousand years after his death. All through the Middle Ages his
writings were to be accepted as virtually the last word regarding
the problems of nature. We shall see that his followers actually
preferred his mandate to the testimony of their own senses. We
shall see, further, that modern science progressed somewhat in
proportion as it overthrew the Aristotelian dogmas. But the
traditions of seventeen or eighteen centuries are not easily set
aside, and it is perhaps not too much to say that the name of
Aristotle stands, even in our own time, as vaguely representative
in the popular mind of all that was highest and best in the
science of antiquity. Yet, perhaps, it would not be going too far
to assert that something like a reversal of this judgment would
be nearer the truth. Aristotle did, indeed, bring together a
great mass of facts regarding animals in his work on natural
history, which, being preserved, has been deemed to entitle its
author to be called the "father of zoology." But there is no
reason to suppose that any considerable portion of this work
contained matter that was novel, or recorded observations that
were original with Aristotle; and the classifications there
outlined are at best but a vague foreshadowing of the elaboration
of the science. Such as it is, however, the natural history
stands to the credit of the Stagirite. He must be credited, too,
with a clear enunciation of one most important scientific
doctrine--namely, the doctrine of the spherical figure of the
earth. We have already seen that this theory originated with the
Pythagorean philosophers out in Italy. We have seen, too, that
the doctrine had not made its way in Attica in the time of
Anaxagoras. But in the intervening century it had gained wide
currency, else so essentially conservative a thinker as Aristotle
would scarcely have accepted it. He did accept it, however, and
gave the doctrine clearest and most precise expression. Here are
his words:[2]


"As to the figure of the earth it must necessarily be
spherical.... If it were not so, the eclipses of the moon would
not have such sections as they have. For in the configurations in
the course of a month the deficient part takes all different
shapes; it is straight, and concave, and convex; but in eclipses
it always has the line of divisions convex; wherefore, since the
moon is eclipsed in consequence of the interposition of the
earth, the periphery of the earth must be the cause of this by
having a spherical form. And again, from the appearance of the
stars it is clear, not only that the earth is round, but that its
size is not very large; for when we make a small removal to the
south or the north, the circle of the horizon becomes palpably
different, so that the stars overhead undergo a great change, and
are not the same to those that travel in the north and to the
south. For some stars are seen in Egypt or at Cyprus, but are not
seen in the countries to the north of these; and the stars that
in the north are visible while they make a complete circuit,
there undergo a setting. So that from this it is manifest, not
only that the form of the earth is round, but also that it is a
part of a not very large sphere; for otherwise the difference
would not be so obvious to persons making so small a change of
place. Wherefore we may judge that those persons who connect the
region in the neighborhood of the pillars of Hercules with that
towards India, and who assert that in this way the sea is one, do
not assert things very improbable. They confirm this conjecture
moreover by the elephants, which are said to be of the same
species towards each extreme; as if this circumstance was a
consequence of the conjunction of the extremes. The
mathematicians who try to calculate the measure of the
circumference, make it amount to four hundred thousand stadia;
whence we collect that the earth is not only spherical, but is
not large compared with the magnitude of the other stars."

But in giving full meed of praise to Aristotle for the
promulgation of this doctrine of the sphericity of the earth, it
must unfortunately be added that the conservative philosopher
paused without taking one other important step. He could not
accept, but, on the contrary, he expressly repudiated, the
doctrine of the earth's motion. We have seen that this idea also
was a part of the Pythagorean doctrine, and we shall have
occasion to dwell more at length on this point in a succeeding
chapter. It has even been contended by some critics that it was
the adverse conviction of the Peripatetic philosopher which, more
than any other single influence, tended to retard the progress of
the true doctrine regarding the mechanism of the heavens.
Aristotle accepted the sphericity of the earth, and that doctrine
became a commonplace of scientific knowledge, and so continued
throughout classical antiquity. But Aristotle rejected the
doctrine of the earth's motion, and that doctrine, though
promulgated actively by a few contemporaries and immediate
successors of the Stagirite, was then doomed to sink out of view
for more than a thousand years. If it be a correct assumption
that the influence of Aristotle was, in a large measure,
responsible for this result, then we shall perhaps not be far
astray in assuming that the great founder of the Peripatetic
school was, on the whole, more instrumental in retarding the
progress of astronomical science that any other one man that ever
lived.

The field of science in which Aristotle was pre-eminently a
pathfinder is zoology. His writings on natural history have
largely been preserved, and they constitute by far the most
important contribution to the subject that has come down to us
from antiquity. They show us that Aristotle had gained possession
of the widest range of facts regarding the animal kingdom, and,
what is far more important, had attempted to classify these
facts. In so doing he became the founder of systematic zoology.
Aristotle's classification of the animal kingdom was known and
studied throughout the Middle Ages, and, in fact, remained in
vogue until superseded by that of Cuvier in the nineteenth
century. It is not to be supposed that all the terms of
Aristotle's classification originated with him. Some of the
divisions are too patent to have escaped the observation of his
predecessors. Thus, for example, the distinction between birds
and fishes as separate classes of animals is so obvious that it
must appeal to a child or to a savage. But the efforts of
Aristotle extended, as we shall see, to less patent
generalizations. At the very outset, his grand division of the
animal kingdom into blood-bearing and bloodless animals implies a
very broad and philosophical conception of the entire animal
kingdom. The modern physiologist does not accept the
classification, inasmuch as it is now known that colorless fluids
perform the functions of blood for all the lower organisms. But
the fact remains that Aristotle's grand divisions correspond to
the grand divisions of the Lamarckian system--vertebrates and
invertebrates-- which every one now accepts. Aristotle, as we
have said, based his classification upon observation of the
blood; Lamarck was guided by a study of the skeleton. The fact
that such diverse points of view could direct the observer
towards the same result gives, inferentially, a suggestive lesson
in what the modern physiologist calls the homologies of parts of
the organism.

Aristotle divides his so-called blood-bearing animals into five
classes: (1) Four-footed animals that bring forth their young
alive; (2) birds; (3) egg-laying four- footed animals (including
what modern naturalists call reptiles and amphibians); (4) whales
and their allies; (5) fishes. This classification, as will be
observed, is not so very far afield from the modern divisions
into mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes. That
Aristotle should have recognized the fundamental distinction
between fishes and the fish- like whales, dolphins, and porpoises
proves the far from superficial character of his studies.
Aristotle knew that these animals breathe by means of lungs and
that they produce living young. He recognized, therefore, their
affinity with his first class of animals, even if he did not,
like the modern naturalist, consider these affinities close
enough to justify bringing the two types together into a single
class.

The bloodless animals were also divided by Aristotle into five
classes--namely: (1) Cephalopoda (the octopus, cuttle-fish,
etc.); (2) weak-shelled animals (crabs, etc.); (3) insects and
their allies (including various forms, such as spiders and
centipedes, which the modern classifier prefers to place by
themselves); (4) hard-shelled animals (clams, oysters, snails,
etc.); (5) a conglomerate group of marine forms, including
star-fish, sea-urchins, and various anomalous forms that were
regarded as linking the animal to the vegetable worlds. This
classification of the lower forms of animal life continued in
vogue until Cuvier substituted for it his famous grouping into
articulates, mollusks, and radiates; which grouping in turn was
in part superseded later in the nineteenth century.

What Aristotle did for the animal kingdom his pupil,
Theophrastus, did in some measure for the vegetable kingdom.
Theophrastus, however, was much less a classifier than his
master, and his work on botany, called The Natural History of
Development, pays comparatively slight attention to theoretical
questions. It deals largely with such practicalities as the
making of charcoal, of pitch, and of resin, and the effects of
various plants on the animal organism when taken as foods or as
medicines. In this regard the work of Theophrastus, is more
nearly akin to the natural history of the famous Roman compiler,
Pliny. It remained, however, throughout antiquity as the most
important work on its subject, and it entitles Theophrastus to be
called the "father of botany." Theophrastus deals also with the
mineral kingdom after much the same fashion, and here again his
work is the most notable that was produced in antiquity.



IX. GREEK SCIENCE OF THE ALEXANDRIAN OR HELLENISTIC PERIOD

We are entering now upon the most important scientific epoch of
antiquity. When Aristotle and Theophrastus passed from the scene,
Athens ceased to be in any sense the scientific centre of the
world. That city still retained its reminiscent glory, and cannot
be ignored in the history of culture, but no great scientific
leader was ever again to be born or to take up his permanent
abode within the confines of Greece proper. With almost
cataclysmic suddenness, a new intellectual centre appeared on the
south shore of the Mediterranean. This was the city of
Alexandria, a city which Alexander the Great had founded during
his brief visit to Egypt, and which became the capital of Ptolemy
Soter when he chose Egypt as his portion of the dismembered
empire of the great Macedonian. Ptolemy had been with his master
in the East, and was with him in Babylonia when he died. He had
therefore come personally in contact with Babylonian
civilization, and we cannot doubt that this had a most important
influence upon his life, and through him upon the new
civilization of the West. In point of culture, Alexandria must be
regarded as the successor of Babylon, scarcely less directly than
of Greece. Following the Babylonian model, Ptolemy erected a
great museum and began collecting a library. Before his death it
was said that he had collected no fewer than two hundred thousand
manuscripts. He had gathered also a company of great teachers and
founded a school of science which, as has just been said, made
Alexandria the culture-centre of the world.

Athens in the day of her prime had known nothing quite like this.
Such private citizens as Aristotle are known to have had
libraries, but there were no great public collections of books in
Athens, or in any other part of the Greek domain, until Ptolemy
founded his famous library. As is well known, such libraries had
existed in Babylonia for thousands of years. The character which
the Ptolemaic epoch took on was no doubt due to Babylonian
influence, but quite as much to the personal experience of
Ptolemy himself as an explorer in the Far East. The marvellous
conquering journey of Alexander had enormously widened the
horizon of the Greek geographer, and stimulated the imagination
of all ranks of the people, It was but natural, then, that
geography and its parent science astronomy should occupy the
attention of the best minds in this succeeding epoch. In point of
fact, such a company of star-gazers and earth-measurers came upon
the scene in this third century B.C. as had never before existed
anywhere in the world. The whole trend of the time was towards
mechanics. It was as if the greatest thinkers had squarely faced
about from the attitude of the mystical philosophers of the
preceding century, and had set themselves the task of solving all
the mechanical riddles of the universe, They no longer troubled
themselves about problems of "being" and "becoming"; they gave
but little heed to metaphysical subtleties; they demanded that
their thoughts should be gauged by objective realities. Hence
there arose a succession of great geometers, and their
conceptions were applied to the construction of new mechanical
contrivances on the one hand, and to the elaboration of theories
of sidereal mechanics on the other.

The wonderful company of men who performed the feats that are
about to be recorded did not all find their home in Alexandria,
to be sure; but they all came more or less under the Alexandrian
influence. We shall see that there are two other important
centres; one out in Sicily, almost at the confines of the Greek
territory in the west; the other in Asia Minor, notably on the
island of Samos--the island which, it will be recalled, was at an
earlier day the birthplace of Pythagoras. But whereas in the
previous century colonists from the confines of the civilized
world came to Athens, now all eyes turned towards Alexandria, and
so improved were the facilities for communication that no doubt
the discoveries of one coterie of workers were known to all the
others much more quickly than had ever been possible before. We
learn, for example, that the studies of Aristarchus of Samos were
definitely known to Archimedes of Syracuse, out in Sicily.
Indeed, as we shall see, it is through a chance reference
preserved in one of the writings of Archimedes that one of the
most important speculations of Aristarchus is made known to us.
This illustrates sufficiently the intercommunication through
which the thought of the Alexandrian epoch was brought into a
single channel. We no longer, as in the day of the earlier
schools of Greek philosophy, have isolated groups of thinkers.
The scientific drama is now played out upon a single stage; and
if we pass, as we shall in the present chapter, from Alexandria
to Syracuse and from Syracuse to Samos, the shift of scenes does
no violence to the dramatic unities.

Notwithstanding the number of great workers who were not properly
Alexandrians, none the less the epoch is with propriety termed
Alexandrian. Not merely in the third century B.C., but throughout
the lapse of at least four succeeding centuries, the city of
Alexander and the Ptolemies continued to hold its place as the
undisputed culture-centre of the world. During that period Rome
rose to its pinnacle of glory and began to decline, without ever
challenging the intellectual supremacy of the Egyptian city. We
shall see, in a later chapter, that the Alexandrian influences
were passed on to the Mohammedan conquerors, and every one is
aware that when Alexandria was finally overthrown its place was
taken by another Greek city, Byzantium or Constantinople. But
that transfer did not occur until Alexandria had enjoyed a longer
period of supremacy as an intellectual centre than had perhaps
ever before been granted to any city, with the possible
exception of Babylon.


EUCLID (ABOUT 300 B.C.)

Our present concern is with that first wonderful development of
scientific activity which began under the first Ptolemy, and
which presents, in the course of the first century of Alexandrian
influence, the most remarkable coterie of scientific workers and
thinkers that antiquity produced. The earliest group of these new
leaders in science had at its head a man whose name has been a
household word ever since. This was Euclid, the father of
systematic geometry. Tradition has preserved to us but little of
the personality of this remarkable teacher; but, on the other
hand, his most important work has come down to us in its
entirety. The Elements of Geometry, with which the name of Euclid
is associated in the mind of every school-boy, presented the
chief propositions of its subject in so simple and logical a form
that the work remained a textbook everywhere for more than two
thousand years. Indeed it is only now beginning to be superseded.
It is not twenty years since English mathematicians could deplore
the fact that, despite certain rather obvious defects of the work
of Euclid, no better textbook than this was available. Euclid's
work, of course, gives expression to much knowledge that did not
originate with him. We have already seen that several important
propositions of geometry had been developed by Thales, and one by
Pythagoras, and that the rudiments of the subject were at least
as old as Egyptian civilization. Precisely how much Euclid added
through his own investigations cannot be ascertained. It seems
probable that he was a diffuser of knowledge rather than an
originator, but as a great teacher his fame is secure. He is
credited with an epigram which in itself might insure him
perpetuity of fame: "There is no royal road to geometry," was his
answer to Ptolemy when that ruler had questioned whether the
Elements might not be simplified. Doubtless this, like most
similar good sayings, is apocryphal; but whoever invented it has
made the world his debtor.


HEROPHILUS AND ERASISTRATUS

The catholicity of Ptolemy's tastes led him, naturally enough, to
cultivate the biological no less than the physical sciences. In
particular his influence permitted an epochal advance in the
field of medicine. Two anatomists became famous through the
investigations they were permitted to make under the patronage of
the enlightened ruler. These earliest of really scientific
investigators of the mechanism of the human body were named
Herophilus and Erasistratus. These two anatomists gained their
knowledge by the dissection of human bodies (theirs are the first
records that we have of such practices), and King Ptolemy himself
is said to have been present at some of these dissections. They
were the first to discover that the nerve- trunks have their
origin in the brain and spinal cord, and they are credited also
with the discovery that these nerve-trunks are of two different
kinds--one to convey motor, and the other sensory impulses. They
discovered, described, and named the coverings of the brain. The
name of Herophilus is still applied by anatomists, in honor of
the discoverer, to one of the sinuses or large canals that convey
the venous blood from the head. Herophilus also noticed and
described four cavities or ventricles in the brain, and reached
the conclusion that one of these ventricles was the seat of the
soul--a belief shared until comparatively recent times by many
physiologists. He made also a careful and fairly accurate study
of the anatomy of the eye, a greatly improved the old operation
for cataract.

With the increased knowledge of anatomy came also corresponding
advances in surgery, and many experimental operations are said to
have been performed upon condemned criminals who were handed over
to the surgeons by the Ptolemies. While many modern writers have
attempted to discredit these assertions, it is not improbable
that such operations were performed. In an age when human life
was held so cheap, and among a people accustomed to torturing
condemned prisoners for comparatively slight offences, it is not
unlikely that the surgeons were allowed to inflict perhaps less
painful tortures in the cause of science. Furthermore, we know
that condemned criminals were sometimes handed over to the
medical profession to be "operated upon and killed in whatever
way they thought best" even as late as the sixteenth century.
Tertullian[1] probably exaggerates, however, when he puts the
number of such victims in Alexandria at six hundred.

Had Herophilus and Erasistratus been as happy in their deductions
as to the functions of the organs as they were in their knowledge
of anatomy, the science of medicine would have been placed upon a
very high plane even in their time. Unfortunately, however, they
not only drew erroneous inferences as to the functions of the
organs, but also disagreed radically as to what functions certain
organs performed, and how diseases should be treated, even when
agreeing perfectly on the subject of anatomy itself. Their
contribution to the knowledge of the scientific treatment of
diseases holds no such place, therefore, as their anatomical
investigations.

Half a century after the time of Herophilus there appeared a
Greek physician, Heraclides, whose reputation in the use of drugs
far surpasses that of the anatomists of the Alexandrian school.
His reputation has been handed down through the centuries as that
of a physician, rather than a surgeon, although in his own time
he was considered one of the great surgeons of the period.
Heraclides belonged to the "Empiric" school, which rejected
anatomy as useless, depending entirely on the use of drugs. He is
thought to have been the first physician to point out the value
of opium in certain painful diseases. His prescription of this
drug for certain cases of "sleeplessness, spasm, cholera, and
colic," shows that his use of it was not unlike that of the
modern physician in certain cases; and his treatment of fevers,
by keeping the patient's head cool and facilitating the
secretions of the body, is still recognized as "good practice."
He advocated a free use of liquids in quenching the fever
patient's thirst--a recognized therapeutic measure to-day, but
one that was widely condemned a century ago.


ARCHIMEDES OF SYRACUSE AND THE FOUNDATION OF MECHANICS

We do not know just when Euclid died, but as he was at the height
of his fame in the time of Ptolemy I., whose reign ended in the
year 285 B.C., it is hardly probable that he was still living
when a young man named Archimedes came to Alexandria to study.
Archimedes was born in the Greek colony of Syracuse, on the
island of Sicily, in the year 287 B.C. When he visited Alexandria
he probably found Apollonius of Perga, the pupil of Euclid, at
the head of the mathematical school there. Just how long
Archimedes remained at Alexandria is not known. When he had
satisfied his curiosity or completed his studies, he returned to
Syracuse and spent his life there, chiefly under the patronage of
King Hiero, who seems fully to have appreciated his abilities.

Archimedes was primarily a mathematician. Left to his own
devices, he would probably have devoted his entire time to the
study of geometrical problems. But King Hiero had discovered that
his protege had wonderful mechanical ingenuity, and he made good
use of this discovery. Under stress of the king's urgings, the
philosopher was led to invent a great variety of mechanical
contrivances, some of them most curious ones. Antiquity credited
him with the invention of more than forty machines, and it is
these, rather than his purely mathematical discoveries, that gave
his name popular vogue both among his contemporaries and with
posterity. Every one has heard of the screw of Archimedes,
through which the paradoxical effect was produced of making water
seem to flow up hill. The best idea of this curious mechanism is
obtained if one will take in hand an ordinary corkscrew, and
imagine this instrument to be changed into a hollow tube,
retaining precisely the same shape but increased to some feet in
length and to a proportionate diameter. If one will hold the
corkscrew in a slanting direction and turn it slowly to the
right, supposing that the point dips up a portion of water each
time it revolves, one can in imagination follow the flow of that
portion of water from spiral to spiral, the water always running
downward, of course, yet paradoxically being lifted higher and
higher towards the base of the corkscrew, until finally it pours
out (in the actual Archimedes' tube) at the top. There is another
form of the screw in which a revolving spiral blade operates
within a cylinder, but the principle is precisely the same. With
either form water may be lifted, by the mere turning of the
screw, to any desired height. The ingenious mechanism excited the
wonder of the contemporaries of Archimedes, as well it might.
More efficient devices have superseded it in modern times, but it
still excites the admiration of all who examine it, and its
effects seem as paradoxical as ever.

Some other of the mechanisms of Archimedes have been made known
to successive generations of readers through the pages of
Polybius and Plutarch. These are the devices through which
Archimedes aided King Hiero to ward off the attacks of the Roman
general Marcellus, who in the course of the second Punic war laid
siege to Syracuse.

