intelligence, to be a first cause, (as Empedocles made affinity to be an element,) to be innate in and the source of motion in animals, as well as the cause, in nature, of the universe and its order.
Note 11, p. 24. Thales, too, from what, &c.] In this
allusion to the influence of the magnet, Thales may have
been criticising the opinions which made motion de-
pendent upon life. He was the founder of the school
which derived all things from one or more material and
indestructible elements; he believed water to be the
sole element, (whence he demonstrated that the earth is
from water), and was probably led, Aristotle observes, to
this conception, from perceiving that the nutrition of all
creatures is fluid; that heat is produced from water, and
that by heat animals live; and, then, that all seminal
particles are naturally fluid.
Note 12, p. 24. Diogenes, together with some other
writers, &c.] It is probable that this opinion was
suggested to Diogenes by the respiration, which he knew
to be essential to animal existence and dependent upon
the air; although the process itself, and the changes
effected by it, were of course then unknown. Air, how-
ever, was believed to be necessary for the maintenance of
life, and so it might well be regarded as the originating cause of all things; and more especially by one who saw
so far, as was shewn in a former note, into its mode of
agency. It is shewn by Aristotle[1] that he had well
- ↑ De Part. iii 2. 6.
