conclusion he had reached. Water was not to Anaximenes the most
significant, neither was it the most universal element. But air seemed
universally present. "The earth was a broad leaf resting upon it. All
things were produced from it; all things were resolved into it. When he
breathed he drew in a part of this universal life. All things are
nourished by air."[414] Was not, therefore, _air_ the arche, or primal
element of things?

[Footnote 413: Ritter's "History of Ancient Philosophy," vol. i. p.
203.]

[Footnote 414: Lewes's "Biographical History of Philosophy," p. 7.]

This brief notice of the physical speculations of Anaximenes is all that
has survived of his opinions. We search in vain for some intimations of
his theological views. On this merely negative ground, some writers have
unjustly charged him with Atheism. Were we to venture a conjecture, we
would rather say that there are indications of a tendency to Pantheism
in that form of it which associates God necessarily with the universe,
but does not utterly confound them. His fixing upon "_air_" as the
primal element, seems an effort to reconcile, in some apparently
intermediate substance, the opposite qualities of corporeal and
spiritual natures. Air is invisible, impalpable, all-penetrating, and
yet in some manner appreciable to sense. May not the vital
transformations of this element have produced all the rest? The writer
of the Article on Anaximenes in the Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us (on
what ancient authorities he saith not) that "he asserted this air was
God, since the divine power resides in it and agitates it."

Some indications of the views of Anaximenes may perhaps be gathered from
the teachings of Diogenes of Apollonia (B.C. 520-490,) who was the
disciple, and is generally regarded as the commentator and expounder of
the views of Anaximenes. The air of Diogenes was a soul; therefore it
was _living_, and not only living, but conscious and _intelligent_. "It
knows much," says he; "for without _reason_ it would be impossible for
all to be arranged duly and proportionately; and whatever objects we
consider will be found to be so arranged and ordered in the best and
most beautiful manner."[415] Here we have a distinct recognition of the
fundamental axiom that _mind is the only valid explanation of the order
and harmony which pervades the universe_. With Diogenes the first
principle is a "divine air," which is vital, conscious, and intelligent,
whi