Plutarch, in his life of Marcellus, describes the Roman's attack
and Archimedes' defence in much detail. Incidentally he tells us
also how Archimedes came to make the devices that rendered the
siege so famous:

"Marcellus himself, with threescore galleys of five rowers at
every bank, well armed and full of all sorts of artillery and
fireworks, did assault by sea, and rowed hard to the wall, having
made a great engine and device of battery, upon eight galleys
chained together, to batter the wall: trusting in the great
multitude of his engines of battery, and to all such other
necessary provision as he had for wars, as also in his own
reputation. But Archimedes made light account of all his devices,
as indeed they were nothing comparable to the engines himself had
invented. This inventive art to frame instruments and engines
(which are called mechanical, or organical, so highly commended
and esteemed of all sorts of people) was first set forth by
Architas, and by Eudoxus: partly to beautify a little the science
of geometry by this fineness, and partly to prove and confirm by
material examples and sensible instruments, certain geometrical
conclusions, where of a man cannot find out the conceivable
demonstrations by enforced reasons and proofs. As that conclusion
which instructeth one to search out two lines mean proportional,
which cannot be proved by reason demonstrative, and yet
notwithstanding is a principle and an accepted ground for many
things which are contained in the art of portraiture. Both of
them have fashioned it to the workmanship of certain instruments,
called mesolabes or mesographs, which serve to find these mean
lines proportional, by drawing certain curve lines, and
overthwart and oblique sections. But after that Plato was
offended with them, and maintained against them, that they did
utterly corrupt and disgrace, the worthiness and excellence of
geometry, making it to descend from things not comprehensible and
without body, unto things sensible and material, and to bring it
to a palpable substance, where the vile and base handiwork of man
is to be employed: since that time, I say, handicraft, or the art
of engines, came to be separated from geometry, and being long
time despised by the philosophers, it came to be one of the
warlike arts.

"But Archimedes having told King Hiero, his kinsman and friend,
that it was possible to remove as great a weight as he would,
with as little strength as he listed to put to it: and boasting
himself thus (as they report of him) and trusting to the force of
his reasons, wherewith he proved this conclusion, that if there
were another globe of earth, he was able to remove this of ours,
and pass it over to the other: King Hiero wondering to hear him,
required him to put his device in execution, and to make him see
by experience, some great or heavy weight removed, by little
force. So Archimedes caught hold with a book of one of the
greatest carects, or hulks of the king (that to draw it to the
shore out of the water required a marvellous number of people to
go about it, and was hardly to be done so) and put a great number
of men more into her, than her ordinary burden: and he himself
sitting alone at his ease far off, without any straining at all,
drawing the end of an engine with many wheels and pulleys, fair
and softly with his hand, made it come as gently and smoothly to
him, as it had floated in the sea. The king wondering to see the
sight, and knowing by proof the greatness of his art; be prayed
him to make him some engines, both to assault and defend, in all
manner of sieges and assaults. So Archimedes made him many
engines, but King Hiero never occupied any of them, because he
reigned the most part of his time in peace without any wars. But
this provision and munition of engines, served the Syracusan's
turn marvellously at that time: and not only the provision of the
engines ready made, but also the engineer and work-master
himself, that had invented them.

"Now the Syracusans, seeing themselves assaulted by the Romans,
both by sea and by land, were marvellously perplexed, and could
not tell what to say, they were so afraid: imagining it was
impossible for them to withstand so great an army. But when
Archimedes fell to handling his engines, and to set them at
liberty, there flew in the air infinite kinds of shot, and
marvellous great stones, with an incredible noise and force on
the sudden, upon the footmen that came to assault the city by
land, bearing down, and tearing in pieces all those which came
against them, or in what place soever they lighted, no earthly
body being able to resist the violence of so heavy a weight: so
that all their ranks were marvellously disordered. And as for the
galleys that gave assault by sea, some were sunk with long pieces
of timber like unto the yards of ships, whereto they fasten their
sails, which were suddenly blown over the walls with force of
their engines into their galleys, and so sunk them by their over
great weight."


Polybius describes what was perhaps the most important of these
contrivances, which was, he tells us, "a band of iron, hanging by
a chain from the beak of a machine, which was used in the
following manner. The person who, like a pilot, guided the beak,
having let fall the hand, and catched hold of the prow of any
vessel, drew down the opposite end of the machine that was on the
inside of the walls. And when the vessel was thus raised erect
upon its stem, the machine itself was held immovable; but, the
chain being suddenly loosened from the beak by the means of
pulleys, some of the vessels were thrown upon their sides, others
turned with the bottom upwards; and the greatest part, as the
prows were plunged from a considerable height into the sea, were
filled with water, and all that were on board thrown into tumult
and disorder.

"Marcellus was in no small degree embarrassed," Polybius
continues, "when he found himself encountered in every attempt by
such resistance. He perceived that all his efforts were defeated
with loss; and were even derided by the enemy. But, amidst all
the anxiety that he suffered, he could not help jesting upon the
inventions of Archimedes. This man, said he, employs our ships as
buckets to draw water: and boxing about our sackbuts, as if they
were unworthy to be associated with him, drives them from his
company with disgrace. Such was the success of the siege on the
side of the sea."

Subsequently, however, Marcellus took the city by strategy, and
Archimedes was killed, contrary, it is said, to the express
orders of Marcellus. "Syracuse being taken," says Plutarch,
"nothing grieved Marcellus more than the loss of Archimedes. Who,
being in his study when the city was taken, busily seeking out by
himself the demonstration of some geometrical proposition which
he had drawn in figure, and so earnestly occupied therein, as he
neither saw nor heard any noise of enemies that ran up and down
the city, and much less knew it was taken: he wondered when he
saw a soldier by him, that bade him go with him to Marcellus.
Notwithstanding, he spake to the soldier, and bade him tarry
until he had done his conclusion, and brought it to
demonstration: but the soldier being angry with his answer, drew
out his sword and killed him. Others say, that the Roman soldier
when he came, offered the sword's point to him, to kill him: and
that Archimedes when he saw him, prayed him to hold his hand a
little, that he might not leave the matter he looked for
imperfect, without demonstration. But the soldier making no
reckoning of his speculation, killed him presently. It is
reported a third way also, saying that certain soldiers met him
in the streets going to Marcellus, carrying certain mathematical
instruments in a little pretty coffer, as dials for the sun,
spheres, and angles, wherewith they measure the greatness of the
body of the sun by view: and they supposing he had carried some
gold or silver, or other precious jewels in that little coffer,
slew him for it. But it is most certain that Marcellus was
marvellously sorry for his death, and ever after hated the
villain that slew him, as a cursed and execrable person: and how
he had made also marvellous much afterwards of Archimedes'
kinsmen for his sake."

We are further indebted to Plutarch for a summary of the
character and influence of Archimedes, and for an interesting
suggestion as to the estimate which the great philosopher put
upon the relative importance of his own discoveries.
"Notwithstanding Archimedes had such a great mind, and was so
profoundly learned, having hidden in him the only treasure and
secrets of geometrical inventions: as be would never set forth
any book how to make all these warlike engines, which won him at
that time the fame and glory, not of man's knowledge, but rather
of divine wisdom. But he esteeming all kind of handicraft and
invention to make engines, and generally all manner of sciences
bringing common commodity by the use of them, to be but vile,
beggarly, and mercenary dross: employed his wit and study only to
write things, the beauty and subtlety whereof were not mingled
anything at all with necessity. For all that he hath written, are
geometrical propositions, which are without comparison of any
other writings whatsoever: because the subject where of they
treat, doth appear by demonstration, the maker gives them the
grace and the greatness, and the demonstration proving it so
exquisitely, with wonderful reason and facility, as it is not
repugnable. For in all geometry are not to be found more profound
and difficult matters written, in more plain and simple terms,
and by more easy principles, than those which he hath invented.
Now some do impute this, to the sharpness of his wit and
understanding, which was a natural gift in him: others do refer
it to the extreme pains he took, which made these things come so
easily from him, that they seemed as if they had been no trouble
to him at all. For no man living of himself can devise the
demonstration of his propositions, what pains soever he take to
seek it: and yet straight so soon as he cometh to declare and
open it, every man then imagineth with himself he could have
found it out well enough, he can then so plainly make
demonstration of the thing he meaneth to show. And therefore that
methinks is likely to be true, which they write of him: that he
was so ravished and drunk with the sweet enticements of this
siren, which as it were lay continually with him, as he forgot
his meat and drink, and was careless otherwise of himself, that
oftentimes his servants got him against his will to the baths to
wash and anoint him: and yet being there, he would ever be
drawing out of the geometrical figures, even in the very imbers
of the chimney. And while they were anointing of him with oils
and sweet savours, with his finger he did draw lines upon his
naked body: so far was he taken from himself, and brought into an
ecstasy or trance, with the delight he had in the study of
geometry, and truly ravished with the love of the Muses. But
amongst many notable things he devised, it appeareth, that he
most esteemed the demonstration of the proportion between the
cylinder (to wit, the round column) and the sphere or globe
contained in the same: for he prayed his kinsmen and friends,
that after his death they would put a cylinder upon his tomb,
containing a massy sphere, with an inscription of the proportion,
whereof the continent exceedeth the thing contained."[2]

It should be observed that neither Polybius nor Plutarch mentions
the use of burning-glasses in connection with the siege of
Syracuse, nor indeed are these referred to by any other ancient
writer of authority. Nevertheless, a story gained credence down
to a late day to the effect that Archimedes had set fire to the
fleet of the enemy with the aid of concave mirrors. An experiment
was made by Sir Isaac Newton to show the possibility of a
phenomenon so well in accord with the genius of Archimedes, but
the silence of all the early authorities makes it more than
doubtful whether any such expedient was really adopted.

It will be observed that the chief principle involved in all
these mechanisms was a capacity to transmit great power through
levers and pulleys, and this brings us to the most important
field of the Syracusan philosopher's activity. It was as a
student of the lever and the pulley that Archimedes was led to
some of his greatest mechanical discoveries. He is even credited
with being the discoverer of the compound pulley. More likely he
was its developer only, since the principle of the pulley was
known to the old Babylonians, as their sculptures testify. But
there is no reason to doubt the general outlines of the story
that Archimedes astounded King Hiero by proving that, with the
aid of multiple pulleys, the strength of one man could suffice to
drag the largest ship from its moorings.

The property of the lever, from its fundamental principle, was
studied by him, beginning with the self- evident fact that "equal
bodies at the ends of the equal arms of a rod, supported on its
middle point, will balance each other"; or, what amounts to the
same thing stated in another way, a regular cylinder of uniform
matter will balance at its middle point. From this starting-point
he elaborated the subject on such clear and satisfactory
principles that they stand to-day practically unchanged and with
few additions. From all his studies and experiments he finally
formulated the principle that "bodies will be in equilibrio when
their distance from the fulcrum or point of support is inversely
as their weight." He is credited with having summed up his
estimate of the capabilities of the lever with the well-known
expression, "Give me a fulcrum on which to rest or a place on
which to stand, and I will move the earth."

But perhaps the feat of all others that most appealed to the
imagination of his contemporaries, and possibly also the one that
had the greatest bearing upon the position of Archimedes as a
scientific discoverer, was the one made familiar through the tale
of the crown of Hiero. This crown, so the story goes, was
supposed to be made of solid gold, but King Hiero for some reason
suspected the honesty of the jeweller, and desired to know if
Archimedes could devise a way of testing the question without
injuring the crown. Greek imagination seldom spoiled a story in
the telling, and in this case the tale was allowed to take on the
most picturesque of phases. The philosopher, we are assured,
pondered the problem for a long time without succeeding, but one
day as he stepped into a bath, his attention was attracted by the
overflow of water. A new train of ideas was started in his
ever-receptive brain. Wild with enthusiasm he sprang from the
bath, and, forgetting his robe, dashed along the streets of
Syracuse, shouting: "Eureka! Eureka!" (I have found it!) The
thought that had come into his mind was this: That any heavy
substance must have a bulk proportionate to its weight; that gold
and silver differ in weight, bulk for bulk, and that the way to
test the bulk of such an irregular object as a crown was to
immerse it in water. The experiment was made. A lump of pure gold
of the weight of the crown was immersed in a certain receptacle
filled with water, and the overflow noted. Then a lump of pure
silver of the same weight was similarly immersed; lastly the
crown itself was immersed, and of course--for the story must not
lack its dramatic sequel--was found bulkier than its weight of
pure gold. Thus the genius that could balk warriors and armies
could also foil the wiles of the silversmith.

Whatever the truth of this picturesque narrative, the fact
remains that some, such experiments as these must have paved the
way for perhaps the greatest of all the studies of
Archimedes--those that relate to the buoyancy of water. Leaving
the field of fable, we must now examine these with some
precision. Fortunately, the writings of Archimedes himself are
still extant, in which the results of his remarkable experiments
are related, so we may present the results in the words of the
discoverer.

Here they are: "First: The surface of every coherent liquid in a
state of rest is spherical, and the centre of the sphere
coincides with the centre of the earth. Second: A solid body
which, bulk for bulk, is of the same weight as a liquid, if
immersed in the liquid will sink so that the surface of the body
is even with the surface of the liquid, but will not sink deeper.
Third: Any solid body which is lighter, bulk for bulk, than a
liquid, if placed in the liquid will sink so deep as to displace
the mass of liquid equal in weight to another body. Fourth: If a
body which is lighter than a liquid is forcibly immersed in the
liquid, it will be pressed upward with a force corresponding to
the weight of a like volume of water, less the weight of the body
itself. Fifth: Solid bodies which, bulk for bulk, are heavier
than a liquid, when immersed in the liquid sink to the bottom,
but become in the liquid as much lighter as the weight of the
displaced water itself differs from the weight of the solid."
These propositions are not difficult to demonstrate, once they
are conceived, but their discovery, combined with the discovery
of the laws of statics already referred to, may justly be
considered as proving Archimedes the most inventive experimenter
of antiquity.

Curiously enough, the discovery which Archimedes himself is said
to have considered the most important of all his innovations is
one that seems much less striking. It is the answer to the
question, What is the relation in bulk between a sphere and its
circumscribing cylinder? Archimedes finds that the ratio is
simply two to three. We are not informed as to how he reached his
conclusion, but an obvious method would be to immerse a ball in a
cylindrical cup. The experiment is one which any one can make for
himself, with approximate accuracy, with the aid of a tumbler and
a solid rubber ball or a billiard-ball of just the right size.
Another geometrical problem which Archimedes solved was the
problem as to the size of a triangle which has equal area with a
circle; the answer being, a triangle having for its base the
circumference of the circle and for its altitude the radius.
Archimedes solved also the problem of the relation of the
diameter of the circle to its circumference; his answer being a
close approximation to the familiar 3.1416, which every tyro in
geometry will recall as the equivalent of pi.

Numerous other of the studies of Archimedes having reference to
conic sections, properties of curves and spirals, and the like,
are too technical to be detailed here. The extent of his
mathematical knowledge, however, is suggested by the fact that he
computed in great detail the number of grains of sand that would
be required to cover the sphere of the sun's orbit, making
certain hypothetical assumptions as to the size of the earth and
the distance of the sun for the purposes of argument.
Mathematicians find his computation peculiarly interesting
because it evidences a crude conception of the idea of
logarithms. From our present stand-point, the paper in which this
calculation is contained has considerable interest because of its
assumptions as to celestial mechanics. Thus Archimedes starts out
with the preliminary assumption that the circumference of the
earth is less than three million stadia. It must be understood
that this assumption is purely for the sake of argument.
Archimedes expressly states that he takes this number because it
is "ten times as large as the earth has been supposed to be by
certain investigators." Here, perhaps, the reference is to
Eratosthenes, whose measurement of the earth we shall have
occasion to revert to in a moment. Continuing, Archimedes asserts
that the sun is larger than the earth, and the earth larger than
the moon. In this assumption, he says, he is following the
opinion of the majority of astronomers. In the third place,
Archimedes assumes that the diameter of the sun is not more than
thirty times greater than that of the moon. Here he is probably
basing his argument upon another set of measurements of
Aristarchus, to which, also, we shall presently refer more at
length. In reality, his assumption is very far from the truth,
since the actual diameter of the sun, as we now know, is
something like four hundred times that of the moon. Fourth, the
circumference of the sun is greater than one side of the
thousand- faced figure inscribed in its orbit. The measurement,
it is expressly stated, is based on the measurements of
Aristarchus, who makes the diameter of the sun 1/170 of its
orbit. Archimedes adds, however, that he himself has measured the
angle and that it appears to him to be less than 1/164, and
greater than 1/200 part of the orbit. That is to say, reduced to
modern terminology, he places the limit of the sun's apparent
size between thirty-three minutes and twenty-seven minutes of
arc. As the real diameter is thirty-two minutes, this calculation
is surprisingly exact, considering the implements then at
command. But the honor of first making it must be given to
Aristarchus and not to Archimedes.

We need not follow Archimedes to the limits of his
incomprehensible numbers of sand-grains. The calculation is
chiefly remarkable because it was made before the introduction of
the so-called Arabic numerals had simplified mathematical
calculations. It will be recalled that the Greeks used letters
for numerals, and, having no cipher, they soon found themselves
in difficulties when large numbers were involved. The Roman
system of numerals simplified the matter somewhat, but the
beautiful simplicity of the decimal system did not come into
vogue until the Middle Ages, as we shall see. Notwithstanding the
difficulties, however, Archimedes followed out his calculations
to the piling up of bewildering numbers, which the modern
mathematician finds to be the consistent outcome of the problem
he had set himself.

But it remains to notice the most interesting feature of this
document in which the calculation of the sand- grains is
contained. "It was known to me," says Archimedes, "that most
astronomers understand by the expression 'world' (universe) a
ball of which the centre is the middle point of the earth, and of
which the radius is a straight line between the centre of the
earth and the sun." Archimedes himself appears to accept this
opinion of the majority,--it at least serves as well as the
contrary hypothesis for the purpose of his calculation,--but he
goes on to say: "Aristarchus of Samos, in his writing against the
astronomers, seeks to establish the fact that the world is really
very different from this. He holds the opinion that the fixed
stars and the sun are immovable and that the earth revolves in a
circular line about the sun, the sun being at the centre of this
circle." This remarkable bit of testimony establishes beyond
question the position of Aristarchus of Samos as the Copernicus
of antiquity. We must make further inquiry as to the teachings of
the man who had gained such a remarkable insight into the true
system of the heavens.


ARISTARCHUS OF SAMOS, THE COPERNICUS OF ANTIQUITY

It appears that Aristarchus was a contemporary of Archimedes, but
the exact dates of his life are not known. He was actively
engaged in making astronomical observations in Samos somewhat
before the middle of the third century B.C.; in other words, just
at the time when the activities of the Alexandrian school were at
their height. Hipparchus, at a later day, was enabled to compare
his own observations with those made by Aristarchus, and, as we
have just seen, his work was well known to so distant a
contemporary as Archimedes. Yet the facts of his life are almost
a blank for us, and of his writings only a single one has been
preserved. That one, however, is a most important and interesting
paper on the measurements of the sun and the moon. Unfortunately,
this paper gives us no direct clew as to the opinions of
Aristarchus concerning the relative positions of the earth and
sun. But the testimony of Archimedes as to this is unequivocal,
and this testimony is supported by other rumors in themselves
less authoritative.

In contemplating this astronomer of Samos, then, we are in the
presence of a man who had solved in its essentials the problem of
the mechanism of the solar system. It appears from the words of
Archimedes that Aristarchus; had propounded his theory in
explicit writings. Unquestionably, then, he held to it as a
positive doctrine, not as a mere vague guess. We shall show, in a
moment, on what grounds he based his opinion. Had his teaching
found vogue, the story of science would be very different from
what it is. We should then have no tale to tell of a Copernicus
coming upon the scene fully seventeen hundred years later with
the revolutionary doctrine that our world is not the centre of
the universe. We should not have to tell of the persecution of a
Bruno or of a Galileo for teaching this doctrine in the
seventeenth century of an era which did not begin till two
hundred years after the death of Aristarchus. But, as we know,
the teaching of the astronomer of Samos did not win its way. The
old conservative geocentric doctrine, seemingly so much more in
accordance with the every-day observations of mankind, supported
by the majority of astronomers with the Peripatetic philosophers
at their head, held its place. It found fresh supporters
presently among the later Alexandrians, and so fully eclipsed the
heliocentric view that we should scarcely know that view had even
found an advocate were it not for here and there such a chance
record as the phrases we have just quoted from Archimedes. Yet,
as we now see, the heliocentric doctrine, which we know to be
true, had been thought out and advocated as the correct theory of
celestial mechanics by at least one worker of the third century
B.C. Such an idea, we may be sure, did not spring into the mind
of its originator except as the culmination of a long series of
observations and inferences. The precise character of the
evolution we perhaps cannot trace, but its broader outlines are
open to our observation, and we may not leave so important a
topic without at least briefly noting them.

