gies derived from mechanical collocations, arrangements, and
movements. The universe was regarded by them as a vast superstructure
built up from elemental particles, aggregated by some inherent force or
mutual affinity.

_Anaximander of Miletus_ (born B.C. 610) we place at the head of the
Mechanical sect of the Ionian school; first, on the authority of
Aristotle, who intimates that the philosophic dogmata of Anaximander
"resemble those of Democritus," who was certainly an Atomist; and,
secondly, because we can clearly trace a genetic connection between the
opinions of Democritus and Leucippus and those of Anaximander.

The arche, or first principle of Anaximander, was to apeiron, _the
boundless, the illimitable, the infinite_. Some historians of philosophy
have imagined that the infinite of Anaximander was the "unlimited all,"
and have therefore placed him at the head of the Italian or "idealistic
school." These writers are manifestly in error. Anaximander was
unquestionably a sensationalist. Whatever his "infinite" may be found to
be, one thing is clear, it was not a "metaphysical infinite"--it did not
include infinite power, much less infinite mind.

The testimony of Aristotle is conclusive that by "the infinite"
Anaximander understood the multitude of primary, material particles. He
calls it "a migma, or mixture of elements."[420] It was, in fact, a
_chaos_--an original state in which the primary elements existed in a
chaotic combination without _limitation_ or division. He assumed a
certain "_prima materia_," which was neither air, nor water, nor fire,
but a "mixture" of all, to be the first principle of the universe. The
account of the opinions of Anaximander which is given by Plutarch ("De
Placita," etc.) is a further confirmation of our interpretation of his
infinite. "Anaximander, the Milesian, affirmed the infinite to be the
first principle, and that all things are generated out of it, and
corrupted again into it. _His infinite is nothing else but matter._"
"Whence," says Cudworth, "we conclude that Anaximander's infinite was
nothing else but an infinite chaos of matter, in which were actually or
potentially contained all manner of qualities, by the fortuitous
secretion and segregation of which he supposed infinite worlds to be
successively generated and corrupted. So that we may easily guess whence
Leucippus and Democritus had their infinite worlds, and perceive how
near akin these two Atheistic hypotheses w