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82. A spirit of philosophical research first manifested itself in some rude attempts in Ionia, made at the period when this country, colonized from Greece, enjoyed the utmost prosperity. Thence it extended to some of the neighbouring colonies; subsequently into Magna Græcia, until the conquests of the Persians and the troubles of southern Italy compelled it to take refuge in Athens; from which, as a centre, intellectual civilization was disseminated, and, as it were, radiated over the whole of Greece.

83. The starting-point of philosophy was the question concerning the origin and the elementary principle of the world: the resolution of which was attempted by experience and reflection in the Matter (Ionic school); and Form of perception (Pythagoreans.) The Eleatic school opposed to each other the experimental and intellectual systems; which were combined by the Atomistic philosophers. Last of all came a Sophistical school, which threatened to destroy all belief, religious and moral.

84. But this progress of investigation was a sort of prelude to a more scientific philosophy, which by-and-by turned from the external object to the internal subject: from the world without to the mind within. Philosophical reflection, discarding poetical myths, applied itself to practical purposes, by the discovery of moral and political apophthegms, for a long time delivered in verse (Gnome, whence philosophia gnomica sive sententiaria; cf. § 75-76). In theory, men wandered, went from one hypothesis to another, until, in the end, they endeavoured to substitute for these a system of metaphysical knowledge. The earliest philosophers were solitary, and without a school (Pythagoras nevertheless being an exception). Their notions were disseminated at first by oral tradition; subsequently by writings; which gradually disengaged themselves from poetic fictions.

I. Speculations of the Ancient Ionians.

✦ H. RITTER, History of the Ionian Philosophy, Berlin, 1821, 8vo. BOUTERWEK, Dissertation referred to above, at the head of § 82.

Thales.

THE ABBE DE CANAYE, Inquiry respecting the Philosophy of Thales, in the Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscript. tom. X.

CHR. ALB. DOEDERLINI Animadversiones historico-critica de Thaletis et Pythagoræ historicâ ratione, 1750, 8vo.

GODOFR. PLOUCQUET, Dissert. de Dogmatibus Thaletis Milesii et Anaxagoræ Clazomenii, etc. Tubing. 1763; and in his Comment. Philos. Select.

GLIEB. CHPH. HARLES, Tria Programmata de Thaletis Doctrinâ, de Principio Rerum, imprimis de Deo, ad illustrandum Ciceronis de Nat. Deor. locum, lib. I, 10, Erlang. 1780-84, folio.

J. FRID. FLATT, Diss. de Theismo Thaleti Milesio abjudicando, Tub. 1785, 4to.

J. H. MULLER, De Aqua, principio Thaletis, Altd. 1719, in 4to. FISCHER, De Hellenica philosophiæ principiis, atque de cursu a Thalete usque ad Platonem, 1836.

+ GOESS, On the System of Thales. See above, at the head of § 2.

85. Thales (603 B. C.), of Miletus, the most flourishing commercial city in Ionia, improved himself by travel, was possessed of some mathematical and astronomical knowledge, and was ranked by his fellow-citizens among the Seven Sages. He was the first Grecian who discussed, on principles of reason, the origin of the world. Water (üowp), or humidity,' was in his opinion (formed in consequence of some empirical observations very partial in their nature) the original element (apxý), whence all things proceeded; and spirit (vous) the impulsive principle. He observed the attractive power of the magnet, and consistently with his theory, supposed the stone to have a soul. Everything is full of the divinity. It is not exactly known in what manner Thales associated the spiritual parts of his system with his material principle. Accordingly, the discussions which his theism has occasioned commenced at a very early epoch. Among other sentences, they attribute to him that of quo σεαυτόν.

Anaximander and Pherecydes.

THE ABBE DE CANAYE, Inquiry concerning Anaximander, in the Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscript. tom. X.

+ FR. SCHLEIERMACHER, Dissertation on the Philosophy of Anaximander, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, 1804-11, Berlin, 1815, 4to.

1 ARISTOT. Metaph. I, 3. De Cœlo, II, 13.

2 ARISTOT. De Animâ, I, 2, 5. Cf. De Mundo, VI.

CICERO, De Nat. Deor. I, 10.

+ H. RITTER, in the work already referred to, and the article Anaximander, IVth part of the Encyclopædia published by ERSCH and GRUBER.

PHERECYDIS fragmenta e variis scriptoribus collegit, etc. commentationem de Pherecyde utroque philos. et historico præmisit FR. GUIL. STURZ, Gera, 1789, 8vo. second edition, 1824.

HEINIUS, Dissertation on Pherecydes, in the Mémoires de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences, Berlin, V. 1747.

See also the work of TIEDEMANN, mentioned above, at the head of § 82, p. 172, sqq.

86. Anaximander,' a Milesian like Thales, and a friend of that philosopher, chose, as the basis of his argument on the same subject, not analogy, but an assumed philosophical principle. The primary essence he asserted to be infinite (ameipov), comprehending all things, and divine (Tò beîov), without, however, more exactly defining it. According to some he attributed to this divine nature an essence altogether distinct from the elements; according to others, he made it something intermediate between water and air. It is only in infinity that the perpetual changes of things can take place; from infinity, opposites detach themselves by a perpetual movement, and in like manner continually return to the same. By this principle the heavens and the earth subsist with respect to which Anaximander did not content himself with astronomical speculations only. Every thing which is contained in infinitude (Tó arrepov), is subject to change, itself being unchangeable. Such also was the doctrine, with some slight differences, of his contemporary (but younger than himself) Pherecydes of Syros; who recognised as the eternal principles of all things Jupiter (Zevs or aionp), Time, and the Earth. It appears also that he attempted an account of the origin of the celestial bodies and of the human race, and that he believed the soul to be immortal. Anaximander and Pherecydes were the first philosophers who committed their thoughts and opinions to writing.