Fully to understand the theory of Aristarchus, we must go back a
century or two and recall that as long ago as the time of that
other great native of Samos, Pythagoras, the conception had been
reached that the earth is in motion. We saw, in dealing with
Pythagoras, that we could not be sure as to precisely what he
himself taught, but there is no question that the idea of the
world's motion became from an early day a so-called Pythagorean
doctrine. While all the other philosophers, so far as we know,
still believed that the world was flat, the Pythagoreans out in
Italy taught that the world is a sphere and that the apparent
motions of the heavenly bodies are really due to the actual
motion of the earth itself. They did not, however, vault to the
conclusion that this true motion of the earth takes place in the
form of a circuit about the sun. Instead of that, they conceived
the central body of the universe to be a great fire, invisible
from the earth, because the inhabited side of the terrestrial
ball was turned away from it. The sun, it was held, is but a
great mirror, which reflects the light from the central fire. Sun
and earth alike revolve about this great fire, each in its own
orbit. Between the earth and the central fire there was,
curiously enough, supposed to be an invisible earthlike body
which was given the name of Anticthon, or counter-earth. This
body, itself revolving about the central fire, was supposed to
shut off the central light now and again from the sun or from the
moon, and thus to account for certain eclipses for which the
shadow of the earth did not seem responsible. It was, perhaps,
largely to account for such eclipses that the counter-earth was
invented. But it is supposed that there was another reason. The
Pythagoreans held that there is a peculiar sacredness in the
number ten. Just as the Babylonians of the early day and the
Hegelian philosophers of a more recent epoch saw a sacred
connection between the number seven and the number of planetary
bodies, so the Pythagoreans thought that the universe must be
arranged in accordance with the number ten. Their count of the
heavenly bodies, including the sphere of the fixed stars, seemed
to show nine, and the counter-earth supplied the missing body.

The precise genesis and development of this idea cannot now be
followed, but that it was prevalent about the fifth century B.C.
as a Pythagorean doctrine cannot be questioned. Anaxagoras also
is said to have taken account of the hypothetical counter-earth
in his explanation of eclipses; though, as we have seen, he
probably did not accept that part of the doctrine which held the
earth to be a sphere. The names of Philolaus and Heraclides have
been linked with certain of these Pythagorean doctrines. Eudoxus,
too, who, like the others, lived in Asia Minor in the fourth
century B.C., was held to have made special studies of the
heavenly spheres and perhaps to have taught that the earth moves.
So, too, Nicetas must be named among those whom rumor credited
with having taught that the world is in motion. In a word, the
evidence, so far as we can garner it from the remaining
fragments, tends to show that all along, from the time of the
early Pythagoreans, there had been an undercurrent of opinion in
the philosophical world which questioned the fixity of the earth;
and it would seem that the school of thinkers who tended to
accept the revolutionary view centred in Asia Minor, not far from
the early home of the founder of the Pythagorean doctrines. It
was not strange, then, that the man who was finally to carry
these new opinions to their logical conclusion should hail from
Samos.

But what was the support which observation could give to this
new, strange conception that the heavenly bodies do not in
reality move as they seem to move, but that their apparent motion
is due to the actual revolution of the earth? It is extremely
difficult for any one nowadays to put himself in a mental
position to answer this question. We are so accustomed to
conceive the solar system as we know it to be, that we are wont
to forget how very different it is from what it seems. Yet one
needs but to glance up at the sky, and then to glance about one
at the solid earth, to grant, on a moment's reflection, that the
geocentric idea is of all others the most natural; and that to
conceive the sun as the actual Centre of the solar system is an
idea which must look for support to some other evidence than that
which ordinary observation can give. Such was the view of most of
the ancient philosophers, and such continued to be the opinion of
the majority of mankind long after the time of Copernicus. We
must not forget that even so great an observing astronomer as
Tycho Brahe, so late as the seventeenth century, declined to
accept the heliocentric theory, though admitting that all the
planets except the earth revolve about the sun. We shall see that
before the Alexandrian school lost its influence a geocentric
scheme had been evolved which fully explained all the apparent
motions of the heavenly bodies. All this, then, makes us but
wonder the more that the genius of an Aristarchus could give
precedence to scientific induction as against the seemingly clear
evidence of the senses.

What, then, was the line of scientific induction that led
Aristarchus to this wonderful goal? Fortunately, we are able to
answer that query, at least in part. Aristarchus gained his
evidence through some wonderful measurements. First, he measured
the disks of the sun and the moon. This, of course, could in
itself give him no clew to the distance of these bodies, and
therefore no clew as to their relative size; but in attempting to
obtain such a clew he hit upon a wonderful yet altogether simple
experiment. It occurred to him that when the moon is precisely
dichotomized-- that is to say, precisely at the half-the line of
vision from the earth to the moon must be precisely at right
angles with the line of light passing from the sun to the moon.
At this moment, then, the imaginary lines joining the sun, the
moon, and the earth, make a right angle triangle. But the
properties of the right-angle triangle had long been studied and
were well under stood. One acute angle of such a triangle
determines the figure of the triangle itself. We have already
seen that Thales, the very earliest of the Greek philosophers,
measured the distance of a ship at sea by the application of this
principle. Now Aristarchus sights the sun in place of Thales'
ship, and, sighting the moon at the same time, measures the angle
and establishes the shape of his right-angle triangle. This does
not tell him the distance of the sun, to be sure, for he does not
know the length of his base-line--that is to say, of the line
between the moon and the earth. But it does establish the
relation of that base-line to the other lines of the triangle; in
other words, it tells him the distance of the sun in terms of the
moon's distance. As Aristarchus strikes the angle, it shows that
the sun is eighteen times as distant as the moon. Now, by
comparing the apparent size of the sun with the apparent size of
the moon--which, as we have seen, Aristarchus has already
measured--he is able to tell us that, the sun is "more than 5832
times, and less than 8000" times larger than the moon; though his
measurements, taken by themselves, give no clew to the actual
bulk of either body. These conclusions, be it understood, are
absolutely valid inferences--nay, demonstrations--from the
measurements involved, provided only that these measurements have
been correct. Unfortunately, the angle of the triangle we have
just seen measured is exceedingly difficult to determine with
accuracy, while at the same time, as a moment's reflection will
show, it is so large an angle that a very slight deviation from
the truth will greatly affect the distance at which its line
joins the other side of the triangle. Then again, it is virtually
impossible to tell the precise moment when the moon is at half,
as the line it gives is not so sharp that we can fix it with
absolute accuracy. There is, moreover, another element of error
due to the refraction of light by the earth's atmosphere. The
experiment was probably made when the sun was near the horizon,
at which time, as we now know, but as Aristarchus probably did
not suspect, the apparent displacement of the sun's position is
considerable; and this displacement, it will be observed, is in
the direction to lessen the angle in question.

In point of fact, Aristarchus estimated the angle at eighty-seven
degrees. Had his instrument been more precise, and had he been
able to take account of all the elements of error, he would have
found it eighty-seven degrees and fifty-two minutes. The
difference of measurement seems slight; but it sufficed to make
the computations differ absurdly from the truth. The sun is
really not merely eighteen times but more than two hundred times
the distance of the moon, as Wendelein discovered on repeating
the experiment of Aristarchus about two thousand years later. Yet
this discrepancy does not in the least take away from the
validity of the method which Aristarchus employed. Moreover, his
conclusion, stated in general terms, was perfectly correct: the
sun is many times more distant than the moon and vastly larger
than that body. Granted, then, that the moon is, as Aristarchus
correctly believed, considerably less in size than the earth, the
sun must be enormously larger than the earth; and this is the
vital inference which, more than any other, must have seemed to
Aristarchus to confirm the suspicion that the sun and not the
earth is the centre of the planetary system. It seemed to him
inherently improbable that an enormously large body like the sun
should revolve about a small one such as the earth. And again, it
seemed inconceivable that a body so distant as the sun should
whirl through space so rapidly as to make the circuit of its
orbit in twenty- four hours. But, on the other hand, that a small
body like the earth should revolve about the gigantic sun seemed
inherently probable. This proposition granted, the rotation of
the earth on its axis follows as a necessary consequence in
explanation of the seeming motion of the stars. Here, then, was
the heliocentric doctrine reduced to a virtual demonstration by
Aristarchus of Samos, somewhere about the middle of the third
century B.C.

It must be understood that in following out the, steps of
reasoning by which we suppose Aristarchus to have reached so
remarkable a conclusion, we have to some extent guessed at the
processes of thought- development; for no line of explication
written by the astronomer himself on this particular point has
come down to us. There does exist, however, as we have already
stated, a very remarkable treatise by Aristarchus on the Size and
Distance of the Sun and the Moon, which so clearly suggests the
methods of reasoning of the great astronomer, and so explicitly
cites the results of his measurements, that we cannot well pass
it by without quoting from it at some length. It is certainly one
of the most remarkable scientific documents of antiquity. As
already noted, the heliocentric doctrine is not expressly stated
here. It seems to be tacitly implied throughout, but it is not a
necessary consequence of any of the propositions expressly
stated. These propositions have to do with certain observations
and measurements and what Aristarchus believes to be inevitable
deductions from them, and he perhaps did not wish to have these
deductions challenged through associating them with a theory
which his contemporaries did not accept. In a word, the paper of
Aristarchus is a rigidly scientific document unvitiated by
association with any theorizings that are not directly germane to
its central theme. The treatise opens with certain hypotheses as
follows:

"First. The moon receives its light from the sun.

"Second. The earth may be considered as a point and as the centre
of the orbit of the moon.

"Third. When the moon appears to us dichotomized it offers to our
view a great circle [or actual meridian] of its circumference
which divides the illuminated part from the dark part.

"Fourth. When the moon appears dichotomized its distance from the
sun is less than a quarter of the circumference [of its orbit] by
a thirtieth part of that quarter."

That is to say, in modern terminology, the moon at this time
lacks three degrees (one thirtieth of ninety degrees) of being at
right angles with the line of the sun as viewed from the earth;
or, stated otherwise, the angular distance of the moon from the
sun as viewed from the earth is at this time eighty-seven
degrees--this being, as we have already observed, the fundamental
measurement upon which so much depends. We may fairly suppose
that some previous paper of Aristarchus's has detailed the
measurement which here is taken for granted, yet which of course
could depend solely on observation.

"Fifth. The diameter of the shadow [cast by the earth at the
point where the moon's orbit cuts that shadow when the moon is
eclipsed] is double the diameter of the moon."

Here again a knowledge of previously established measurements is
taken for granted; but, indeed, this is the case throughout the
treatise.

"Sixth. The arc subtended in the sky by the moon is a fifteenth
part of a sign" of the zodiac; that is to say, since there are
twenty-four, signs in the zodiac, one-fifteenth of one
twenty-fourth, or in modern terminology, one degree of arc. This
is Aristarchus's measurement of the moon to which we have already
referred when speaking of the measurements of Archimedes.

"If we admit these six hypotheses," Aristarchus continues, "it
follows that the sun is more than eighteen times more distant
from the earth than is the moon, and that it is less than twenty
times more distant, and that the diameter of the sun bears a
corresponding relation to the diameter of the moon; which is
proved by the position of the moon when dichotomized. But the
ratio of the diameter of the sun to that of the earth is greater
than nineteen to three and less than forty-three to six. This is
demonstrated by the relation of the distances, by the position
[of the moon] in relation to the earth's shadow, and by the fact
that the arc subtended by the moon is a fifteenth part of a
sign."

Aristarchus follows with nineteen propositions intended to
elucidate his hypotheses and to demonstrate his various
contentions. These show a singularly clear grasp of geometrical
problems and an altogether correct conception of the general
relations as to size and position of the earth, the moon, and the
sun. His reasoning has to do largely with the shadow cast by the
earth and by the moon, and it presupposes a considerable
knowledge of the phenomena of eclipses. His first proposition is
that "two equal spheres may always be circumscribed in a
cylinder; two unequal spheres in a cone of which the apex is
found on the side of the smaller sphere; and a straight line
joining the centres of these spheres is perpendicular to each of
the two circles made by the contact of the surface of the
cylinder or of the cone with the spheres."

It will be observed that Aristarchus has in mind here the moon,
the earth, and the sun as spheres to be circumscribed within a
cone, which cone is made tangible and measurable by the shadows
cast by the non-luminous bodies; since, continuing, he clearly
states in proposition nine, that "when the sun is totally
eclipsed, an observer on the earth's surface is at an apex of a
cone comprising the moon and the sun." Various propositions deal
with other relations of the shadows which need not detain us
since they are not fundamentally important, and we may pass to
the final conclusions of Aristarchus, as reached in his
propositions ten to nineteen.

Now, since (proposition ten) "the diameter of the sun is more
than eighteen times and less than twenty times greater than that
of the moon," it follows (proposition eleven) "that the bulk of
the sun is to that of the moon in ratio, greater than 5832 to 1,
and less than 8000 to 1."

"Proposition sixteen. The diameter of the sun is to the diameter
of the earth in greater proportion than nineteen to three, and
less than forty-three to six.

"Proposition seventeen. The bulk of the sun is to that of the
earth in greater proportion than 6859 to 27, and less than 79,507
to 216.

"Proposition eighteen. The diameter of the earth is to the
diameter of the moon in greater proportion than 108 to 43 and
less than 60 to 19.

"Proposition nineteen. The bulk of the earth is to that of the
moon in greater proportion than 1,259,712 to 79,507 and less than
20,000 to 6859."

Such then are the more important conclusions of this very
remarkable paper--a paper which seems to have interest to the
successors of Aristarchus generation after generation, since this
alone of all the writings of the great astronomer has been
preserved. How widely the exact results of the measurements of
Aristarchus, differ from the truth, we have pointed out as we
progressed. But let it be repeated that this detracts little from
the credit of the astronomer who had such clear and correct
conceptions of the relations of the heavenly bodies and who
invented such correct methods of measurement. Let it be
particularly observed, however, that all the conclusions of
Aristarchus are stated in relative terms. He nowhere attempts to
estimate the precise size of the earth, of the moon, or of the
sun, or the actual distance of one of these bodies from another.
The obvious reason for this is that no data were at hand from
which to make such precise measurements. Had Aristarchus known
the size of any one of the bodies in question, he might readily,
of course, have determined the size of the others by the mere
application of his relative scale; but he had no means of
determining the size of the earth, and to this extent his system
of measurements remained imperfect. Where Aristarchus halted,
however, another worker of the same period took the task in hand
and by an altogether wonderful measurement determined the size of
the earth, and thus brought the scientific theories of cosmology
to their climax. This worthy supplementor of the work of
Aristarchus was Eratosthenes of Alexandria.


ERATOSTHENES, "THE SURVEYOR OF THE WORLD"

An altogether remarkable man was this native of Cyrene, who came
to Alexandria from Athens to be the chief librarian of Ptolemy
Euergetes. He was not merely an astronomer and a geographer, but
a poet and grammarian as well. His contemporaries jestingly
called him Beta the Second, because he was said through the
universality of his attainments to be "a second Plato" in
philosophy, "a second Thales" in astronomy, and so on throughout
the list. He was also called the "surveyor of the world," in
recognition of his services to geography. Hipparchus said of him,
perhaps half jestingly, that he had studied astronomy as a
geographer and geography as an astronomer. It is not quite clear
whether the epigram was meant as compliment or as criticism.
Similar phrases have been turned against men of versatile talent
in every age. Be that as it may, Eratosthenes passed into history
as the father of scientific geography and of scientific
chronology; as the astronomer who first measured the obliquity of
the ecliptic; and as the inventive genius who performed the
astounding feat of measuring the size of the globe on which we
live at a time when only a relatively small portion of that
globe's surface was known to civilized man. It is no discredit to
approach astronomy as a geographer and geography as an
astronomer if the results are such as these. What
Eratosthenes really did was to approach both astronomy and
geography from two seemingly divergent points of attack--namely,
from the stand-point of the geometer and also from that of the
poet. Perhaps no man in any age has brought a better combination
of observing and imaginative faculties to the aid of science.

Nearly all the discoveries of Eratosthenes are associated with
observations of the shadows cast by the sun. We have seen that,
in the study of the heavenly bodies, much depends on the
measurement of angles. Now the easiest way in which angles can be
measured, when solar angles are in question, is to pay attention,
not to the sun itself, but to the shadow that it casts. We saw
that Thales made some remarkable measurements with the aid of
shadows, and we have more than once referred to the gnomon, which
is the most primitive, but which long remained the most
important, of astronomical instruments. It is believed that
Eratosthenes invented an important modification of the gnomon
which was elaborated afterwards by Hipparchus and called an
armillary sphere. This consists essentially of a small gnomon, or
perpendicular post, attached to a plane representing the earth's
equator and a hemisphere in imitation of the earth's surface.
With the aid of this, the shadow cast by the sun could be very
accurately measured. It involves no new principle. Every
perpendicular post or object of any kind placed in the sunlight
casts a shadow from which the angles now in question could be
roughly measured. The province of the armillary sphere was to
make these measurements extremely accurate.

With the aid of this implement, Eratosthenes carefully noted the
longest and the shortest shadows cast by the gnomon--that is to
say, the shadows cast on the days of the solstices. He found that
the distance between the tropics thus measured represented 47
degrees 42' 39" of arc. One-half of this, or 23 degrees 5,'
19.5", represented the obliquity of the ecliptic--that is to say,
the angle by which the earth's axis dipped from the perpendicular
with reference to its orbit. This was a most important
observation, and because of its accuracy it has served modern
astronomers well for comparison in measuring the trifling change
due to our earth's slow, swinging wobble. For the earth, be it
understood, like a great top spinning through space, holds its
position with relative but not quite absolute fixity. It must not
be supposed, however, that the experiment in question was quite
new with Eratosthenes. His merit consists rather in the accuracy
with which he made his observation than in the novelty of the
conception; for it is recorded that Eudoxus, a full century
earlier, had remarked the obliquity of the ecliptic. That
observer had said that the obliquity corresponded to the side of
a pentadecagon, or fifteen-sided figure, which is equivalent in
modern phraseology to twenty- four degrees of arc. But so little
is known regarding the way in which Eudoxus reached his estimate
that the measurement of Eratosthenes is usually spoken of as if
it were the first effort of the kind.

Much more striking, at least in its appeal to the popular
imagination, was that other great feat which Eratosthenes
performed with the aid of his perfected gnomon--the measurement
of the earth itself. When we reflect that at this period the
portion of the earth open to observation extended only from the
Straits of Gibraltar on the west to India on the east, and from
the North Sea to Upper Egypt, it certainly seems enigmatical--at
first thought almost miraculous--that an observer should have
been able to measure the entire globe. That he should have
accomplished this through observation of nothing more than a tiny
bit of Egyptian territory and a glimpse of the sun's shadow makes
it seem but the more wonderful. Yet the method of Eratosthenes,
like many another enigma, seems simple enough once it is
explained. It required but the application of a very elementary
knowledge of the geometry of circles, combined with the use of a
fact or two from local geography--which detracts nothing from the
genius of the man who could reason from such simple premises to
so wonderful a conclusion.

Stated in a few words, the experiment of Eratosthenes was this.
His geographical studies had taught him that the town of Syene
lay directly south of Alexandria, or, as we should say, on the
same meridian of latitude. He had learned, further, that Syene
lay directly under the tropic, since it was reported that at noon
on the day of the summer solstice the gnomon there cast no
shadow, while a deep well was illumined to the bottom by the sun.
A third item of knowledge, supplied by the surveyors of Ptolemy,
made the distance between Syene and Alexandria five thousand
stadia. These, then, were the preliminary data required by
Eratosthenes. Their significance consists in the fact that here
is a measured bit of the earth's arc five thousand stadia in
length. If we could find out what angle that bit of arc subtends,
a mere matter of multiplication would give us the size of the
earth. But how determine this all-important number? The answer
came through reflection on the relations of concentric circles.
If you draw any number of circles, of whatever size, about a
given centre, a pair of radii drawn from that centre will cut
arcs of the same relative size from all the circles. One circle
may be so small that the actual arc subtended by the radii in a
given case may be but an inch in length, while another circle is
so large that its corresponding are is measured in millions of
miles; but in each case the same number of so-called degrees will
represent the relation of each arc to its circumference. Now,
Eratosthenes knew, as just stated, that the sun, when on the
meridian on the day of the summer solstice, was directly over the
town of Syene. This meant that at that moment a radius of the
earth projected from Syene would point directly towards the sun.
Meanwhile, of course, the zenith would represent the projection
of the radius of the earth passing through Alexandria. All that
was required, then, was to measure, at Alexandria, the angular
distance of the sun from the zenith at noon on the day of the
solstice to secure an approximate measurement of the arc of the
sun's circumference, corresponding to the arc of the earth's
surface represented by the measured distance between Alexandria
and Syene.

The reader will observe that the measurement could not be
absolutely accurate, because it is made from the surface of the
earth, and not from the earth's centre, but the size of the earth
is so insignificant in comparison with the distance of the sun
that this slight discrepancy could be disregarded.

The way in which Eratosthenes measured this angle was very
simple. He merely measured the angle of the shadow which his
perpendicular gnomon at Alexandria cast at mid-day on the day of
the solstice, when, as already noted, the sun was directly
perpendicular at Syene. Now a glance at the diagram will make it
clear that the measurement of this angle of the shadow is merely
a convenient means of determining the precisely equal opposite
angle subtending an arc of an imaginary circle passing through
the sun; the are which, as already explained, corresponds with
the arc of the earth's surface represented by the distance
between Alexandria and Syene. He found this angle to represent 7
degrees 12', or one-fiftieth of the circle. Five thousand stadia,
then, represent one-fiftieth of the earth's circumference; the
entire circumference being, therefore, 250,000 stadia.
Unfortunately, we do not know which one of the various
measurements used in antiquity is represented by the stadia of
Eratosthenes. According to the researches of Lepsius, however,
the stadium in question represented 180 meters, and this would
make the earth, according to the measurement of Eratosthenes,
about twenty-eight thousand miles in circumference, an answer
sufficiently exact to justify the wonder which the experiment
excited in antiquity, and the admiration with which it has ever
since been regarded.

