ATOMICAL PirmosoPit+, that doctrine which professes to explain the origin of all things, by a com bination of atoms.
The philosophers, who adopted this doctrine, may be divided into two classes ; the theistical, and the atheistical. The first are those who adopted the an cient doctrine concerning atoms, said to have been first taught by Moschus the Phoenician, who, accord ing to Strabo, lived before the Trojan war. This philosopher taught, that all bodies were composed of atoms, uniform in substance, impenetrable, indivisible, eternal ; that the different forms and qualities of mat ter, arose solely from different combinations of these ultimate atoms ; in the same manner as all the words of a language are formed by different combinations of the letters of the alphabet. The same body, for in stance, becomes hard, or soft, or fluid, not from any alteration in its substance, but merely from a different arrangement of its constituent atoms. In this say they account for all the primary qualities of matter. And with regard to the secondary qualities, such as heat, cold, sweet, bitter, 3
Now all this is not only perfectly harmless, but al so very ingenious, with the exception of the eternity of atoms ; an error, which it was not to be supposed that any of the ancient philosophers should avoid, who all maintained the eternity of matter in some form or other. With this exception, the doctrine is very little different from that which has been received and improved in modern times, under the name of the Corpuscular Philosophy. For Sir Isaac Newton affirms, that matter was at first created in solid, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles ; and that out of these result the various forms and quali ties of body. Indeed, no doctrine can be more con sistent with pure theism, than that of the ancient atomists : for, whilst they denied to the atoms sen sation and innate motion, (an error adopted by the later atomists,) there was an absolute necessity for some intelligent power to arrange them into form, so as to produce that order and regularity, which we perceive in the universe.
Some have attempted to give eclat to this philoso phy, by making Moschus, the reputed author of it, the same as Moses. This, however, is very impro bable. Moses, in his cosmogony, certainly teaches nothing concerning atoms ; and there is no evidence nor probability, that he ever wrote or taught any thing on the subject beyond the concise and simple account contained in the Scriptures. It has even been doubted whether the doctrine is entitled to such high antiquity, as has been ascribed to it. And many have
maintained, that it was first broached by Leucippus, Democritus, or Protagoras, many ages after the era of Moschus. Such as wish to see this point cleared up, may consult Cudworth'a Intellectual System, where the antiquity of the doctrine is ably main. tained ; and where it is traced with infinite learning, I though with little method, through all its changes and ramifications, till it ended in absolute atheism.
We now proceed to consider the philosophy of the later atomists, which was decidedly atheistical. The author of this system is generally allowed to have been Leucippus, who is said to have been a dis ciple of Zeno the Eleatic philosopher, who flourished about the 81•th Olympiad. According to Zeno, there is only one being, and that being is God. This ap pears, as far as it can be understood, to be nothing else than the Pantheistic doctrine, so commonly adopted by the ancient phirosophers. But the pupil departed so far from the tenets of his master in this respect, that lie introduced a system, which excluded the agency of Deity altogether, and professed to ac count for the production of all natural bodies from physical causes. All this is effected by giving to atoms an internal principle of motion, and making .them dance together, till at last they produce a world. Observe then the steps, by which this important pro cess is completed. The universe, which is infinite, is in part a plenum, and in part a vacuum. The ple num contains innumerable corpuscles or atoms of va rious figures, which, falling into the vacuum, struck against each other ; and hence arose a variety of cur vilinear motions, which continued, till at length atoms of similar forms met together, and bodies were pro duced. The primary atoms being specifically of equal weight, and not being able, on account of their multitude, to move in circles, the smaller rose to the exterior parts of the vacuum, whilst the larger, en tangling themselves, formed a spherical shell, which revolved about its centre, and which included within it all kinds of bodies. This central mass was gra dually increased by a perpetual accession of particles from the surrounding shell, till at last the earth was formed. In the mean time, the spherical shell was continually supplied with new bodies, which in its re volution is gathered up from without. Of the par ticles thus collected in the spherical shell, some, in their combination, formed humid masses, which by their circular motion gradually became dry, and were at length ignited, and became stars. The sun was. formed in the same manner, in the exterior surface of the shell ; and the moon in its interior surface. In this manner the world was formed." Enfield's Hist.gf Phil.