ilosophy,
gold and oxygen and mercury and diamonds are one substance, and, if you
please, one quality. But such refinements of analysis as this are for
the transcendental philosopher, and not for the scientist. Whatever the
allurement of such reasoning, we must for the purpose of science let
words have a specific meaning, nor must we let a mere word-jugglery
blind us to the evidence of facts. That was the rock on which Greek
science foundered; it is the rock which the modern helmsman sometimes
finds it difficult to avoid. And if we mistake not, this case of the
atom of Democritus is precisely a case in point. Because Democritus said
that his atoms did not differ in quality, the modern philosopher has
seen in his theory the essentials of monism; has discovered in it not
merely a forecast of the chemistry of the nineteenth century, but a
forecast of the hypothetical chemistry of the future. And, on the
other hand, because Anaxagoras predicted a different quality for his
primordial elements, the philosopher of our day has discredited the
primordial element of Anaxagoras.

Yet if our analysis does not lead us astray, the theory of Democritus
was not truly monistic; his indestructible atoms, differing from one
another in size and shape, utterly incapable of being changed from the
form which they had maintained from the beginning, were in reality
as truly and primordially different as are the primordial elements of
Anaxagoras. In other words, the atom of Democritus is nothing less than
the primordial seed of Anaxagoras, a little more tangibly visualized and
given a distinctive name. Anaxagoras explicitly conceived his elements
as invisibly small, as infinite in number, and as made up of an
indefinite number of kinds--one for each distinctive substance in
the world. But precisely the same postulates are made of the atom of
Democritus. These also are invisibly small; these also are infinite
in number; these also are made up of an indefinite number of kinds,
corresponding with the observed difference of substances in the world.
"Primitive seeds," or "atoms," were alike conceived to be primordial,
un-changeable, and indestructible. Wherein then lies the difference? We
answer, chiefly in a name; almost solely in the fact that Anaxagoras did
not attempt to postulate the physical properties of the elements beyond
stating that each has a distinctive personality, while Democritus did
attempt to postulate these properties. He, too, adm