Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/227

172 simple, that is to say, more simple than it was in the original entanglement and involution of all in all. We may therefore say, that with the Atomists the construction of the , or ordered universe, is a process in which matter passes from simplicity to complexity, while with Anaxagoras it is a process in which matter passes from complexity to simplicity. According to the Atomists, simplicity is first in the field, complexity supervenes; according to Anaxagoras, complexity is first in the field, and simplicity supervenes. This antagonism may not perhaps be in all points exact, but it is certainly sufficiently marked to constitute a fundamental difference between the two systems.

9. The other point in which the system of Anaxagoras stands in a relation of opposition to the Atomic theory is its doctrine of qualitative differences. The Atomic philosophers held that all difference was quantitative, not qualitative. I explained how, according to them, all the variety observable in the different objects of the universe might be accounted for by the diversity in point of size, shape, arrangement, and motions of the atoms of which these things were composed. Anaxagoras, on the other hand, was of opinion that quality held a very important place, and played a very important part, in the original constitution of matter. He held, as I have said, that there were innumerable kinds of original matter; which is merely another mode of