Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/104

Rh, which seems to have been an attempt to develop and improve the system propounded by Thales.

17. The three following sentences from Diogenes Laertius, from Simplicius, a commentator on Aristotle, and from Aristotle himself, contain the substance of the philosophy of Anaximander, in so far as it has been handed down to us. Anaximander, they tell us, laid down the infinite or unlimited () as the principle and element of all things; and not any determinate matter, such as water, air, and so forth. This was his principle, because that which is the ground of all must be susceptible of receiving every form or variation. Accordingly, he assumed the infinite or indeterminate as a principle adapted to every species of production. "That indeterminate not being itself any particular thing, is capable of becoming any particular thing. This principle is itself without beginning, being the beginning of all other things; it embraces and governs all—it is the divine, the immortal, and the incorruptible." Such is the substance of Anaximander's doctrine, as gathered from the three authors referred to. (Arist. Phys. iii. 4; Simplic. ad loc.; Diog. Laert., ii. 1.)

18. In explanation of these words, this may be added, that if we attempt to explain all things by means of a material principle or element, we can easily see that that principle must in itself be indeterminate, without form or quality; for, suppose it