{illustration caption =  DIAGRAM TO ILLUSTRATE ERATOSTHENES'
MEASUREMENT OF THE GLOBE

FIG. 1. AF is a gnomon at Alexandria; SB a gnomon at Svene; IS
and JK represent the sun's rays. The angle actually measured by
Eratosthenes is KFA, as determined by the shadow cast by the
gnomon AF. This angle is equal to the opposite angle JFL, which
measures the sun's distance from the zenith; and which is also
equal to the angle AES--to determine the Size of which is the
real object of the entire measurement.

FIG. 2 shows the form of the gnomon actually employed in
antiquity. The hemisphere KA being marked with a scale, it is
obvious that in actual practice Eratosthenes required only to set
his gnomon in the sunlight at the proper moment, and read off the
answer to his problem at a glance. The simplicity of the method
makes the result seem all the more wonderful.}

Of course it is the method, and not its details or its exact
results, that excites our interest. And beyond question the
method was an admirable one. Its result, however, could not have
been absolutely accurate, because, while correct in principle,
its data were defective. In point of fact Syene did not lie
precisely on the same meridian as Alexandria, neither did it lie
exactly on the tropic. Here, then, are two elements of
inaccuracy. Moreover, it is doubtful whether Eratosthenes made
allowance, as he should have done, for the semi-diameter of the
sun in measuring the angle of the shadow. But these are mere
details, scarcely worthy of mention from our present stand-point.
What perhaps is deserving of more attention is the fact that this
epoch-making measurement of Eratosthenes may not have been the
first one to be made. A passage of Aristotle records that the
size of the earth was said to be 400,000 stadia. Some
commentators have thought that Aristotle merely referred to the
area of the inhabited portion of the earth and not to the
circumference of the earth itself, but his words seem doubtfully
susceptible of this interpretation; and if he meant, as his words
seem to imply, that philosophers of his day had a tolerably
precise idea of the globe, we must assume that this idea was
based upon some sort of measurement. The recorded size, 400,000
stadia, is a sufficient approximation to the truth to suggest
something more than a mere unsupported guess. Now, since
Aristotle died more than fifty years before Eratosthenes was
born, his report as to the alleged size of the earth certainly
has a suggestiveness that cannot be overlooked; but it arouses
speculations without giving an inkling as to their solution. If
Eratosthenes had a precursor as an earth-measurer, no hint or
rumor has come down to us that would enable us to guess who that
precursor may have been. His personality is as deeply enveloped
in the mists of the past as are the personalities of the great
prehistoric discoverers. For the purpose of the historian,
Eratosthenes must stand as the inventor of the method with which
his name is associated, and as the first man of whom we can say
with certainty that he measured the size of the earth. Right
worthily, then, had the Alexandrian philosopher won his proud
title of "surveyor of the world."


HIPPARCHUS, "THE LOVER OF TRUTH"

Eratosthenes outlived most of his great contemporaries. He saw
the turning of that first and greatest century of Alexandrian
science, the third century before our era. He died in the year
196 B.C., having, it is said, starved himself to death to escape
the miseries of blindness;--to the measurer of shadows, life
without light seemed not worth the living. Eratosthenes left no
immediate successor. A generation later, however, another great
figure appeared in the astronomical world in the person of
Hipparchus, a man who, as a technical observer, had perhaps no
peer in the ancient world: one who set so high a value upon
accuracy of observation as to earn the title of "the lover of
truth." Hipparchus was born at Nicaea, in Bithynia, in the year
160 B.C. His life, all too short for the interests of science,
ended in the year 125 B.C. The observations of the great
astronomer were made chiefly, perhaps entirely, at Rhodes. A
misinterpretation of Ptolemy's writings led to the idea that
Hipparchus, performed his chief labors in Alexandria, but it is
now admitted that there is no evidence for this. Delambre
doubted, and most subsequent writers follow him here, whether
Hipparchus ever so much as visited Alexandria. In any event there
seems to be no question that Rhodes may claim the honor of being
the chief site of his activities.

It was Hipparchus whose somewhat equivocal comment on the work of
Eratosthenes we have already noted. No counter-charge in kind
could be made against the critic himself; he was an astronomer
pure and simple. His gift was the gift of accurate observation
rather than the gift of imagination. No scientific progress is
possible without scientific guessing, but Hipparchus belonged to
that class of observers with whom hypothesis is held rigidly
subservient to fact. It was not to be expected that his mind
would be attracted by the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus. He
used the facts and observations gathered by his great predecessor
of Samos, but he declined to accept his theories. For him the
world was central; his problem was to explain, if he could, the
irregularities of motion which sun, moon, and planets showed in
their seeming circuits about the earth. Hipparchus had the gnomon
of Eratosthenes--doubtless in a perfected form--to aid him, and
he soon proved himself a master in its use. For him, as we have
said, accuracy was everything; this was the one element that led
to all his great successes.

Perhaps his greatest feat was to demonstrate the eccentricity of
the sun's seeming orbit. We of to-day, thanks to Keppler and his
followers, know that the earth and the other planetary bodies in
their circuit about the sun describe an ellipse and not a circle.
But in the day of Hipparchus, though the ellipse was recognized
as a geometrical figure (it had been described and named along
with the parabola and hyperbola by Apollonius of Perga, the pupil
of Euclid), yet it would have been the rankest heresy to suggest
an elliptical course for any heavenly body. A metaphysical
theory, as propounded perhaps by the Pythagoreans but ardently
supported by Aristotle, declared that the circle is the perfect
figure, and pronounced it inconceivable that the motions of the
spheres should be other than circular. This thought dominated the
mind of Hipparchus, and so when his careful measurements led him
to the discovery that the northward and southward journeyings of
the sun did not divide the year into four equal parts, there was
nothing open to him but to either assume that the earth does not
lie precisely at the centre of the sun's circular orbit or to
find some alternative hypothesis.

In point of fact, the sun (reversing the point of view in
accordance with modern discoveries) does lie at one focus of the
earth's elliptical orbit, and therefore away from the physical
centre of that orbit; in other words, the observations of
Hipparchus were absolutely accurate. He was quite correct in
finding that the sun spends more time on one side of the equator
than on the other. When, therefore, he estimated the relative
distance of the earth from the geometrical centre of the sun's
supposed circular orbit, and spoke of this as the measure of the
sun's eccentricity, he propounded a theory in which true data of
observation were curiously mingled with a positively inverted
theory. That the theory of Hipparchus was absolutely consistent
with all the facts of this particular observation is the best
evidence that could be given of the difficulties that stood in
the way of a true explanation of the mechanism of the heavens.

But it is not merely the sun which was observed to vary in the
speed of its orbital progress; the moon and the planets also show
curious accelerations and retardations of motion. The moon in
particular received most careful attention from Hipparchus.
Dominated by his conception of the perfect spheres, he could find
but one explanation of the anomalous motions which he observed,
and this was to assume that the various heavenly bodies do not
fly on in an unvarying arc in their circuit about the earth, but
describe minor circles as they go which can be likened to nothing
so tangibly as to a light attached to the rim of a wagon-wheel in
motion. If such an invisible wheel be imagined as carrying the
sun, for example, on its rim, while its invisible hub follows
unswervingly the circle of the sun's mean orbit (this wheel, be
it understood, lying in the plane of the orbit, not at right-
angles to it), then it must be obvious that while the hub remains
always at the same distance from the earth, the circling rim will
carry the sun nearer the earth, then farther away, and that while
it is traversing that portion of the are which brings it towards
the earth, the actual forward progress of the sun will be
retarded notwithstanding the uniform motion of the hub, just as
it will be accelerated in the opposite arc. Now, if we suppose
our sun-bearing wheel to turn so slowly that the sun revolves but
once about its imaginary hub while the wheel itself is making the
entire circuit of the orbit, we shall have accounted for the
observed fact that the sun passes more quickly through one-half
of the orbit than through the other. Moreover, if we can
visualize the process and imagine the sun to have left a visible
line of fire behind him throughout the course, we shall see that
in reality the two circular motions involved have really resulted
in producing an elliptical orbit.

The idea is perhaps made clearer if we picture the actual
progress of the lantern attached to the rim of an ordinary
cart-wheel. When the cart is drawn forward the lantern is made to
revolve in a circle as regards the hub of the wheel, but since
that hub is constantly going forward, the actual path described
by the lantern is not a circle at all but a waving line. It is
precisely the same with the imagined course of the sun in its
orbit, only that we view these lines just as we should view the
lantern on the wheel if we looked at it from directly above and
not from the side. The proof that the sun is describing this
waving line, and therefore must be considered as attached to an
imaginary wheel, is furnished, as it seemed to Hipparchus, by the
observed fact of the sun's varying speed.

That is one way of looking at the matter. It is an hypothesis
that explains the observed facts--after a fashion, and indeed a
very remarkable fashion. The idea of such an explanation did not
originate with Hipparchus. The germs of the thought were as old
as the Pythagorean doctrine that the earth revolves about a
centre that we cannot see. Eudoxus gave the conception greater
tangibility, and may be considered as the father of this doctrine
of wheels--epicycles, as they came to be called. Two centuries
before the time of Hipparchus he conceived a doctrine of spheres
which Aristotle found most interesting, and which served to
explain, along the lines we have just followed, the observed
motions of the heavenly bodies. Calippus, the reformer of the
calendar, is said to have carried an account of this theory to
Aristotle. As new irregularities of motion of the sun, moon, and
planetary bodies were pointed out, new epicycles were invented.
There is no limit to the number of imaginary circles that may be
inscribed about an imaginary centre, and if we conceive each one
of these circles to have a proper motion of its own, and each one
to carry the sun in the line of that motion, except as it is
diverted by the other motions--if we can visualize this complex
mingling of wheels--we shall certainly be able to imagine the
heavenly body which lies at the juncture of all the rims, as
being carried forward in as erratic and wobbly a manner as could
be desired. In other words, the theory of epicycles will account
for all the facts of the observed motions of all the heavenly
bodies, but in so doing it fills the universe with a most
bewildering network of intersecting circles. Even in the time of
Calippus fifty-five of these spheres were computed.

We may well believe that the clear-seeing Aristarchus would look
askance at such a complex system of imaginary machinery. But
Hipparchus, pre-eminently an observer rather than a theorizer,
seems to have been content to accept the theory of epicycles as
he found it, though his studies added to its complexities; and
Hipparchus was the dominant scientific personality of his
century. What he believed became as a law to his immediate
successors. His tenets were accepted as final by their great
popularizer, Ptolemy, three centuries later; and so the
heliocentric theory of Aristarchus passed under a cloud almost at
the hour of its dawning, there to remain obscured and forgotten
for the long lapse of centuries. A thousand pities that the
greatest observing astronomer of antiquity could not, like one of
his great precursors, have approached astronomy from the
stand-point of geography and poetry. Had he done so, perhaps he
might have reflected, like Aristarchus before him, that it seems
absurd for our earth to hold the giant sun in thraldom; then
perhaps his imagination would have reached out to the
heliocentric doctrine, and the cobweb hypothesis of epicycles,
with that yet more intangible figment of the perfect circle,
might have been wiped away.

But it was not to be. With Aristarchus the scientific imagination
had reached its highest flight; but with Hipparchus it was
beginning to settle back into regions of foggier atmosphere and
narrower horizons. For what, after all, does it matter that
Hipparchus should go on to measure the precise length of the year
and the apparent size of the moon's disk; that he should make a
chart of the heavens showing the place of 1080 stars; even that
he should discover the precession of the equinox;--what, after
all, is the significance of these details as against the
all-essential fact that the greatest scientific authority of his
century--the one truly heroic scientific figure of his
epoch--should have lent all the forces of his commanding
influence to the old, false theory of cosmology, when the true
theory had been propounded and when he, perhaps, was the only man
in the world who might have substantiated and vitalized that
theory? It is easy to overestimate the influence of any single
man, and, contrariwise, to underestimate the power of the
Zeitgeist. But when we reflect that the doctrines of Hipparchus,
as promulgated by Ptolemy, became, as it were, the last word of
astronomical science for both the Eastern and Western worlds, and
so continued after a thousand years, it is perhaps not too much
to say that Hipparchus, "the lover of truth," missed one of the
greatest opportunities for the promulgation of truth ever
vouchsafed to a devotee of pure science.

But all this, of course, detracts nothing from the merits of
Hipparchus as an observing astronomer. A few words more must be
said as to his specific discoveries in this field. According to
his measurement, the tropic year consists of 365 days, 5 hours,
and 49 minutes, varying thus only 12 seconds from the true year,
as the modern astronomer estimates it. Yet more remarkable,
because of the greater difficulties involved, was Hipparchus's
attempt to measure the actual distance of the moon. Aristarchus
had made a similar attempt before him. Hipparchus based his
computations on studies of the moon in eclipse, and he reached
the conclusion that the distance of the moon is equal to 59 radii
of the earth (in reality it is 60.27 radii). Here, then, was the
measure of the base-line of that famous triangle with which
Aristarchus had measured the distance of the sun. Hipparchus must
have known of that measurement, since he quotes the work of
Aristarchus in other fields. Had he now but repeated the
experiment of Aristarchus, with his perfected instruments and his
perhaps greater observational skill, he was in position to
compute the actual distance of the sun in terms not merely of the
moon's distance but of the earth's radius. And now there was the
experiment of Eratosthenes to give the length of that radius in
precise terms. In other words, Hipparchus might have measured the
distance of the sun in stadia. But if he had made the
attempt--and, indeed, it is more than likely that he did so--the
elements of error in his measurements would still have kept him
wide of the true figures.

The chief studies of Hipparchus were directed, as we have seen,
towards the sun and the moon, but a phenomenon that occurred in
the year 134 B.C. led him for a time to give more particular
attention to the fixed stars. The phenomenon in question was the
sudden outburst of a new star; a phenomenon which has been
repeated now and again, but which is sufficiently rare and
sufficiently mysterious to have excited the unusual attention of
astronomers in all generations. Modern science offers an
explanation of the phenomenon, as we shall see in due course. We
do not know that Hipparchus attempted to explain it, but he was
led to make a chart of the heavens, probably with the idea of
guiding future observers in the observation of new stars. Here
again Hipparchus was not altogether an innovator, since a chart
showing the brightest stars had been made by Eratosthenes; but
the new charts were much elaborated.

The studies of Hipparchus led him to observe the stars chiefly
with reference to the meridian rather than with reference to
their rising, as had hitherto been the custom. In making these
studies of the relative position of the stars, Hipparchus was led
to compare his observations with those of the Babylonians, which,
it was said, Alexander had caused to be transmitted to Greece. He
made use also of the observations of Aristarchus and others of
his Greek precursors. The result of his comparisons proved that
the sphere of the fixed stars had apparently shifted its position
in reference to the plane of the sun's orbit--that is to say, the
plane of the ecliptic no longer seemed to cut the sphere of the
fixed stars at precisely the point where the two coincided in
former centuries. The plane of the ecliptic must therefore be
conceived as slowly revolving in such a way as gradually to
circumnavigate the heavens. This important phenomenon is
described as the precession of the equinoxes.

It is much in question whether this phenomenon was not known to
the ancient Egyptian astronomers; but in any event, Hipparchus is
to be credited with demonstrating the fact and making it known to
the Western world. A further service was rendered theoretical
astronomy by Hipparchus through his invention of the planosphere,
an instrument for the representation of the mechanism of the
heavens. His computations of the properties of the spheres led
him also to what was virtually a discovery of the method of
trigonometry, giving him, therefore, a high position in the field
of mathematics. All in all, then, Hipparchus is a most heroic
figure. He may well be considered the greatest star-gazer of
antiquity, though he cannot, without injustice to his great
precursors, be allowed the title which is sometimes given him of
"father of systematic astronomy."


CTESIBIUS AND HERO: MAGICIANS OF ALEXANDRIA

Just about the time when Hipparchus was working out at Rhodes his
puzzles of celestial mechanics, there was a man in Alexandria who
was exercising a strangely inventive genius over mechanical
problems of another sort; a man who, following the example set by
Archimedes a century before, was studying the problems of matter
and putting his studies to practical application through the
invention of weird devices. The man's name was Ctesibius. We know
scarcely more of him than that he lived in Alexandria, probably
in the first half of the second century B.C. His antecedents, the
place and exact time of his birth and death, are quite unknown.
Neither are we quite certain as to the precise range of his
studies or the exact number of his discoveries. It appears that
he had a pupil named Hero, whose personality, unfortunately, is
scarcely less obscure than that of his master, but who wrote a
book through which the record of the master's inventions was
preserved to posterity. Hero, indeed, wrote several books, though
only one of them has been preserved. The ones that are lost bear
the following suggestive titles: On the Construction of Slings;
On the Construction of Missiles; On the Automaton; On the Method
of Lifting Heavy Bodies; On the Dioptric or Spying-tube. The work
that remains is called Pneumatics, and so interesting a work it
is as to make us doubly regret the loss of its companion volumes.
Had these other books been preserved we should doubtless have a
clearer insight than is now possible into some at least of the
mechanical problems that exercised the minds of the ancient
philosophers. The book that remains is chiefly concerned, as its
name implies, with the study of gases, or, rather, with the study
of a single gas, this being, of course, the air. But it tells us
also of certain studies in the dynamics of water that are most
interesting, and for the historian of science most important.

Unfortunately, the pupil of Ctesibius, whatever his ingenuity,
was a man with a deficient sense of the ethics of science. He
tells us in his preface that the object of his book is to record
some ingenious discoveries of others, together with additional
discoveries of his own, but nowhere in the book itself does he
give us the, slightest clew as to where the line is drawn between
the old and the new. Once, in discussing the weight of water, he
mentions the law of Archimedes regarding a floating body, but
this is the only case in which a scientific principle is traced
to its source or in which credit is given to any one for a
discovery. This is the more to be regretted because Hero has
discussed at some length the theories involved in the treatment
of his subject. This reticence on the part of Hero, combined with
the fact that such somewhat later writers as Pliny and Vitruvius
do not mention Hero's name, while they frequently mention the
name of his master, Ctesibius, has led modern critics to a
somewhat sceptical attitude regarding the position of Hero as an
actual discoverer.

The man who would coolly appropriate some discoveries of others
under cloak of a mere prefatorial reference was perhaps an
expounder rather than an innovator, and had, it is shrewdly
suspected, not much of his own to offer. Meanwhile, it is
tolerably certain that Ctesibius was the discoverer of the
principle of the siphon, of the forcing-pump, and of a pneumatic
organ. An examination of Hero's book will show that these are
really the chief principles involved in most of the various
interesting mechanisms which he describes. We are constrained,
then, to believe that the inventive genius who was really
responsible for the mechanisms we are about to describe was
Ctesibius, the master. Yet we owe a debt of gratitude to Hero,
the pupil, for having given wider vogue to these discoveries, and
in particular for the discussion of the principles of
hydrostatics and pneumatics contained in the introduction to his
book. This discussion furnishes us almost our only knowledge as
to the progress of Greek philosophers in the field of mechanics
since the time of Archimedes.

The main purpose of Hero in his preliminary thesis has to do with
the nature of matter, and recalls, therefore, the studies of
Anaxagoras and Democritus. Hero, however, approaches his subject
from a purely material or practical stand-point. He is an
explicit champion of what we nowadays call the molecular theory
of matter. "Every body," he tells us, "is composed of minute
particles, between which are empty spaces less than these
particles of the body. It is, therefore, erroneous to say that
there is no vacuum except by the application of force, and that
every space is full either of air or water or some other
substance. But in proportion as any one of these particles
recedes, some other follows it and fills the vacant space;
therefore there is no continuous vacuum, except by the
application of some force [like suction]--that is to say, an
absolute vacuum is never found, except as it is produced
artificially." Hero brings forward some thoroughly convincing
proofs of the thesis he is maintaining. "If there were no void
places between the particles of water," he says, "the rays of
light could not penetrate the water; moreover, another liquid,
such as wine, could not spread itself through the water, as it is
observed to do, were the particles of water absolutely
continuous." The latter illustration is one the validity of which
appeals as forcibly to the physicists of to-day as it did to
Hero. The same is true of the argument drawn from the
compressibility of gases. Hero has evidently made a careful study
of this subject. He knows that an inverted tube full of air may
be immersed in water without becoming wet on the inside, proving
that air is a physical substance; but he knows also that this
same air may be caused to expand to a much greater bulk by the
application of heat, or may, on the other hand, be condensed by
pressure, in which case, as he is well aware, the air exerts
force in the attempt to regain its normal bulk. But, he argues,
surely we are not to believe that the particles of air expand to
fill all the space when the bulk of air as a whole expands under
the influence of heat; nor can we conceive that the particles of
normal air are in actual contact, else we should not be able to
compress the air. Hence his conclusion, which, as we have seen,
he makes general in its application to all matter, that there are
spaces, or, as he calls them, vacua, between the particles that
go to make up all substances, whether liquid, solid, or gaseous.

