Archelaus

, a Greek philosopher, the disciple of Anaxagoras, flourished ahout 440 years before the Christian icra. He read lectures at Athens, not dissimilar from, those of his master. He taught that there was a double principle of all things, namely, the expansion and condensation of the air, which he regarded as infinite. Heat, according to him, was in continual motion; but cold was ever at rest. The earth, which was placed in the midst of the universe, had no motion. It originally resembled a wet marsh, but was afterwards dried up; and its figure, he said, resembled that of an egg. Animals, including man, were produced from the heat of the earth; he held also, that all animals have a soul, which was born with them; -but the capacities of which vary according to the structure of the organs of the body in which it resides. His principles of morals were very pernicious, but gave way to the purer opinions of Socrates, who was the most illustrious of his disciples, and his successor. ²