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Rh principle of the universe, the principle to which all intelligence must yield assent?

2. Thales answers, that this principle is water; that water is ultimately real—the groundwork and origin of all that is. It is probable that by the term water he did not mean the element under the ordinary and palpable form in which it is presented to our senses, but under some more subtle or occult form of moisture or fluidity.

3. That water plays a most important part in the economy of nature is a truth too obvious to be overlooked. All the functions of animal and vegetable life depend on the presence of this agent, and it is scarcely possible to conceive the world subsisting without it. If any one element may be regarded as the parent of all that lives, as the condition on which the beauty and magnificence of nature depend, water has probably the best claim to be regarded as that element. Without moisture the universe would be a heap of ashes: add moisture, and the desert blossoms like the rose These are reflections which could scarcely fail to present themselves to the earliest observers of nature; and, accordingly, we find that Thales gave expression to these reflections in the doctrine which announced that water was the principle and origin of all things.

4. Aristotle, commenting on the doctrine of Thales,