Here, clearly enough, was the idea of the "atomic" nature of
matter accepted as a fundamental notion. The argumentative
attitude assumed by Hero shows that the doctrine could not be
expected to go unchallenged. But, on the other hand, there is
nothing in his phrasing to suggest an intention to claim
originality for any phase of the doctrine. We may infer that in
the three hundred years that had elapsed since the time of
Anaxagoras, that philosopher's idea of the molecular nature of
matter had gained fairly wide currency. As to the expansive power
of gas, which Hero describes at some length without giving us a
clew to his authorities, we may assume that Ctesibius was an
original worker, yet the general facts involved were doubtless
much older than his day. Hero, for example, tells us of the
cupping-glass used by physicians, which he says is made into a
vacuum by burning up the air in it; but this apparatus had
probably been long in use, and Hero mentions it not in order to
describe the ordinary cupping-glass which is referred to, but a
modification of it. He refers to the old form as if it were
something familiar to all.

Again, we know that Empedocles studied the pressure of the air in
the fifth century B.C., and discovered that it would support a
column of water in a closed tube, so this phase of the subject is
not new. But there is no hint anywhere before this work of Hero
of a clear understanding that the expansive properties of the air
when compressed, or when heated, may be made available as a motor
power. Hero, however, has the clearest notions on the subject and
puts them to the practical test of experiment. Thus he constructs
numerous mechanisms in which the expansive power of air under
pressure is made to do work, and others in which the same end is
accomplished through the expansive power of heated air. For
example, the doors of a temple are made to swing open
automatically when a fire is lighted on a distant altar, closing
again when the fire dies out--effects which must have filled the
minds of the pious observers with bewilderment and wonder,
serving a most useful purpose for the priests, who alone, we may
assume, were in the secret. There were two methods by which this
apparatus was worked. In one the heated air pressed on the water
in a close retort connected with the altar, forcing water out of
the retort into a bucket, which by its weight applied a force
through pulleys and ropes that turned the standards on which the
temple doors revolved. When the fire died down the air
contracted, the water was siphoned back from the bucket, which,
being thus lightened, let the doors close again through the
action of an ordinary weight. The other method was a slight
modification, in which the retort of water was dispensed with and
a leather sack like a large football substitued. The ropes
and pulleys were connected with this sack, which exerted a pull
when the hot air expanded, and which collapsed and thus relaxed
its strain when the air cooled. A glance at the illustrations
taken from Hero's book will make the details clear.

Other mechanisms utilized a somewhat different combination of
weights, pulleys, and siphons, operated by the expansive power of
air, unheated but under pressure, such pressure being applied
with a force- pump, or by the weight of water running into a
closed receptacle. One such mechanism gives us a constant jet of
water or perpetual fountain. Another curious application of the
principle furnishes us with an elaborate toy, consisting of a
group of birds which alternately whistle or are silent, while an
owl seated on a neighboring perch turns towards the birds when
their song begins and away from them when it ends. The "singing"
of the birds, it must be explained, is produced by the expulsion
of air through tiny tubes passing up through their throats from a
tank below. The owl is made to turn by a mechanism similar to
that which manipulates the temple doors. The pressure is supplied
merely by a stream of running water, and the periodical silence
of the birds is due to the fact that this pressure is relieved
through the automatic siphoning off of the water when it reaches
a certain height. The action of the siphon, it may be added, is
correctly explained by Hero as due to the greater weight of the
water in the longer arm of the bent tube. As before mentioned,
the siphon is repeatedly used in these mechanisms of Hero. The
diagram will make clear the exact application of it in the
present most ingenious mechanism. We may add that the principle
of the whistle was a favorite one of Hero. By the aid of a
similar mechanism he brought about the blowing of trumpets when
the temple doors were opened, a phenomenon which must greatly
have enhanced the mystification. It is possible that this
principle was utilized also in connection with statues to produce
seemingly supernatural effects. This may be the explanation of
the tradition of the speaking statue in the temple of Ammon at
Thebes.

{illustration caption = DEVICE FOR CAUSING THE DOORS OF THE
TEMPLE TO OPEN WHEN THE FIRE ON THE ALTAR IS LIGHTED (Air heated
in the altar F drives water from the closed receptacle H through
the tube KL into the bucket M, which descends through gravity,
thus opening the doors. When the altar cools, the air contracts,
the water is sucked from the bucket, and the weight and pulley
close the doors.)}

{illustration caption = THE STEAM-ENGINE OF HERO (The steam
generated in the receptacle AB passes through the tube EF into
the globe, and escapes through the bent tubes H and K, causing
the globe to rotate on the axis LG.)}


The utilization of the properties of compressed air was not
confined, however, exclusively to mere toys, or to produce
miraculous effects. The same principle was applied to a practical
fire-engine, worked by levers and force-pumps; an apparatus, in
short, altogether similar to that still in use in rural
districts. A slightly different application of the motive power
of expanding air is furnished in a very curious toy called "the
dancing figures." In this, air heated in a retort like a
miniature altar is allowed to escape through the sides of two
pairs of revolving arms precisely like those of the ordinary
revolving fountain with which we are accustomed to water our
lawns, the revolving arms being attached to a plane on which
several pairs of statuettes representing dancers are placed, An
even more interesting application of this principle of setting a
wheel in motion is furnished in a mechanism which must be
considered the earliest of steam-engines. Here, as the name
implies, the gas supplying the motive power is actually steam.
The apparatus made to revolve is a globe connected with the
steam-retort by a tube which serves as one of its axes, the steam
escaping from the globe through two bent tubes placed at either
end of an equatorial diameter. It does not appear that Hero had
any thought of making practical use of this steam- engine. It was
merely a curious toy--nothing more. Yet had not the age that
succeeded that of Hero been one in which inventive genius was
dormant, some one must soon have hit upon the idea that this
steam- engine might be improved and made to serve a useful
purpose. As the case stands, however, there was no advance made
upon the steam motor of Hero for almost two thousand years. And,
indeed, when the practical application of steam was made, towards
the close of the eighteenth century, it was made probably quite
without reference to the experiment of Hero, though knowledge of
his toy may perhaps have given a clew to Watt or his
predecessors.


{illustration caption = THE SLOT-MACHINE OF HERO (The coin
introduced at A falls on the lever R, and by its weight opens the
valve S, permitting the liquid to escape through the invisible
tube LM. As the lever tips, the coin slides off and the valve
closes. The liquid in tank must of course be kept above F.)}

In recent times there has been a tendency to give to this
steam-engine of Hero something more than full meed of
appreciation. To be sure, it marked a most important principle in
the conception that steam might be used as a motive power, but,
except in the demonstration of this principle, the mechanism of
Hero was much too primitive to be of any importance. But there is
one mechanism described by Hero which was a most explicit
anticipation of a device, which presumably soon went out of use,
and which was not reinvented until towards the close of the
nineteenth century. This was a device which has become familiar
in recent times as the penny-in-the-slot machine. When towards
the close of the nineteenth century some inventive craftsman hit
upon the idea of an automatic machine to supply candy, a box of
cigarettes, or a whiff of perfumery, he may or may not have
borrowed his idea from the slot-machine of Hero; but in any
event, instead of being an innovator he was really two thousand
years behind the times, for the slot-machine of Hero is the
precise prototype of these modern ones.

The particular function which the mechanism of Hero was destined
to fulfil was the distribution of a jet of water, presumably used
for sacramental purposes, which was given out automatically when
a five- drachma coin was dropped into the slot at the top of the
machine. The internal mechanism of the machine was simple enough,
consisting merely of a lever operating a valve which was opened
by the weight of the coin dropping on the little shelf at the end
of the lever, and which closed again when the coin slid off the
shelf. The illustration will show how simple this mechanism was.
Yet to the worshippers, who probably had entered the temple
through doors miraculously opened, and who now witnessed this
seemingly intelligent response of a machine, the result must have
seemed mystifying enough; and, indeed, for us also, when we
consider how relatively crude was the mechanical knowledge of the
time, this must seem nothing less than marvellous. As in
imagination we walk up to the sacred tank, drop our drachma in
the slot, and hold our hand for the spurt of holy-water, can we
realize that this is the land of the Pharaohs, not England or
America; that the kingdom of the Ptolemies is still at its
height; that the republic of Rome is mistress of the world; that
all Europe north of the Alps is inhabited solely by barbarians;
that Cleopatra and Julius Caesar are yet unborn; that the
Christian era has not yet begun? Truly, it seems as if there
could be no new thing under the sun.



X. SCIENCE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD

We have seen that the third century B.C. was a time when
Alexandrian science was at its height, but that the second
century produced also in Hipparchus at least one investigator of
the very first rank; though, to be sure, Hipparchus can be called
an Alexandrian only by courtesy. In the ensuing generations the
Greek capital at the mouth of the Nile continued to hold its
place as the centre of scientific and philosophical thought. The
kingdom of the Ptolemies still flourished with at least the
outward appearances of its old-time glory, and a company of
grammarians and commentators of no small merit could always be
found in the service of the famous museum and library; but the
whole aspect of world-history was rapidly changing. Greece, after
her brief day of political supremacy, was sinking rapidly
into desuetude, and the hard-headed Roman in the West was making
himself master everywhere. While Hipparchus of Rhodes was in his
prime, Corinth, the last stronghold of the main-land of Greece,
had fallen before the prowess of the Roman, and the kingdom of
the Ptolemies, though still nominally free, had begun to come
within the sphere of Roman influence.

Just what share these political changes had in changing the
aspect of Greek thought is a question regarding which difference
of opinion might easily prevail; but there can be no question
that, for one reason or another, the Alexandrian school as a
creative centre went into a rapid decline at about the time of
the Roman rise to world-power. There are some distinguished
names, but, as a general rule, the spirit of the times is
reminiscent rather than creative; the workers tend to collate the
researches of their predecessors rather than to make new and
original researches for themselves. Eratosthenes, the inventive
world-measurer, was succeeded by Strabo, the industrious collator
of facts; Aristarchus and Hipparchus, the originators of new
astronomical methods, were succeeded by Ptolemy, the perfecter of
their methods and the systematizer of their knowledge. Meanwhile,
in the West, Rome never became a true culture-centre. The great
genius of the Roman was political; the Augustan Age produced a
few great historians and poets, but not a single great
philosopher or creative devotee of science. Cicero, Lucian,
Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, give us at best a reflection of Greek
philosophy. Pliny, the one world-famous name in the scientific
annals of Rome, can lay claim to no higher credit than that of a
marvellously industrious collector of facts--the compiler of an
encyclopaedia which contains not one creative touch.

All in all, then, this epoch of Roman domination is one that need
detain the historian of science but a brief moment. With the
culmination of Greek effort in the so-called Hellenistic period
we have seen ancient science at its climax. The Roman period is
but a time of transition, marking, as it were, a plateau on the
slope between those earlier heights and the deep, dark valleys of
the Middle Ages. Yet we cannot quite disregard the efforts of
such workers as those we have just named. Let us take a more
specific glance at their accomplishments.


STRABO THE GEOGRAPHER

The earliest of these workers in point of time is Strabo. This
most famous of ancient geographers was born in Amasia, Pontus,
about 63 B.C., and lived to the year 24 A.D., living, therefore,
in the age of Caesar and Augustus, during which the final
transformation in the political position of the kingdom of Egypt
was effected. The name of Strabo in a modified form has become
popularized through a curious circumstance. The geographer, it
appears, was afflicted with a peculiar squint of the eyes, hence
the name strabismus, which the modern oculist applies to that
particular infirmity.

Fortunately, the great geographer has not been forced to depend
upon hearsay evidence for recognition. His comprehensive work on
geography has been preserved in its entirety, being one of the
few expansive classical writings of which this is true. The other
writings of Strabo, however, including certain histories of which
reports have come down to us, are entirely lost. The geography is
in many ways a remarkable book. It is not, however, a work in
which any important new principles are involved. Rather is it
typical of its age in that it is an elaborate compilation and a
critical review of the labors of Strabo's predecessors. Doubtless
it contains a vast deal of new information as to the details of
geography--precise areas and distance, questions of geographical
locations as to latitude and zones, and the like. But however
important these details may have been from a contemporary
stand-point, they, of course, can have nothing more than
historical interest to posterity. The value of the work from our
present stand-point is chiefly due to the criticisms which Strabo
passes upon his forerunners, and to the incidental historical and
scientific references with which his work abounds. Being written
in this closing period of ancient progress, and summarizing, as
it does, in full detail the geographical knowledge of the time,
it serves as an important guide-mark for the student of the
progress of scientific thought. We cannot do better than briefly
to follow Strabo in his estimates and criticisms of the work of
his predecessors, taking note thus of the point of view from
which he himself looked out upon the world. We shall thus gain a
clear idea as to the state of scientific geography towards the
close of the classical epoch.

"If the scientific investigation of any subject be the proper
avocation of the philosopher," says Strabo, "geography, the
science of which we propose to treat, is certainly entitled to a
high place; and this is evident from many considerations. They
who first undertook to handle the matter were distinguished men.
Homer, Anaximander the Milesian, and Hecaeus (his fellow-citizen
according to Eratosthenes), Democritus, Eudoxus, Dicaearchus, and
Ephorus, with many others, and after these, Eratosthenes,
Polybius, and Posidonius, all of them philosophers. Nor is the
great learning through which alone this subject can be approached
possessed by any but a person acquainted with both human and
divine things, and these attainments constitute what is called
philosophy. In addition to its vast importance in regard to
social life and the art of government, geography unfolds to us a
celestial phenomena, acquaints us with the occupants of the land
and ocean, and the vegetation, fruits, and peculiarities of the
various quarters of the earth, a knowledge of which marks him who
cultivates it as a man earnest in the great problem of life and
happiness."

Strabo goes on to say that in common with other critics,
including Hipparchus, he regards Homer as the first great
geographer. He has much to say on the geographical knowledge of
the bard, but this need not detain us. We are chiefly concerned
with his comment upon his more recent predecessors, beginning
with Eratosthenes. The constant reference to this worker shows
the important position which he held. Strabo appears neither as
detractor nor as partisan, but as one who earnestly desires the
truth. Sometimes he seems captious in his criticisms regarding
some detail, nor is he always correct in his emendations of the
labors of others; but, on the whole, his work is marked by an
evident attempt at fairness. In reading his book, however, one is
forced to the conclusion that Strabo is an investigator of
details, not an original thinker. He seems more concerned with
precise measurements than with questionings as to the open
problems of his science. Whatever he accepts, then, may be taken
as virtually the stock doctrine of the period.

"As the size of the earth," he says, "has been demonstrated by
other writers, we shall here take for granted and receive as
accurate what they have advanced. We shall also assume that the
earth is spheroidal, that its surface is likewise spheroidal and,
above all, that bodies have a tendency towards its centre, which
latter point is clear to the perception of the most average
understanding. However, we may show summarily that the earth is
spheroidal, from the consideration that all things, however
distant, tend to its centre, and that every body is attracted
towards its centre by gravity. This is more distinctly proved
from observations of the sea and sky, for here the evidence of
the senses and common observation is alone requisite. The
convexity of the sea is a further proof of this to those who have
sailed, for they cannot perceive lights at a distance when placed
at the same level as their eyes, and if raised on high they at
once become perceptible to vision though at the same time farther
removed. So when the eye is raised it sees what before was
utterly imperceptible. Homer speaks of this when he says:


" 'Lifted up on the vast wave he quickly beheld afar.'

Sailors as they approach their destination behold the shore
continually raising itself to their view, and objects which had
at first seemed low begin to lift themselves. Our gnomons, also,
are, among other things, evidence of the revolution of the
heavenly bodies, and common-sense at once shows us that if the
depth of the earth were infinite such a revolution could not take
place."[1]

Elsewhere Strabo criticises Eratosthenes for having entered into
a long discussion as to the form of the earth. This matter,
Strabo thinks, "should have been disposed of in the compass of a
few words." Obviously this doctrine of the globe's sphericity
had, in the course of 600 years, become so firmly established
among the Greek thinkers as to seem almost axiomatic. We shall
see later on how the Western world made a curious recession from
this seemingly secure position under stimulus of an Oriental
misconception. As to the size of the globe, Strabo is disposed to
accept without particular comment the measurements of
Eratosthenes. He speaks, however, of "more recent measurements,"
referring in particular to that adopted by Posidonius, according
to which the circumference is only about one hundred and eighty
thousand stadia. Posidonius, we may note in passing, was a
contemporary and friend of Cicero, and hence lived shortly before
the time of Strabo. His measurement of the earth was based on
observations of a star which barely rose above the southern
horizon at Rhodes as compared with the height of the same star
when observed at Alexandria. This measurement of Posidonius,
together with the even more famous measurement of Eratosthenes,
appears to have been practically the sole guide as to the size of
the earth throughout the later periods of antiquity, and, indeed,
until the later Middle Ages.

As becomes a writer who is primarily geographer and historian
rather than astronomer, Strabo shows a much keener interest in
the habitable portions of the globe than in the globe as a whole.
He assures us that this habitable portion of the earth is a great
island, "since wherever men have approached the termination of
the land, the sea, which we designate ocean, has been met with,
and reason assures us of the similarity of this place which our
senses have not been tempted to survey." He points out that
whereas sailors have not circumnavigated the globe, that they had
not been prevented from doing so by any continent, and it seems
to him altogether unlikely that the Atlantic Ocean is divided
into two seas by narrow isthmuses so placed as to prevent
circumnavigation. "How much more probable that it is confluent
and uninterrupted. This theory," he adds, "goes better with the
ebb and flow of the ocean. Moreover (and here his reasoning
becomes more fanciful), the greater the amount of moisture
surrounding the earth, the easier would the heavenly bodies be
supplied with vapor from thence." Yet he is disposed to believe,
following Plato, that the tradition "concerning the island of
Atlantos might be received as something more than idle fiction,
it having been related by Solon, on the authority of the Egyptian
priests, that this island, almost as large as a continent, was
formerly in existence although now it had disappeared."[2]

In a word, then, Strabo entertains no doubt whatever that it
would be possible to sail around the globe from Spain to India.
Indeed, so matter-of-fact an inference was this that the feat of
Columbus would have seemed less surprising in the first century
of our era than it did when actually performed in the fifteenth
century. The terrors of the great ocean held the mariner back,
rather than any doubt as to where he would arrive at the end of
the voyage.

Coupled with the idea that the habitable portion of the earth is
an island, there was linked a tolerably definite notion as to the
shape of this island. This shape Strabo likens to a military
cloak. The comparison does not seem peculiarly apt when we are
told presently that the length of the habitable earth is more
than twice its breadth. This idea, Strabo assures us, accords
with the most accurate observations "both ancient and modern."
These observations seemed to show that it is not possible to live
in the region close to the equator, and that, on the other hand,
the cold temperature sharply limits the habitability of the globe
towards the north. All the civilization of antiquity clustered
about the Mediterranean, or extended off towards the east at
about the same latitude. Hence geographers came to think of the
habitable globe as having the somewhat lenticular shape which a
crude map of these regions suggests. We have already had occasion
to see that at an earlier day Anaxagoras was perhaps influenced
in his conception of the shape of the earth by this idea, and the
constant references of Strabo impress upon us the thought that
this long, relatively narrow area of the earth's surface is the
only one which can be conceived of as habitable.

