21. So far, then, the position of Anaximander is an advance beyond that of Thales. The principle of Thales (water, namely) was too definite and particular to serve as the common ground or basis of all things. Being already qualified, it was not open to all qualification. Anaximander thought that this objection was obviated by his ἄπειρον. This, being unmodified in itself, was susceptible of all modification; being absolutely unconditioned, it was capable of becoming conditioned to any extent; and accordingly he adopted this as his universal, and set it forth as the principle of all things. The ἄπειρον was perhaps the prosaic and philosophical name for the chaos of the poets. In the language of Ovid—
" Ante, mare et tellus, et quod tegit omnia, cœlum,
Unus erat toto Naturæ vultus in orbe,
Quem dixere chaos, rudis indigestaque moles.
Quaque fuit tellus, illic et pontus et aer:
Sic erat instabilis tellus, innabilis unda,
Lucis egens aer; nulli sua forma manebat,
Obstabatque aliis aliud, quia corpore in uno
Frigida pugnabant calidis, humentia siccis,
Mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus:
Hanc Deus et melior litem natura diremit."
22. To this matter, originally indeterminate or unconditioned, Anaximander seems to have ascribed some inherent power of assuming form or of secreting differences, and thus the various objects of the universe arose. The process is very insufficiently explained. All that we can say is, that Anaximander's doctrine probably was that things have assumed the forms in which we behold them in consequence of certain affinities and certain repugnances pervading
