 Milton (2002) offers a helpful perspective on why ancient Greek atomism, despite its naturalist worldview, was not especially conducive to scientific investigation. Features of seventeenth century New Science that do not fit well with classical atomist theory include the application of mathematical analysis to motion and the appeal to a machine model to conceptualize the possibility that complex causal sequencing could produce regular and determinate results without ongoing intelligent direction (Berryman 2009). A modern scholarly tendency to describe Democritean atomism as ‘mechanistic’ contributes to a prevailing overestimate of the scientific credentials of ancient Greek atomism.