David Peat

From Object to Process 55tainly did not appeal to those Greek philosophers who envisioned aworld of underlying forms and ideals.All in all the Greeks preferred their elements. These were not actualphysical substances—such as real fire or real water—but rather, nonmaterialessences out of which the whole world was created.Such ideas persisted in the West for well over 2,000 years, and, withthe rise of alchemy, new principles, or elements, were added. The spiritMercury, for example, is present in all that is volatile. Salt, which isunchanged by fire, represents that which is fixed, while sulfur is theprinciple of combustion. The Greek notion of atomism was also key inthe alchemists’ search for a “universal solvent” that would reduce allmatter to its most elementary components.Rather than particular substances being in their final state, alchemistsbelieved that the components of the world are in a process ofmaturation and growth as they journey toward perfection. For thisreason, gold was highly praised because it was considered an endpointin alchemical workings. Gold glows like the sun and resists tarnish anddissolution. In this sense matter was a living thing, and alchemists actedas midwives to a Nature striving for perfection. The medieval doctrineof “as above so below” also established a parallelism between inner,spiritual growth and outer, material transformation.The Rise of Atomic TheoryWith the rise of “Newtonian science”—to give it an overall umbrellaterm—natural philosophers began to view matter in more mechanicalterms, as moving in response to laws of force. Nevertheless, residues ofearlier views persisted well into the nineteenth century under the guiseof “vitalism,” the idea that organic matter, the matter that makes upliving beings, is somehow of a different order from non-organic. Suchnotions are still prevalent today by those who use the rather diffuseterm “organic foods” to suggest that foodstuff and health products producedfrom “natural plants” and without the use of additives or“chemicals,” have superior dietary and medicinal properties.The first real change in the notion of elements, or fundamental