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CH.II.] adopted the four elements, in fact, as the first causes of all things, although, as he makes fire to be the antagonism of the other three, which he held to be of one nature, he can hardly be said to have regarded them as more than two. This doctrine of elements prevailed, in fact, down to the time of Descartes, who admitted, however, only of three, fire, air, and earth; and he maintained that all the forms of inanimate bodies may be accounted for by the motion form size and arrangement of particles, without the aid of any agent, such as heat or cold, moisture or dryness. Thus all elementary particles are, according to him, first causes.

Note 7, p. 21. By earth we perceive, &c.] The doctrine of elements prevailed even to the constitution of the sentient organs, for, as sensibility could have no part in the theory of that age, philosophers had adopted the dogma, that like recognises and perceives by like, that air, that is, perceives by air, water by water, and so for the other elements; and thus the organ of vision was supposed to be of water, that of hearing to be of air, and that of smell to be of fire. As illustration of which, Aristotle describes "odour as being a vaporous exhalation, and, as such, necessarily derived from fire (heat); and the special organ of smell is said, on this account, to be located about the brain, for the matter of cold (the brain) is, in potentiality, hot," and, therefore, able to perceive