Strabo had much to tell us concerning zones, which, following
Posidonius, he believes to have been first described by
Parmenides. We may note, however, that other traditions assert
that both Thales and Pythagoras had divided the earth into zones.
The number of zones accepted by Strabo is five, and he
criticises Polybius for making the number six. The five
zones accepted by Strabo are as follows: the uninhabitable torrid
zone lying in the region of the equator; a zone on either side of
this extending to the tropic; and then the temperate zones
extending in either direction from the tropic to the arctic
regions. There seems to have been a good deal of dispute among
the scholars of the time as to the exact arrangement of these
zones, but the general idea that the north-temperate zone is the
part of the earth with which the geographer deals seemed clearly
established. That the south-temperate zone would also present a
habitable area is an idea that is sometimes suggested, though
seldom or never distinctly expressed. It is probable that
different opinions were held as to this, and no direct evidence
being available, a cautiously scientific geographer like Strabo
would naturally avoid the expression of an opinion regarding it.
Indeed, his own words leave us somewhat in doubt as to the
precise character of his notion regarding the zones. Perhaps we
shall do best to quote them:

"Let the earth be supposed to consist of five zones. (1) The
equatorial circle described around it. (2) Another parallel to
this, and defining the frigid zone of the northern hemisphere.
(3) A circle passing through the poles and cutting the two
preceding circles at right- angles. The northern hemisphere
contains two quarters of the earth, which are bounded by the
equator and circle passing through the poles. Each of these
quarters should be supposed to contain a four-sided district, its
northern side being of one-half of the parallel next the pole,
its southern by the half of the equator, and its remaining sides
by two segments of the circle drawn through the poles, opposite
to each other, and equal in length. In one of these (which of
them is of no consequence) the earth which we inhabit is
situated, surrounded by a sea and similar to an island. This, as
we said before, is evident both to our senses and to our reason.
But let any one doubt this, it makes no difference so far as
geography is concerned whether you believe the portion of the
earth which we inhabit to be an island or only admit what we know
from experience --namely, that whether you start from the east or
the west you may sail all around it. Certain intermediate spaces
may have been left (unexplored), but these are as likely to be
occupied by sea as uninhabited land. The object of the geographer
is to describe known countries. Those which are unknown he passes
over equally with those beyond the limits of the inhabited earth.
It will, therefore, be sufficient for describing the contour of
the island we have been speaking of, if we join by a right line
the outmost points which, up to this time, have been explored by
voyagers along the coast on either side."[3]

We may pass over the specific criticisms of Strabo upon various
explorations that seem to have been of great interest to his
contemporaries, including an alleged trip of one Eudoxus out into
the Atlantic, and the journeyings of Pytheas in the far north. It
is Pytheas, we may add, who was cited by Hipparchus as having
made the mistaken observation that the length of the shadow of
the gnomon is the same at Marseilles and Byzantium, hence that
these two places are on the same parallel. Modern commentators
have defended Pytheas as regards this observation, claiming that
it was Hipparchus and not Pytheas who made the second observation
from which the faulty induction was drawn. The point is of no
great significance, however, except as showing that a correct
method of determining the problems of latitude had thus early
been suggested. That faulty observations and faulty application
of the correct principle should have been made is not surprising.
Neither need we concern ourselves with the details as to the
geographical distances, which Strabo found so worthy of criticism
and controversy. But in leaving the great geographer we may
emphasize his point of view and that of his contemporaries by
quoting three fundamental principles which he reiterates as being
among the "facts established by natural philosophers." He tells
us that "(1) The earth and heavens are spheroidal. (2) The
tendency of all bodies having weight is towards a centre. (3)
Further, the earth being spheroidal and having the same centre as
the heavens, is motionless, as well as the axis that passes
through both it and the heavens. The heavens turn round both the
earth and its axis, from east to west. The fixed stars turn round
with it at the same rate as the whole. These fixed stars follow
in their course parallel circles, the principal of which are the
equator, two tropics, and the arctic circles; while the planets,
the sun, and the moon describe certain circles comprehended
within the zodiac."[4]

Here, then, is a curious mingling of truth and error. The
Pythagorean doctrine that the earth is round had become a
commonplace, but it would appear that the theory of Aristarchus,
according to which the earth is in motion, has been almost
absolutely forgotten. Strabo does not so much as refer to it;
neither, as we shall see, is it treated with greater respect by
the other writers of the period.


TWO FAMOUS EXPOSITORS--PLINY AND PTOLEMY

While Strabo was pursuing his geographical studies at Alexandria,
a young man came to Rome who was destined to make his name more
widely known in scientific annals than that of any other Latin
writer of antiquity. This man was Plinius Secundus, who, to
distinguish him from his nephew, a famous writer in another
field, is usually spoken of as Pliny the Elder. There is a famous
story to the effect that the great Roman historian Livy on one
occasion addressed a casual associate in the amphitheatre at
Rome, and on learning that the stranger hailed from the outlying
Spanish province of the empire, remarked to him, "Yet you have
doubtless heard of my writings even there." "Then," replied the
stranger, "you must be either Livy or Pliny."

The anecdote illustrates the wide fame which the Roman naturalist
achieved in his own day. And the records of the Middle Ages show
that this popularity did not abate in succeeding times. Indeed,
the Natural History of Pliny is one of the comparatively few
bulky writings of antiquity that the efforts of copyists have
preserved to us almost entire. It is, indeed, a remarkable work
and eminently typical of its time; but its author was an
industrious compiler, not a creative genius. As a monument of
industry it has seldom been equalled, and in this regard it seems
the more remarkable inasmuch as Pliny was a practical man of
affairs who occupied most of his life as a soldier fighting the
battles of the empire. He compiled his book in the leisure hours
stolen from sleep, often writing by the light of the camp-fire.
Yet he cites or quotes from about four thousand works, most of
which are known to us only by his references. Doubtless Pliny
added much through his own observations. We know how keen was his
desire to investigate, since he lost his life through attempting
to approach the crater of Vesuvius on the occasion of that
memorable eruption which buried the cities of Herculaneum and
Pompeii.

Doubtless the wandering life of the soldier had given Pliny
abundant opportunity for personal observation in his favorite
fields of botany and zoology. But the records of his own
observations are so intermingled with knowledge drawn from books
that it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other. Nor
does this greatly matter, for whether as closet-student or
field-naturalist, Pliny's trait of mind is essentially that of
the compiler. He was no philosophical thinker, no generalizer, no
path-maker in science. He lived at the close of a great
progressive epoch of thought; in one of those static periods when
numberless observers piled up an immense mass of details which
might advantageously be sorted into a kind of encyclopaedia. Such
an encyclopaedia is the so-called Natural History of Pliny. It is
a vast jumble of more or less uncritical statements regarding
almost every field of contemporary knowledge. The descriptions of
animals and plants predominate, but the work as a whole would
have been immensely improved had the compiler shown a more
critical spirit. As it is, he seems rather disposed to quote any
interesting citation that he comes across in his omnivorous
readings, shielding himself behind an equivocal "it is said," or
"so and so alleges." A single illustration will suffice to show
what manner of thing is thought worthy of repetition.

"It is asserted," he says, "that if the fish called a sea-star is
smeared with the fox's blood and then nailed to the upper lintel
of the door, or to the door itself, with a copper nail, no
noxious spell will be able to obtain admittance, or, at all
events, be productive of any ill effects."

It is easily comprehensible that a work fortified with such
practical details as this should have gained wide popularity.
Doubtless the natural histories of our own day would find readier
sale were they to pander to various superstitions not altogether
different from that here suggested. The man, for example, who
believes that to have a black cat cross his path is a lucky omen
would naturally find himself attracted by a book which took
account of this and similar important details of natural history.
Perhaps, therefore, it was its inclusion of absurdities, quite as
much as its legitimate value, that gave vogue to the celebrated
work of Pliny. But be that as it may, the most famous scientist
of Rome must be remembered as a popular writer rather than as an
experimental worker. In the history of the promulgation of
scientific knowledge his work is important; in the history of
scientific principles it may virtually be disregarded.


PTOLEMY, THE LAST GREAT ASTRONOMER OF ANTIQUITY

Almost the same thing may be said of Ptolemy, an even more
celebrated writer, who was born not very long after the death of
Pliny. The exact dates of Ptolemy's life are not known, but his
recorded observations extend to the year 151 A.D. He was a
working astronomer, and he made at least one original discovery
of some significance--namely, the observation of a hitherto
unrecorded irregularity of the moon's motion, which came to be
spoken of as the moon's evection. This consists of periodical
aberrations from the moon's regular motion in its orbit, which,
as we now know, are due to the gravitation pull of the sun, but
which remained unexplained until the time of Newton. Ptolemy also
made original observations as to the motions of the planets. He
is, therefore, entitled to a respectable place as an observing
astronomer; but his chief fame rests on his writings.

His great works have to do with geography and astronomy. In the
former field he makes an advance upon Strabo, citing the latitude
of no fewer than five thousand places. In the field of astronomy,
his great service was to have made known to the world the labors
of Hipparchus. Ptolemy has been accused of taking the star-chart
of his great predecessor without due credit, and indeed it seems
difficult to clear him of this charge. Yet it is at least open to
doubt whether be intended any impropriety, inasmuch as be all
along is sedulous in his references to his predecessor. Indeed,
his work might almost be called an exposition of the astronomical
doctrines of Hipparchus. No one pretends that Ptolemy is to be
compared with the Rhodesian observer as an original investigator,
but as a popular expounder his superiority is evidenced in the
fact that the writings of Ptolemy became practically the sole
astronomical text-book of the Middle Ages both in the East and in
the West, while the writings of Hipparchus were allowed to
perish.

The most noted of all the writings of Ptolemy is the work which
became famous under the Arabic name of Almagest. This word is
curiously derived from the Greek title ,
"the greatest construction," a name given the book to distinguish
it from a work on astrology in four books by the same author. For
convenience of reference it came to be spoken of merely as , from which the Arabs form the title Tabair al Magisthi,
under which title the book was published in the year 827. From
this it derived the word Almagest, by which Ptolemy's work
continued to be known among the Arabs, and subsequently among
Europeans when the book again became known in the West. Ptolemy's
book, as has been said, is virtually an elaboration of the
doctrines of Hipparchus. It assumes that the earth is the fixed
centre of the solar system, and that the stars and planets
revolve about it in twenty-four hours, the earth being, of
course, spherical. It was not to be expected that Ptolemy should
have adopted the heliocentric idea of Aristarchus. Yet it is much
to be regretted that he failed to do so, since the deference
which was accorded his authority throughout the Middle Ages would
doubtless have been extended in some measure at least to this
theory as well, had he championed it. Contrariwise, his
unqualified acceptance of the geocentric doctrine sufficed to
place that doctrine beyond the range of challenge.

The Almagest treats of all manner of astronomical problems, but
the feature of it which gained it widest celebrity was perhaps
that which has to do with eccentrics and epicycles. This theory
was, of course, but an elaboration of the ideas of Hipparchus;
but, owing to the celebrity of the expositor, it has come to be
spoken of as the theory of Ptolemy. We have sufficiently detailed
the theory in speaking of Hipparchus. It should be explained,
however, that, with both Hipparchus and Ptolemy, the theory of
epicycles would appear to have been held rather as a working
hypothesis than as a certainty, so far as the actuality of the
minor spheres or epicycles is concerned. That is to say, these
astronomers probably did not conceive either the epicycles or the
greater spheres as constituting actual solid substances.
Subsequent generations, however, put this interpretation upon the
theory, conceiving the various spheres as actual crystalline
bodies. It is difficult to imagine just how the various epicycles
were supposed to revolve without interfering with the major
spheres, but perhaps this is no greater difficulty than is
presented by the alleged properties of the ether, which
physicists of to-day accept as at least a working hypothesis. We
shall see later on how firmly the conception of concentric
crystalline spheres was held to, and that no real challenge was
ever given that theory until the discovery was made that comets
have an orbit that must necessarily intersect the spheres of the
various planets.

Ptolemy's system of geography in eight books, founded on that of
Marinus of Tyre, was scarcely less celebrated throughout the
Middle Ages than the Almagest. It contained little, however, that
need concern us here, being rather an elaboration of the
doctrines to which we have already sufficiently referred. None of
Ptolemy's original manuscripts has come down to us, but there is
an alleged fifth-century manuscript attributed to Agathadamon of
Alexandria which has peculiar interest because it contains a
series of twenty-seven elaborately colored maps that are supposed
to be derived from maps drawn up by Ptolemy himself. In these
maps the sea is colored green, the mountains red or dark yellow,
and the land white. Ptolemy assumed that a degree at the equator
was 500 stadia instead of 604 stadia in length. We are not
informed as to the grounds on which this assumption was made, but
it has been suggested that the error was at least partially
instrumental in leading to one very curious result. "Taking the
parallel of Rhodes," says Donaldson,[5] "he calculated the
longitudes from the Fortunate Islands to Cattigara or the west
coast of Borneo at 180 degrees, conceiving this to be one-half
the circumference of the globe. The real distance is only 125
degrees or 127 degrees, so that his measurement is wrong by one
third of the whole, one-sixth for the error in the measurement of
a degree and one-sixth for the errors in measuring the distance
geometrically. These errors, owing to the authority attributed to
the geography of Ptolemy in the Middle Ages, produced a
consequence of the greatest importance. They really led to the
discovery of America. For the design of Columbus to sail from the
west of Europe to the east of Asia was founded on the supposition
that the distance was less by one third than it really was." This
view is perhaps a trifle fanciful, since there is nothing to
suggest that the courage of Columbus would have balked at the
greater distance, and since the protests of the sailors, which
nearly thwarted his efforts, were made long before the distance
as estimated by Ptolemy had been covered; nevertheless it is
interesting to recall that the great geographical doctrines, upon
which Columbus must chiefly have based his arguments, had been
before the world in an authoritative form practically unheeded
for more than twelve hundred years, awaiting a champion with
courage enough to put them to the test.


GALEN--THE LAST GREAT ALEXANDRIAN

There is one other field of scientific investigation to which we
must give brief attention before leaving the antique world. This
is the field of physiology and medicine. In considering it we
shall have to do with the very last great scientist of the
Alexandrian school. This was Claudius Galenus, commonly known as
Galen, a man whose fame was destined to eclipse that of all other
physicians of antiquity except Hippocrates, and whose doctrines
were to have the same force in their field throughout the Middle
Ages that the doctrines of Aristotle had for physical science.
But before we take up Galen's specific labors, it will be well to
inquire briefly as to the state of medical art and science in the
Roman world at the time when the last great physician of
antiquity came upon the scene.

The Romans, it would appear, had done little in the way of
scientific discoveries in the field of medicine, but,
nevertheless, with their practicality of mind, they had turned to
better account many more of the scientific discoveries of the
Greeks than did the discoverers themselves. The practising
physicians in early Rome were mostly men of Greek origin, who
came to the capital after the overthrow of the Greeks by the
Romans. Many of them were slaves, as earning money by either
bodily or mental labor was considered beneath the dignity of a
Roman citizen. The wealthy Romans, who owned large estates and
numerous slaves, were in the habit of purchasing some of these
slave doctors, and thus saving medical fees by having them attend
to the health of their families.

By the beginning of the Christian era medicine as a profession
had sadly degenerated, and in place of a class of physicians who
practised medicine along rational or legitimate lines, in the
footsteps of the great Hippocrates, there appeared great numbers
of "specialists," most of them charlatans, who pretended to
possess supernatural insight in the methods of treating certain
forms of disease. These physicians rightly earned the contempt of
the better class of Romans, and were made the object of many
attacks by the satirists of the time. Such specialists travelled
about from place to place in much the same manner as the
itinerant "Indian doctors" and "lightning tooth-extractors" do
to-day. Eye-doctors seem to have been particularly numerous, and
these were divided into two classes, eye-surgeons and eye-doctors
proper. The eye-surgeon performed such operations as cauterizing
for ingrowing eyelashes and operating upon growths about the
eyes; while the eye-doctors depended entirely upon salves and
lotions. These eye-salves were frequently stamped with the seal
of the physician who compounded them, something like two hundred
of these seals being still in existence. There were besides these
quacks, however, reputable eye-doctors who must have possessed
considerable skill in the treatment of certain ophthalmias. Among
some Roman surgical instruments discovered at Rheims were found
also some drugs employed by ophthalmic surgeons, and an analysis
of these show that they contained, among other ingredients, some
that are still employed in the treatment of certain affections of
the eye.

One of the first steps taken in recognition of the services of
physicians was by Julius Caesar, who granted citizenship to all
physicians practising in Rome. This was about fifty years before
the Christian era, and from that time on there was a gradual
improvement in the attitude of the Romans towards the members of
the medical profession. As the Romans degenerated from a race of
sturdy warriors and became more and more depraved physically, the
necessity for physicians made itself more evident. Court
physicians, and physicians-in-ordinary, were created by the
emperors, as were also city and district physicians. In the year
133 A.D. Hadrian granted immunity from taxes and military service
to physicians in recognition of their public services.

The city and district physicians, known as the archiatri
populaires, treated and cared for the poor without remuneration,
having a position and salary fixed by law and paid them
semi-annually. These were honorable positions, and the archiatri
were obliged to give instruction in medicine, without pay, to the
poor students. They were allowed to receive fees and donations
from their patients, but not, however, until the danger from the
malady was past. Special laws were enacted to protect them, and
any person subjecting them to an insult was liable to a fine "not
exceeding one thousand pounds."

An example of Roman practicality is shown in the method of
treating hemorrhage, as described by Aulus Cornelius Celsus (53
B.C. to 7 A.D.). Hippocrates and Hippocratic writers treated
hemorrhage by application of cold, pressure, styptics, and
sometimes by actual cauterizing; but they knew nothing of the
simple method of stopping a hemorrhage by a ligature tied around
the bleeding vessel. Celsus not only recommended tying the end of
the injured vessel, but describes the method of applying two
ligatures before the artery is divided by the surgeon--a common
practice among surgeons at the present time. The cut is made
between these two, and thus hemorrhage is avoided from either end
of the divided vessel.

Another Roman surgeon, Heliodorus, not only describes the use of
the ligature in stopping hemorrhage, but also the practice of
torsion--twisting smaller vessels, which causes their lining
membrane to contract in a manner that produces coagulation and
stops hemorrhage. It is remarkable that so simple and practical a
method as the use of the ligature in stopping hemorrhage could
have gone out of use, once it had been discovered; but during the
Middle Ages it was almost entirely lost sight of, and was not
reintroduced until the time of Ambroise Pare, in the sixteenth
century.

Even at a very early period the Romans recognized the advantage
of surgical methods on the field of battle. Each soldier was
supplied with bandages, and was probably instructed in applying
them, something in the same manner as is done now in all modern
armies. The Romans also made use of military hospitals and had
established a rude but very practical field-ambulance service.
"In every troop or bandon of two or four hundred men, eight or
ten stout fellows were deputed to ride immediately behind the
fighting-line to pick up and rescue the wounded, for which
purpose their saddles had two stirrups on the left side, while
they themselves were provided with water-flasks, and perhaps
applied temporary bandages. They were encouraged by a reward of a
piece of gold for each man they rescued. 'Noscomi' were male
nurses attached to the military hospitals, but not inscribed 'on
strength' of the legions, and were probably for the most part of
the servile class."[6]

From the time of the early Alexandrians, Herophilus and
Erasistratus, whose work we have already examined, there had been
various anatomists of some importance in the Alexandrian school,
though none quite equal to these earlier workers. The best-known
names are those of Celsus (of whom we have already spoken), who
continued the work of anatomical investigation, and Marinus, who
lived during the reign of Nero, and Rufus of Ephesus. Probably
all of these would have been better remembered by succeeding
generations had their efforts not been eclipsed by those of
Galen. This greatest of ancient anatomists was born at Pergamus
of Greek parents. His father, Nicon, was an architect and a man
of considerable ability. Until his fifteenth year the youthful
Galen was instructed at home, chiefly by his father; but after
that time he was placed under suitable teachers for instruction
in the philosophical systems in vogue at that period. Shortly
after this, however, the superstitious Nicon, following the
interpretations of a dream, decided that his son should take up
the study of medicine, and placed him under the instruction of
several learned physicians.

Galen was a tireless worker, making long tours into Asia Minor
and Palestine to improve himself in pharmacology, and studying
anatomy for some time at Alexandria. He appears to have been full
of the superstitions of the age, however, and early in his career
made an extended tour into western Asia in search of the
chimerical "jet-stone"--a stone possessing the peculiar qualities
of "burning with a bituminous odor and supposed to possess great
potency in curing such diseases as epilepsy, hysteria, and gout."

By the time he had reached his twenty-eighth year he had
perfected his education in medicine and returned to his home in
Pergamus. Even at that time he had acquired considerable fame as
a surgeon, and his fellow-citizens showed their confidence in his
ability by choosing him as surgeon to the wounded gladiators
shortly after his return to his native city. In these duties his
knowledge of anatomy aided him greatly, and he is said to have
healed certain kinds of wounds that had previously baffled the
surgeons.

In the time of Galen dissections of the human body were forbidden
by law, and he was obliged to confine himself to dissections of
the lower animals. He had the advantage, however, of the
anatomical works of Herophilus and Erasistratus, and he must have
depended upon them in perfecting his comparison between the
anatomy of men and the lower animals. It is possible that he did
make human dissections surreptitiously, but of this we have no
proof.

He was familiar with the complicated structure of the bones of
the cranium. He described the vertebrae clearly, divided them
into groups, and named them after the manner of anatomists of
to-day. He was less accurate in his description of the muscles,
although a large number of these were described by him. Like all
anatomists before the time of Harvey, he had a very erroneous
conception of the circulation, although he understood that the
heart was an organ for the propulsion of blood, and he showed
that the arteries of the living animals did not contain air
alone, as was taught by many anatomists. He knew, also, that the
heart was made up of layers of fibres that ran in certain fixed
directions--that is, longitudinal, transverse, and oblique; but
he did not recognize the heart as a muscular organ. In proof of
this he pointed out that all muscles require rest, and as the
heart did not rest it could not be composed of muscular tissue.

