eving in a spherical system of
the world, surrounded by a circle of pure light; in the centre of which
was the earth; and between the earth and the light was the circle of the
Milky Way, of the morning and evening star, of the sun, the planets, and
the moon. And the differences in perfection of organization, he attributed
to the different proportions in which the primary principles were
intermingled. The ultimate principle of the world was, in his view,
necessity, in which Empedocles appears to have followed him; he seems to
have been the only philosopher who recognised with distinctness and
precision that the Existent, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH PSILI AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}, as such, is unconnected with all
separation or juxtaposition, as well as with all succession, all relation
to space or time, all coming into existence, and all change. It is,
however, a mistake to suppose that he recognised it as a Deity.

_Democritus_ was born at Abdera, B.C. 460. His father Hegesistratus had
been so rich as to be able to entertain Xerxes, when on his march against
Greece. He spent his inheritance in travelling into distant countries,
visiting the greater part of Asia, and, according to some authors,
extending his travels as far as India and AEthiopia. Egypt he certainly was
acquainted with. He lived to beyond the age of 100 years, and is said to
have died B.C. 357.

He was a man of vast and varied learning, and a most voluminous author,
though none of his works have come down to us;--in them he carried out the
theory of atoms which he had derived from Leucippus; insisting on the
reality of a vacuum and of motion, which he held was the eternal and
necessary consequence of the original variety of atoms in this vacuum.
These atoms, according to this theory, being in constant motion and
impenetrable, offer resistance to one another, and so create a whirling
motion which gives birth to worlds. Moreover, from this arise combinations
of distinct atoms which become real things and beings. The first cause of
all existence he called _chance_ ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}), in opposition to the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} of
Anaxagoras. But Democritus went further