nd in them
the secret of the universe. Secondly, they applied number and figure
equally to those parts of physics, such as astronomy or mechanics, in
which the modern philosopher expects to find them, and to those in
which he would never think of looking for them, such as physiology and
psychology. For the sciences were not yet divided, and there was nothing
really irrational in arguing that the same laws which regulated the
heavenly bodies were partially applied to the erring limbs or brain of
man. Astrology was the form which the lively fancy of ancient thinkers
almost necessarily gave to astronomy. The observation that the lower
principle, e.g. mechanics, is always seen in the higher, e.g. in the
phenomena of life, further tended to perplex them. Plato's doctrine
of the same and the other ruling the courses of the heavens and of the
human body is not a mere vagary, but is a natural result of the state of
knowledge and thought at which he had arrived.

When in modern times we contemplate the heavens, a certain amount of
scientific truth imperceptibly blends, even with the cursory glance of
an unscientific person. He knows that the earth is revolving round the
sun, and not the sun around the earth. He does not imagine the earth to
be the centre of the universe, and he has some conception of chemistry
and the cognate sciences. A very different aspect of nature would have
been present to the mind of the early Greek philosopher. He would have
beheld the earth a surface only, not mirrored, however faintly, in the
glass of science, but indissolubly connected with some theory of one,
two, or more elements. He would have seen the world pervaded by number
and figure, animated by a principle of motion, immanent in a principle
of rest. He would have tried to construct the universe on a quantitative
principle, seeming to find in endless combinations of geometrical
figures or in the infinite variety of their sizes a sufficient account
of the multiplicity of phenomena. To these a priori speculations he
would add a rude conception of matter and his own immediate experience
of health and disease. His cosmos would necessarily be imperfect and
unequal, being the first attempt to impress form and order on the
primaeval chaos of human knowledge. He would see all things as in a
dream.

The ancient physical philosophers have been charged by Dr. Whewell
and others with wasting their fine intelligences in wrong methods of
enquiry; and thei