Many of his physiological experiments were conducted upon
scientific principles. Thus he proved that certain muscles were
under the control of definite sets of nerves by cutting these
nerves in living animals, and observing that the muscles supplied
by them were rendered useless. He pointed out also that nerves
have no power in themselves, but merely conduct impulses to and
from the brain and spinal-cord. He turned this peculiar knowledge
to account in the case of a celebrated sophist, Pausanias, who
had been under the treatment of various physicians for a numbness
in the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand. These
physicians had been treating this condition by applications of
poultices to the hand itself. Galen, being called in
consultation, pointed out that the injury was probably not in the
hand itself, but in the ulner nerve, which controls sensation in
the fourth and fifth fingers. Surmising that the nerve must have
been injured in some way, he made careful inquiries of the
patient, who recalled that he had been thrown from his chariot
some time before, striking and injuring his back. Acting upon
this information, Galen applied stimulating remedies to the
source of the nerve itself--that is, to the bundle of
nerve-trunks known as the brachial plexus, in the shoulder. To
the surprise and confusion of his fellow-physicians, this method
of treatment proved effective and the patient recovered
completely in a short time.

Although the functions of the organs in the chest were not well
understood by Galen, he was well acquainted with their anatomy.
He knew that the lungs were covered by thin membrane, and that
the heart was surrounded by a sac of very similar tissue. He made
constant comparisons also between these organs in different
animals, as his dissections were performed upon beasts ranging in
size from a mouse to an elephant. The minuteness of his
observations is shown by the fact that he had noted and described
the ring of bone found in the hearts of certain animals, such as
the horse, although not found in the human heart or in most
animals.

His description of the abdominal organs was in general accurate.
He had noted that the abdominal cavity was lined with a peculiar
saclike membrane, the peritoneum, which also surrounded most of
the organs contained in the cavity, and he made special note that
this membrane also enveloped the liver in a peculiar manner. The
exactness of the last observation seems the more wonderful when
we reflect that even to-day the medical, student finds a correct
understanding of the position of the folds of the peritoneum one
of the most difficult subjects in anatomy.

As a practical physician he was held in the highest esteem by the
Romans. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius called him to Rome and
appointed him physician-inordinary to his son Commodus, and on
special occasions Marcus Aurelius himself called in Galen as his
medical adviser. On one occasion, the three army surgeons in
attendance upon the emperor declared that he was about to be
attacked by a fever. Galen relates how "on special command I felt
his pulse, and finding it quite normal, considering his age and
the time of day, I declared it was no fever but a digestive
disorder, due to the food he had eaten, which must be converted
into phlegm before being excreted. Then the emperor repeated
three times, 'That's the very thing,' and asked what was to be
done. I answered that I usually gave a glass of wine with pepper
sprinkled on it, but for you kings we only use the safest
remedies, and it will suffice to apply wool soaked in hot nard
ointment locally. The emperor ordered the wool, wine, etc., to be
brought, and I left the room. His feet were warmed by rubbing
with hot hands, and after drinking the peppered wine, he said to
Pitholaus (his son's tutor), 'We have only one doctor, and that
an honest one,' and went on to describe me as the first of
physicians and the only philosopher, for he had tried many before
who were not only lovers of money, but also contentious,
ambitious, envious, and malignant."[7]

It will be seen from this that Galen had a full appreciation of
his own abilities as a physician, but inasmuch as succeeding
generations for a thousand years concurred in the alleged
statement made by Marcus Aurelius as to his ability, he is
perhaps excusable for his open avowal of his belief in his
powers. His faith in his accuracy in diagnosis and prognosis was
shown when a colleague once said to him, "I have used the
prognostics of Hippocrates as well as you. Why can I not
prognosticate as well as you?" To this Galen replied, "By God's
help I have never been deceived in my prognosis."[8] It is
probable that this statement was made in the heat of argument,
and it is hardly to be supposed that he meant it literally.

His systems of treatment were far in advance of his theories
regarding the functions of organs, causes of disease, etc., and
some of them are still first principles with physicians. Like
Hippocrates, he laid great stress on correct diet, exercise, and
reliance upon nature. "Nature is the overseer by whom health is
supplied to the sick," he says. "Nature lends her aid on all
sides, she decides and cures diseases. No one can be saved unless
nature conquers the disease, and no one dies unless nature
succumbs."

From the picture thus drawn of Galen as an anatomist and
physician, one might infer that he should rank very high as a
scientific exponent of medicine, even in comparison with modern
physicians. There is, however, another side to the picture. His
knowledge of anatomy was certainly very considerable, but many of
his deductions and theories as to the functions of organs, the
cause of diseases, and his methods of treating them, would be
recognized as absurd by a modern school-boy of average
intelligence. His greatness must be judged in comparison with
ancient, not with modern, scientists. He maintained, for example,
that respiration and the pulse-beat were for one and the same
purpose--that of the reception of air into the arteries of the
body. To him the act of breathing was for the purpose of
admitting air into the lungs, whence it found its way into the
heart, and from there was distributed throughout the body by
means of the arteries. The skin also played an important part in
supplying the body with air, the pores absorbing the air and
distributing it through the arteries. But, as we know that he was
aware of the fact that the arteries also contained blood, he must
have believed that these vessels contained a mixture of the two.

Modern anatomists know that the heart is divided into two
approximately equal parts by an impermeable septum of tough
fibres. Yet, Galen, who dissected the hearts of a vast number of
the lower animals according to his own account, maintained that
this septum was permeable, and that the air, entering one side of
the heart from the lungs, passed through it into the opposite
side and was then transferred to the arteries.

He was equally at fault, although perhaps more excusably so, in
his explanation of the action of the nerves. He had rightly
pointed out that nerves were merely connections between the brain
and spinal-cord and distant muscles and organs, and had
recognized that there were two kinds of nerves, but his
explanation of the action of these nerves was that "nervous
spirits" were carried to the cavities of the brain by
blood-vessels, and from there transmitted through the body along
the nerve-trunks.

In the human skull, overlying the nasal cavity, there are two
thin plates of bone perforated with numerous small apertures.
These apertures allow the passage of numerous nerve-filaments
which extend from a group of cells in the brain to the delicate
membranes in the nasal cavity. These perforations in the bone,
therefore, are simply to allow the passage of the nerves. But
Galen gave a very different explanation. He believed that impure
"animal spirits" were carried to the cavities of the brain by the
arteries in the neck and from there were sifted out through these
perforated bones, and so expelled from the body.

He had observed that the skin played an important part in cooling
the body, but he seems to have believed that the heart was
equally active in overheating it. The skin, therefore, absorbed
air for the purpose of "cooling the heart," and this cooling
process was aided by the brain, whose secretions aided also in
the cooling process. The heart itself was the seat of courage;
the brain the seat of the rational soul; and the liver the seat
of love.

The greatness of Galen's teachings lay in his knowledge of
anatomy of the organs; his weakness was in his interpretations of
their functions. Unfortunately, succeeding generations of
physicians for something like a thousand years rejected the
former but clung to the latter, so that the advances he had made
were completely overshadowed by the mistakes of his teachings.



XI. A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE AT CLASSICAL SCIENCE

It is a favorite tenet of the modern historian that history is a
continuous stream. The contention has fullest warrant. Sharp
lines of demarcation are an evidence of man's analytical
propensity rather than the work of nature. Nevertheless it would
be absurd to deny that the stream of history presents an
ever-varying current. There are times when it seems to rush
rapidly on; times when it spreads out into a broad--seemingly
static--current; times when its catastrophic changes remind us of
nothing but a gigantic cataract. Rapids and whirlpools, broad
estuaries and tumultuous cataracts are indeed part of the same
stream, but they are parts that vary one from another in their
salient features in such a way as to force the mind to classify
them as things apart and give them individual names.

So it is with the stream of history; however strongly we insist
on its continuity we are none the less forced to recognize its
periodicity. It may not be desirable to fix on specific dates as
turning-points to the extent that our predecessors were wont to
do. We may not, for example, be disposed to admit that the Roman
Empire came to any such cataclysmic finish as the year 476 A.D.,
when cited in connection with the overthrow of the last Roman
Empire of the West, might seem to indicate. But, on the other
hand, no student of the period can fail to realize that a great
change came over the aspect of the historical stream towards the
close of the Roman epoch.

The span from Thales to Galen has compassed about eight hundred
years--let us say thirty generations. Throughout this period
there is scarcely a generation that has not produced great
scientific thinkers--men who have put their mark upon the
progress of civilization; but we shall see, as we look forward
for a corresponding period, that the ensuing thirty generations
produced scarcely a single scientific thinker of the first rank.
Eight hundred years of intellectual activity --thirty generations
of greatness; then eight hundred years of stasis--thirty
generations of mediocrity; such seems to be the record as viewed
in perspective. Doubtless it seemed far different to the
contemporary observer; it is only in reasonable perspective that
any scene can be viewed fairly. But for us, looking back without
prejudice across the stage of years, it seems indisputable that a
great epoch came to a close at about the time when the barbarian
nations of Europe began to sweep down into Greece and Italy. We
are forced to feel that we have reached the limits of progress of
what historians are pleased to call the ancient world. For about
eight hundred years Greek thought has been dominant, but in the
ensuing period it is to play a quite subordinate part, except in
so far as it influences the thought of an alien race. As we leave
this classical epoch, then, we may well recapitulate in brief its
triumphs. A few words will suffice to summarize a story the
details of which have made up our recent chapters.

In the field of cosmology, Greek genius has demonstrated that the
earth is spheroidal, that the moon is earthlike in structure and
much smaller than our globe, and that the sun is vastly larger
and many times more distant than the moon. The actual size of the
earth and the angle of its axis with the ecliptic have been
measured with approximate accuracy. It has been shown that the
sun and moon present inequalities of motion which may be
theoretically explained by supposing that the earth is not
situated precisely at the centre of their orbits. A system of
eccentrics and epicycles has been elaborated which serves to
explain the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies in a manner
that may be called scientific even though it is based, as we now
know, upon a false hypothesis. The true hypothesis, which places
the sun at the centre of the planetary system and postulates the
orbital and axial motions of our earth in explanation of the
motions of the heavenly bodies, has been put forward and ardently
championed, but, unfortunately, is not accepted by the dominant
thinkers at the close of our epoch. In this regard, therefore, a
vast revolutionary work remains for the thinkers of a later
period. Moreover, such observations as the precession of the
equinoxes and the moon's evection are as yet unexplained, and
measurements of the earth's size, and of the sun's size and
distance, are so crude and imperfect as to be in one case only an
approximation, and in the other an absurdly inadequate
suggestion. But with all these defects, the total achievement of
the Greek astronomers is stupendous. To have clearly grasped the
idea that the earth is round is in itself an achievement that
marks off the classical from the Oriental period as by a great
gulf.

In the physical sciences we have seen at least the beginnings of
great things. Dynamics and hydrostatics may now, for the first
time, claim a place among the sciences. Geometry has been
perfected and trigonometry has made a sure beginning. The
conception that there are four elementary substances, earth,
water, air, and fire, may not appear a secure foundation for
chemistry, yet it marks at least an attempt in the right
direction. Similarly, the conception that all matter is made up
of indivisible particles and that these have adjusted themselves
and are perhaps held in place by a whirling motion, while it is
scarcely more than a scientific dream, is, after all, a dream of
marvellous insight.

In the field of biological science progress has not been so
marked, yet the elaborate garnering of facts regarding anatomy,
physiology, and the zoological sciences is at least a valuable
preparation for the generalizations of a later time.

If with a map before us we glance at the portion of the globe
which was known to the workers of the period now in question,
bearing in mind at the same time what we have learned as to the
seat of labors of the various great scientific thinkers from
Thales to Galen, we cannot fail to be struck with a rather
startling fact, intimations of which have been given from time to
time--the fact, namely, that most of the great Greek thinkers did
not live in Greece itself. As our eye falls upon Asia Minor and
its outlying islands, we reflect that here were born such men as
Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras,
Anaxagoras, Socrates, Aristarchus, Hipparchus, Eudoxus,
Philolaus, and Galen. From the northern shores of the aegean came
Lucippus, Democritus, and Aristotle. Italy, off to the west, is
the home of Pythagoras and Xenophanes in their later years, and
of Parmenides and Empedocles, Zeno, and Archimedes. Northern
Africa can claim, by birth or by adoption, such names as Euclid,
Apollonius of Perga, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Aristippus,
Eratosthenes, Ctesibius, Hero, Strabo, and Ptolemy. This is but
running over the list of great men whose discoveries have claimed
our attention. Were we to extend the list to include a host of
workers of the second rank, we should but emphasize the same
fact.

All along we are speaking of Greeks, or, as they call themselves,
Hellenes, and we mean by these words the people whose home was a
small jagged peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean at the
southeastern extremity of Europe. We think of this peninsula as
the home of Greek culture, yet of all the great thinkers we have
just named, not one was born on this peninsula, and perhaps not
one in five ever set foot upon it. In point of fact, one Greek
thinker of the very first rank, and one only, was born in Greece
proper; that one, however, was Plato, perhaps the greatest of
them all. With this one brilliant exception (and even he was born
of parents who came from the provinces), all the great thinkers
of Greece had their origin at the circumference rather than the
centre of the empire. And if we reflect that this circumference
of the Greek world was in the nature of the case the widely
circling region in which the Greek came in contact with other
nations, we shall see at once that there could be no more
striking illustration in all history than that furnished us here
of the value of racial mingling as a stimulus to intellectual
progress.

But there is one other feature of the matter that must not be
overlooked. Racial mingling gives vitality, but to produce the
best effect the mingling must be that of races all of which are
at a relatively high plane of civilization. In Asia Minor the
Greek mingled with the Semite, who had the heritage of centuries
of culture; and in Italy with the Umbrians, Oscans, and
Etruscans, who, little as we know of their antecedents, have left
us monuments to testify to their high development. The chief
reason why the racial mingling of a later day did not avail at
once to give new life to Roman thought was that the races which
swept down from the north were barbarians. It was no more
possible that they should spring to the heights of classical
culture than it would, for example, be possible in two or three
generations to produce a racer from a stock of draught horses.
Evolution does not proceed by such vaults as this would imply.
Celt, Goth, Hun, and Slav must undergo progressive development
for many generations before the population of northern Europe can
catch step with the classical Greek and prepare to march forward.
That, perhaps, is one reason why we come to a period of stasis or
retrogression when the time of classical activity is over. But,
at best, it is only one reason of several.

The influence of the barbarian nations will claim further
attention as we proceed. But now, for the moment, we must turn
our eyes in the other direction and give attention to certain
phases of Greek and of Oriental thought which were destined to
play a most important part in the development of the Western
mind--a more important part, indeed, in the early mediaeval
period than that played by those important inductions of science
which have chiefly claimed our attention in recent chapters. The
subject in question is the old familiar one of false inductions
or pseudoscience. In dealing with the early development of
thought and with Oriental science, we had occasion to emphasize
the fact that such false inductions led everywhere to the
prevalence of superstition. In dealing with Greek science, we
have largely ignored this subject, confining attention chiefly to
the progressive phases of thought; but it must not be inferred
from this that Greek science, with all its secure inductions, was
entirely free from superstition. On the contrary, the most casual
acquaintance with Greek literature would suffice to show the
incorrectness of such a supposition. True, the great thinkers of
Greece were probably freer from this thraldom. of false
inductions than any of their predecessors. Even at a very early
day such men as Xenophanes, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Plato
attained to a singularly rationalistic conception of the
universe.

We saw that "the father of medicine," Hippocrates, banished
demonology and conceived disease as due to natural causes. At a
slightly later day the sophists challenged all knowledge, and
Pyrrhonism became a synonym for scepticism in recognition of the
leadership of a master doubter. The entire school of Alexandrians
must have been relatively free from superstition, else they could
not have reasoned with such effective logicality from their
observations of nature. It is almost inconceivable that men like
Euclid and Archimedes, and Aristarchus and Eratosthenes, and
Hipparchus and Hero, could have been the victims of such
illusions regarding occult forces of nature as were constantly
postulated by Oriental science. Herophilus and Erasistratus and
Galen would hardly have pursued their anatomical studies with
equanimity had they believed that ghostly apparitions watched
over living and dead alike, and exercised at will a malign
influence.

Doubtless the Egyptian of the period considered the work, of the
Ptolemaic anatomists an unspeakable profanation, and, indeed, it
was nothing less than revolutionary--so revolutionary that it
could not be sustained in subsequent generations. We have seen
that the great Galen, at Rome, five centuries after the time of
Herophilus, was prohibited from dissecting the human subject. The
fact speaks volumes for the attitude of the Roman mind towards
science. Vast audiences made up of every stratum of society
thronged the amphitheatre, and watched exultingly while man slew
his fellow-man in single or in multiple combat. Shouts of
frenzied joy burst from a hundred thousand throats when the
death-stroke was given to a new victim. The bodies of the slain,
by scores, even by hundreds, were dragged ruthlessly from the
arena and hurled into a ditch as contemptuously as if pity were
yet unborn and human life the merest bauble. Yet the same eyes
that witnessed these scenes with ecstatic approval would have
been averted in pious horror had an anatomist dared to approach
one of the mutilated bodies with the scalpel of science. It was
sport to see the blade of the gladiator enter the quivering,
living flesh of his fellow-gladiator; it was joy to see the warm
blood spurt forth from the writhing victim while he still lived;
but it were sacrilegious to approach that body with the knife of
the anatomist, once it had ceased to pulsate with life. Life
itself was held utterly in contempt, but about the realm of death
hovered the threatening ghosts of superstition. And such, be it
understood, was the attitude of the Roman populace in the early
and the most brilliant epoch of the empire, before the Western
world came under the influence of that Oriental philosophy which
was presently to encompass it.

In this regard the Alexandrian world was, as just intimated, far
more advanced than the Roman, yet even there we must suppose that
the leaders of thought were widely at variance with the popular
conceptions. A few illustrations, drawn from Greek literature at
various ages, will suggest the popular attitude. In the first
instance, consider the poems of Homer and of Hesiod. For these
writers, and doubtless for the vast majority of their readers,
not merely of their own but of many subsequent generations, the
world is peopled with a multitude of invisible apparitions,
which, under title of gods, are held to dominate the affairs of
man. It is sometimes difficult to discriminate as to where the
Greek imagination drew the line between fact and allegory; nor
need we attempt to analyse the early poetic narratives to this
end. It will better serve our present purpose to cite three or
four instances which illustrate the tangibility of beliefs based
upon pseudo-scientific inductions.

Let us cite, for example, the account which Herodotus gives us of
the actions of the Greeks at Plataea, when their army confronted
the remnant of the army of Xerxes, in the year 479 B.C. Here we
see each side hesitating to attack the other, merely because the
oracle had declared that whichever side struck the first blow
would lose the conflict. Even after the Persian soldiers, who
seemingly were a jot less superstitious or a shade more impatient
than their opponents, had begun the attack, we are told that the
Greeks dared not respond at first, though they were falling
before the javelins of the enemy, because, forsooth, the entrails
of a fowl did not present an auspicious appearance. And these
were Greeks of the same generation with Empedocles and Anaxagoras
and aeschylus; of the same epoch with Pericles and Sophocles and
Euripides and Phidias. Such was the scientific status of the
average mind--nay, of the best minds--with here and there a rare
exception, in the golden age of Grecian culture.

Were we to follow down the pages of Greek history, we should but
repeat the same story over and over. We should, for example, see
Alexander the Great balked at the banks of the Hyphasis, and
forced to turn back because of inauspicious auguries based as
before upon the dissection of a fowl. Alexander himself, to be
sure, would have scorned the augury; had he been the prey of such
petty superstitions he would never have conquered Asia. We know
how he compelled the oracle at Delphi to yield to his wishes; how
he cut the Gordian knot; how he made his dominating personality
felt at the temple of Ammon in Egypt. We know, in a word, that he
yielded to superstitions only in so far as they served his
purpose. Left to his own devices, he would not have consulted an
oracle at the banks of the Hyphasis; or, consulting, would have
forced from the oracle a favorable answer. But his subordinates
were mutinous and he had no choice. Suffice it for our present
purpose that the oracle was consulted, and that its answer turned
the conqueror back.

One or two instances from Roman history may complete the picture.
Passing over all those mythical narratives which virtually
constitute the early history of Rome, as preserved to us by such
historians as Livy and Dionysius, we find so logical an historian
as Tacitus recording a miraculous achievement of Vespasian
without adverse comment. "During the months when Vespasian was
waiting at Alexandria for the periodical season of the summer
winds, and a safe navigation, many miracles occurred by which the
favor of Heaven and a sort of bias in the powers above towards
Vespasian were manifested." Tacitus then describes in detail the
cure of various maladies by the emperor, and relates that the
emperor on visiting a temple was met there, in the spirit, by a
prominent Egyptian who was proved to be at the same time some
eighty miles distant from Alexandria.

It must be admitted that Tacitus, in relating that Vespasian
caused the blind to see and the lame to walk, qualifies his
narrative by asserting that "persons who are present attest the
truth of the transaction when there is nothing to be gained by
falsehood." Nor must we overlook the fact that a similar belief
in the power of royalty has persisted almost to our own day. But
no such savor of scepticism attaches to a narrative which Dion
Cassius gives us of an incident in the life of Marcus
Aurelius--an incident that has become famous as the episode of
The Thundering Legion. Xiphilinus has preserved the account of
Dion, adding certain picturesque interpretations of his own. The
original narrative, as cited, asserts that during one of the
northern campaigns of Marcus Aurelius, the emperor and his army
were surrounded by the hostile Quadi, who had every advantage of
position and who presently ceased hostilities in the hope that
heat and thirst would deliver their adversaries into their hands
without the trouble of further fighting. "Now," says Dion, "while
the Romans, unable either to combat or to retreat, and reduced to
the last extremity by wounds, fatigue, heat, and thirst, were
standing helplessly at their posts, clouds suddenly gathered in
great number and rain descended in floods--certainly not without
divine intervention, since the Egyptian Maege Arnulphis, who was
with Marcus Antoninus, is said to have invoked several genii by
the aerial mercury by enchantment, and thus through them had
brought down rain."

Here, it will be observed, a supernatural explanation is given of
a natural phenomenon. But the narrator does not stop with this.
If we are to accept the account of Xiphilinus, Dion brings
forward some striking proofs of divine interference. Xiphilinus
gives these proofs in the following remarkable paragraph:

"Dion adds that when the rain began to fall every soldier lifted
his head towards heaven to receive the water in his mouth; but
afterwards others hold out their shields or their helmets to
catch the water for themselves and for their horses. Being set
upon by the barbarians . . . while occupied in drinking, they
would have been seriously incommoded had not heavy hail and
numerous thunderbolts thrown consternation into the ranks of the
enemy. Fire and water were seen to mingle as they left the
heavens. The fire, however, did not reach the Romans, but if it
did by chance touch one of them it was immediately extinguished,
while at the same time the rain, instead of comforting the
barbarians, seemed merely to excite like oil the fire with which
they were being consumed. Some barbarians inflicted wounds upon
themselves as though their blood had power to extinguish flames,
while many rushed over to the side of the Romans, hoping that
there water might save them."

We cannot better complete these illustrations of pagan credulity
than by adding the comment of Xiphilinus himself. That writer was
a Christian, living some generations later than Dion. He never
thought of questioning the facts, but he felt that Dion's
interpretation of these facts must not go unchallenged. As he
interprets the matter, it was no pagan magician that wrought the
miracle. He even inclines to the belief that Dion himself was
aware that Christian interference, and not that of an Egyptian,
saved the day. "Dion knew," he declares, "that there existed a
legion called The Thundering Legion, which name was given it for
no other reason than for what came to pass in this war," and that
this legion was composed of soldiers from Militene who were all
professed Christians. "During the battle," continues Xiphilinus,
"the chief of the Pretonians , had set at Marcus Antoninus, who
was in great perplexity at the turn events were taking,
representing to him that there was nothing the people called
Christians could not obtain by their prayers, and that among his
forces was a troop composed wholly of followers of that religion.
Rejoiced at this news, Marcus Antoninus demanded of these
soldiers that they should pray to their god, who granted their
petition on the instant, sent lightning among the enemy and
consoled the Romans with rain. Struck by this wonderful success,
the emperor honored the Christians in an edict and named their
legion The Thundering. It is even asserted that a letter existed
by Marcus Antoninus on this subject. The pagans well knew that
the company was called The Thunderers, having attested the fact
themselves, but they revealed nothing of the occasion on which
the leader received the name."[1]

Peculiar interest attaches to this narrative as illustrating both
credulousness as to matters of fact and pseudo-scientific
explanation of alleged facts. The modern interpreter may suppose
that a violent thunderstorm came up during the course of a battle
between the Romans and the so-called barbarians, and that owing
to the local character of the storm, or a chance discharge of
lightning, the barbarians suffered more than their opponents. We
may well question whether the philosophical emperor himself put
any other interpretation than this upon the incident. But, on the
other hand, we need not doubt that the major part of his soldiers
would very readily accept such an explanation as that given by
Dion Cassius, just as most readers of a few centuries later would
accept the explanation of Xiphilinus. It is well to bear this
thought in mind in considering the static period of science upon
which we are entering. We shall perhaps best understand this
period, and its seeming retrogressions, if we suppose that the
average man of the Middle Ages was no more credulous, no more
superstitious, than the average Roman of an earlier period or
than the average Greek; though the precise complexion of his
credulity had changed under the influence of Oriental ideas, as
we have just seen illustrated by the narrative of Xiphilinus.



APPENDIX

REFERENCE LIST, NOTES, AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES



CHAPTER I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

Length of the Prehistoric Period.--It is of course quite
impossible to reduce the prehistoric period to any definite
number of years. There are, however, numerous bits of evidence
that enable an anthropologist to make rough estimates as to the
relative lengths of the different periods into which prehistoric
time is divided. Gabriel de Mortillet, one of the most
industrious students of prehistoric archaeology, ventured to give
a tentative estimate as to the numbers of years involved in each
period. He of course claimed for this nothing more than the value
of a scientific guess. It is, however, a guess based on a very
careful study of all data at present available. Mortillet divides
the prehistoric period, as a whole, into four epochs. The first
of these is the preglacial, which he estimates as comprising
seventy-eight thousand years; the second is the glacial, covering
one hundred thousand years; then follows what he terms the
Solutreen, which numbers eleven thousand years; and, finally, the
Magdalenien, comprising thirty-three thousand years. This gives,
for the prehistoric period proper, a term of about two hundred
and twenty-two thousand years. Add to this perhaps twelve
thousand years ushering in the civilization of Egypt, and the six
thousand years of stable, sure chronology of the historical
period, and we have something like two hundred and thirty
thousand or two hundred and forty thousand years as the age of
man.

"These figures," says Mortillet, "are certainly not exaggerated.
It is even probable that they are below the truth. Constantly new
discoveries are being made that tend to remove farther back the
date of man's appearance." We see, then, according to this
estimate, that about a quarter of a million years have elapsed
since man evolved to a state that could properly be called human.
This guess is as good as another, and it may advantageously be
kept in mind, as it will enable us all along to understand better
than we might otherwise be able to do the tremendous force of
certain prejudices and preconceptions which recent man inherited
from his prehistoric ancestor. Ideas which had passed current as
unquestioned truths for one hundred thousand years or so are not
easily cast aside.

In going back, in imagination, to the beginning of the
prehistoric period, we must of course reflect, in accordance with
modern ideas on the subject, that there was no year, no
millennium even, when it could be said expressly: "This being was
hitherto a primate, he is now a man." The transition period must
have been enormously long, and the changes from generation to
generation, even from century to century, must have been very
slight. In speaking of the extent of the age of man this must be
borne in mind: it must be recalled that, even if the period were
not vague for other reasons, the vagueness of its beginning must
make it indeterminate.

Bibliographical Notes.--A great mass of literature has been
produced in recent years dealing with various phases of the
history of prehistoric man. No single work known to the writer
deals comprehensively with the scientific attainments of early
man; indeed, the subject is usually ignored, except where
practical phases of the mechanical arts are in question. But of
course any attempt to consider the condition of primitive man
talies into account, by inference at least, his knowledge and
attainments. Therefore, most works on anthropology, ethnology,
and primitive culture may be expected to throw some light on our
present subject. Works dealing with the social and mental
conditions of existing savages are also of importance, since it
is now an accepted belief that the ancestors of civilized races
evolved along similar lines and passed through corresponding
stages of nascent culture. Herbert Spencer's Descriptive
Sociology presents an unequalled mass of facts regarding existing
primitive races, but, unfortunately, its inartistic method of
arrangement makes it repellent to the general reader. E. B.
Tyler's Primitive Culture and Anthropology; Lord Avebury's
Prehistoric Times, The Origin of Civilization, and The Primitive
Condition of Man; W. Boyd Dawkin's Cave-Hunting and Early Man in
Britain; and Edward Clodd's Childhood of the World and Story of
Primitive Man are deservedly popular. Paul Topinard's Elements
d'Anthropologie Generale is one of the best-known and most
comprehensive French works on the technical phases of
anthropology; but Mortillet's Le Prehistorique has a more popular
interest, owing to its chapters on primitive industries, though
this work also contains much that is rather technical. Among
periodicals, the Revue de l'Ecole d'Anthropologie de Paris,
published by the professors, treats of all phases of
anthropology, and the American Anthropologist, edited by F. W.
Hodge for the American Anthropological Association, and intended
as "a medium of communication between students of all branches of
anthropology," contains much that is of interest from the present
stand-point. The last-named journal devotes a good deal of space
to Indian languages.


CHAPTER II. EGYPTIAN SCIENCE

1 (p. 34). Sir J. Norman Lockyer, The Dawn of Astronomy; a study
of the temple worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians,
London, 1894.

2 (p. 43). G. Maspero, Histoire Ancie-nne des Peuples de l'Orient
Classique, Paris, 1895. Translated as (1) The Dawn of
Civilization, (2) The Struggle of the Nations, (3) The Passing of
the Empires, 3 vols., London and New York, 1894-1900. Professor
Maspero is one of the most famous of living Orientalists. His
most important special studies have to do with Egyptology, but
his writings cover the entire field of Oriental antiquity. He is
a notable stylist, and his works are at once readable and
authoritative.

3 (p. 44). Adolf Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, London, 1894, p.
352. (Translated from the original German work entitled Aegypten
und aegyptisches Leben in Alterthum, Tilbigen, 1887.) An
altogether admirable work, full of interest for the general
reader, though based on the most erudite studies.

4 (p. 47). Erman, op. cit., pp. 356, 357.

5 (p. 48). Erman, op. cit., p. 357. The work on Egyptian medicine
here referred to is Georg Ebers' edition of an Egyptian document
discovered by the explorer whose name it bears. It remains the
most important source of our knowledge of Egyptian medicine. As
mentioned in the text, this document dates from the eighteenth
dynasty--that is to say, from about the fifteenth or sixteenth
century, B.C., a relatively late period of Egyptian history.

6 (p. 49). Erman, op. cit., p. 357.

7 (p. 50). The History of Herodotus, pp. 85-90. There are
numerous translations of the famous work of the "father of
history," one of the most recent and authoritative being that of
G. C. Macaulay, M.A., in two volumes, Macmillan & Co., London and
New York, 1890.

8 (p. 50). The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian,
London, 1700. This most famous of ancient world histories is
difficult to obtain in an English version. The most recently
published translation known to the writer is that of G. Booth,
London, 1814.

9 (p. 51). Erman, op. cit., p. 357.

10 (p. 52). The Papyrus Rhind is a sort of mathematical hand-book
of the ancient Egyptians; it was made in the time of the Hyksos
Kings (about 2000 B.C.), but is a copy of an older book. It is
now preserved in the British Museum.

The most accessible recent sources of information as to the
social conditions of the ancient Egyptians are the works of
Maspero and Erman, above mentioned; and the various publications
of W. M. Flinders Petrie, The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh,
London, 1883; Tanis I., London, 1885; Tanis H., Nebesheh, and
Defe-nnel, London, 1887; Ten Years' Diggings, London, 1892; Syria
and Egypt from the Tel-el-Amar-na Letters, London, 1898, etc. The
various works of Professor Petrie, recording his explorations
from year to year, give the fullest available insight into
Egyptian archaeology.

CHAPTER III. SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

1 (p. 57). The Medes. Some difference of opinion exists among
historians as to the exact ethnic relations of the conquerors;
the precise date of the fall of Nineveh is also in doubt.

2 (p. 57). Darius. The familiar Hebrew narrative ascribes the
first Persian conquest of Babylon to Darius, but inscriptions of
Cyrus and of Nabonidus, the Babylonian king, make it certain that
Cyrus was the real conqueror. These inscriptions are preserved on
cylinders of baked clay, of the type made familiar by the
excavation of the past fifty years, and they are invaluable
historical documents.

3 (p. 58). Berosus. The fragments of Berosus have been translated
by L. P. Cory, and included in his Ancient Fragments of
Phenician, Chaldean, Egyptian, and Other Writers, London, 1826,
second edition, 1832.

4 (p. 58). Chaldean learning. Recent writers reserve the name
Chaldean for the later period of Babylonian history-- the time
when the Greeks came in contact with the Mesopotamians--in
contradistinction to the earlier periods which are revealed to us
by the archaeological records.

5 (p. 59) King Sargon of Agade. The date given for this early
king must not be accepted as absolute; but it is probably
approximately correct.

6 (p. 59). Nippur. See the account of the early expeditions as
recorded by the director, Dr. John P. Peters, Nippur, or
explorations and adventures, etc., New York and London, 1897.

7 (p. 62). Fritz Hommel, Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens,
Berlin, 1885.

8 (p. 63). R. Campbell Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and
Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon, London, 1900, p. xix.

9 (p. 64). George Smith, The Assyrian Canon, p. 21.

10 (p. 64). Thompson, op. cit., p. xix.

11 (p. 65). Thompson, op. cit., p. 2.

12 (p. 67). Thompson, op. cit., p. xvi.

13 (p. 68). Sextus Empiricus, author of Adversus Mathematicos,
lived about 200 A.D.

14 (p. 68). R. Campbell Thompson, op. cit., p. xxiv.

15 (p. 72). Records of the Past (editor, Samuel Birch), Vol.
III., p. 139.

16 (p. 72). Ibid., Vol. V., p. 16.

17 (p. 72). Quoted in Records of the Past, Vol. III., p. 143,
from the Translations of the Society of Biblical Archeology, vol.
II., p. 58.

18 (p. 73). Records of the Past, vol. L, p. 131.

19 (p. 73). Ibid., vol. V., p. 171.

20 (p. 74). Ibid., vol. V., p. 169.

21 (p. 74). Joachim Menant, La Bibliotheque du Palais de Ninive,
Paris, 188o.

22 (p. 76). Code of Khamurabi. This famous inscription is on a
block of black diorite nearly eight feet in height. It was
discovered at Susa by the French expedition under M. de Morgan,
in December, 1902. We quote the translation given in The
Historians' History of the World, edited by Henry Smith Williams,
London and New York, 1904, Vol. I, p. 510.

23 (p. 77). The Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus, p. 519.

24 (p. 82). George S. Goodspeed, Ph.D., History of the
Babylonians and Assyrians, New York, 1902.

25 (p. 82). George Rawlinson, Great Oriental Monarchies, (second
edition, London, 1871), Vol. III., pp. 75 ff.

Of the books mentioned above, that of Hommel is particularly full
in reference to culture development; Goodspeed's small volume
gives an excellent condensed account; the original documents as
translated in the various volumes of Records of the Past are full
of interest; and Menant's little book is altogether admirable.
The work of excavation is still going on in old Babylonia, and
newly discovered texts add from time to time to our knowledge,
but A. H. Layard's Nineveh and its Remains (London, 1849) still
has importance as a record of the most important early
discoveries. The general histories of Antiquity of Duncker,
Lenormant, Maspero, and Meyer give full treatment of Babylonian
and Assyrian development. Special histories of Babylonia and
Assyria, in addition to these named above, are Tiele's
Babylonisch-Assyrische Geschichte (Zwei Tiele, Gotha, 1886-1888);
Winckler's Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens (Berlin,
1885-1888), and Rogers' History of Babylonia and Assyria, New
York and London, 1900, the last of which, however, deals almost
exclusively with political history. Certain phases of science,
particularly with reference to chronology and cosmology, are
treated by Edward Meyer (Geschichte des Alterthum, Vol. I.,
Stuttgart, 1884), and by P. Jensen (Die Kosmologie der
Babylonier, Strassburg, 1890), but no comprehensive specific
treatment of the subject in its entirety has yet been attempted.

CHAPTER IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALPHABET

1 (p. 87). Vicomte E. de Rouge, Memoire sur l'Origine Egyptienne
de l'Alphabet Phinicien, Paris, 1874.

2 (p. 88). See the various publications of Mr. Arthur Evans.

3 (p. 80). Aztec and Maya writing. These pictographs are still in
the main undecipherable, and opinions differ as to the exact
stage of development which they represent.

4 (p. 90). E. A. Wallace Budge's First Steps in Egyptian, London,
1895, is an excellent elementary work on the Egyptian writing.
Professor Erman's Egyptian Grammar, London, 1894, is the work of
perhaps the foremost living Egyptologist.

5 (P. 93). Extant examples of Babylonian and Assyrian writing
give opportunity to compare earlier and later systems, so the
fact of evolution from the pictorial to the phonetic system rests
on something more than mere theory.

6 (p. 96). Friedrich Delitzsch, Assyrischc Lesestucke mit
grammatischen Tabellen und vollstdndigem Glossar einfiihrung in
die assyrische und babylonische Keilschrift-litteratur bis hinauf
zu Hammurabi, Leipzig, 1900.

7 (p. 97). It does not appear that the Babylonians thcmselves
ever gave up the old system of writing, so long as they retained
political autonomy.

8 (p. 101). See Isaac Taylor's History of the Alphabet; an
Account of the origin and Development of Letters, new edition, 2
vols., London, 1899.

For facsimiles of the various scripts, see Henry Smith Williams'
History of the Art Of Writing, 4 vols, New York and London,
1902-1903.

CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCIENCE

1 (p. III). Anaximander, as recorded by Plutarch, vol. VIII-. See
Arthur Fairbanks'First Philosophers of Greece: an Edition and
Translation of the Remaining Fragments of the Pre-Socratic
Philosophers, together with a Translation of the more Important
Accounts of their Opinions Contained in the Early Epitomcs of
their Works, London, 1898. This highly scholarly and extremely
useful book contains the Greek text as well as translations.

CHAPTER VI. THE EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY

1 (p. 117). George Henry Lewes, A Biographical History of
Philosophy from its Origin in Greece down to the Present Day,
enlarged edition, New York, 1888, p. 17.

2 (p. 121). Diogenes Laertius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers, C. D. Yonge's translation, London, 1853, VIII., p.
153.

3 (p. 121). Alexander, Successions of Philosophers.

4 (p. 122). "All over its centre." Presumably this is intended to
refer to the entire equatorial region.

5 (p. 125). Laertius, op. cit., pp. 348-351.

6 (p. 128). Arthur Fairbanks, The First Philosophers of Greece
London, 1898, pp. 67-717.

7 (p. 129). Ibid., p. 838.

8 (p. 130). Ibid., p. 109.

9 (p. 130). Heinrich Ritter, The History of Ancient Philosophy,
translated from the German by A. J. W. Morrison, 4 vols., London,
1838, vol, I., p. 463.

10 (p. 131). Ibid., p. 465.

11 (p. 132). George Henry Lewes, op. cit., p. 81.

12 (p. 135). Fairbanks, op. cit., p. 201.

13 (p. 136). Ibid., P. 234.

14 (p. 137). Ibid., p. 189.

15 (p. 137). Ibid., P. 220.

16 (p. 138). Ibid., p. 189.

17 (p. 138). Ibid., p. 191.

CHAPTER VII. GREEK SCIENCE IN THE EARLY ATTIC PERIOD

1 (p. 150). Theodor Gomperz, Greek Thinkers: a History of Ancient
Philosophy (translated from the German by Laurie Magnes), New
York, 190 1, pp. 220, 221.

2 (p. 153). Aristotle's Treatise on Respiration, ch. ii.

3 (p. 159). Fairbanks' translation of the fragments of
Anaxagoras, in The First Philosophers of Greece, pp. 239-243.

CHAPTER VIII. POST-SOCRATIC SCIENCE AT ATHENS

1 (p. 180). Alfred William Bern, The Philosophy of Greece
Considered in Relation to the Character and History of its
People, London, 1898, p. 186.

2 (p. 183). Aristotle, quoted in William Whewell's History of the
Inductive Sciences (second edition, London, 1847), Vol. II., p.
161.

CHAPTER IX. GREEK SCIENCE OF THE ALEXANDRIAN OR HELLENISTIC
PERIOD

1 (p. 195). Tertullian's Apologeticus.

2 (p. 205). We quote the quaint old translation of North, printed
in 1657.

CHAPTER X. SCIENCE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD

1 (p. 258). The Geography of Strabo, translated by H. C. Hamilton
and W. Falconer, 3 vols., London, 1857, Vol. I, pp. 19, 20.

2 (p. 260). Ibid., p. 154.

3 (p. 263). Ibid., pp. 169, 170.

4 (p. 264) Ibid., pp. 166, 167.

5 (p. 271). K. 0. Miller and John W. Donaldson, The History of
the Literature of Greece, 3 vols., London, Vol. III., p. 268.


6 (p. 276). E. T. Withington, Medical History fron., the Earliest
Times, London, 1894, p. 118.

7 (p. 281). Ibid.

8 (p. 281). Johann Hermann Bass, History of Medicine, New York,
1889.

CHAPTER XI. A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE AT CLASSICAL SCIENCE

(p. 298). Dion Cassius, as preserved by Xiphilinus. Our extract
is quoted from the translation given in The Historians' History
of the World (edited by Henry Smith Williams), 25 vols., London
and New York, 1904, Vol. VI., p. 297 ff.


[For further bibliographical notes, the reader is referred to the
Appendix of volume V.]