1 About 610 B.C.

2 DIOG. LAERT. II, 1. 3 ARISTOT. Physic. I, 4, 5; III, 4-7; and SIMPLIC. Comment. in Phys. p. 6; and De Coelo, p. 151.

ARISTOT. Metaph. XIV, 4. DIOG. LAERT. I, 119. Crc. Tusc. Qu.

Anaximenes.

DAN. GROTHII (præs. J. ANDR. SCHMIDT), Diss. de Anaximensis Psychologia, Jen. 1689, 4to.

87. Anaximenes, of Miletus,' followed the doctrine of his friend and teacher Anaximander; but instead of the indeterminate ameipov of the latter, certain observations, though partial and limited, on the origin of things and the nature of the soul, led him to regard the air (anp) as the primitive element. In after-time, Diogenes of Apollonia revived and improved upon this system; in which we may already observe a more enlarged view of nature, and a higher exercise of thought.

II. Speculations of the Pythagorean.

Authorities: besides Plato and Aristotle, and the Pythagorean Fragments, particularly those of Philolaus :

Pythagoræ Aurea Cari Timæus Locris. Ocellus Lucanus. Porphyrius de Vita Pythagoræ, ed. CONR. RITTERSHUSIUS, Altd. 1610, 8vo. See also xρúσɛα ŋ, in the Sententiosa vetustissimorum Gnomicorum opera, tom. I, ed. GLANDORF, Lips. 1776, 8vo.; and in BRUNCK'S Gnomici Poetæ Græci, 8vo. Argent. 1784.

JAMBLICHI de Vita Pythagorica liber, Gr. cum vers. Lat. Ulr. Obrechti notisque suis edid. LUDOLF. KUESTERUS, acced. MALCHUS sive PORPHYRIUS De Vita Pythagoræ cum not. L. HOLSTENII et CONRAD. RITTERSHUSII, Amstelod. 1707, 4to. ed. THEOPH. KIESLING, Lips. 1815, 2 vols. 8vo.

Pythagoræ Sphæra Divinatoria de decubitu ægrotorum; and the Epistolæ Pythagoræ, in the Opusc. Myth. Phys. of GALE, p. 735, sqq. Socratis et Socraticorum, Pythagoræ et Pythagoricorum, quæ feruntur Epistolæ, ed. ORELLIUS, 1816, 8vo.

RICH. BENTLEY'S Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, &c. 8vo. best edition, Lond. 1777; new edition, by DYCE, 2 vols. 8vo. 1836. Dissert. de Phalaridis, Themistoclis, Socratis, Euripidis, aliorumque Epistolis, in Latin. sermonem convertit J. D. A. LENNEP, Gröning. 1777, 4to. Et, BENTLEII Opuscula Philologica, Dissertationem in Phalaridis Epistolas et Epistolam ad J. MILLIUM complectentia, Lips. 1781, 8vo.

+ MEINERS, History of the Sciences in Greece and Rome, tom. I, p. 187. + MEINERS, Dissertation on the Authenticity of some works of the Pythagorean School, in the Bibliotheca Philol. tom. I, No. V.

Flourished about 257 B.C.

2 ARISTOT. Metaph. I, 3. SIMPLIC. in Phys. Arist. p. 6 et 9. CIC. Acad. Quæst. II, 37. PLUTARCH, De plac. Philos. I, 3. STOв. Ecl. I, p. 296. SEXT. Eмp. Hyp. Pyrrh. III, 30; Adv. Mathem. VII, 5; IX, 360, DIOG. LAERT. II, 3.

* TIEDEMANN, Early Philosophers of Greece, p. 188, sqq.

W. LLOYD, A Chronological Account of the Life of Pythagoras, and of other Famous Men, his Contemporaries, with an Epistle to Dr. Bentley, etc. Lond. 1699-1704, 8vo.

HENR. DODWELLI Exercitationes duæ, prima de ætate Phalaridis, altera de ætate Pythagoræ, Lond. 1699-1704, 8vo.

Dissertations sur l'Epoque de Pythagore, par DE LANAUZE et FRERET, dans les Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscript. tom. XIV.

GE. LUD. HAMBERGER, Exerc. de Vitâ et Symbolis Pythagoræ. Vitemb. 1676, 4to.

DACIER, La Vie de Pythagore, ses symboles, ses vers dorés, etc. Par. 1706, 2 vols. 12mo.

CHPH. SCHRADER, Diss. de Pythagorâ, in quâ de ejus Ortu, Præceptoribus et Peregrinationibus agitur, Lips. 1708, 4to.

JE. JAC. LEHMANN, Observatt. ad Histor. Pythagoræ, Frcft. et Leips. 1731, 4to.

....

M.. 12mo.

; Vies d'Epicure, de Platon, et de Pythagore, Amst. 1752,

+FRED. CHRIST. EILSCHOV, History and Critical Life of Pythagoras, translated from the Danish of PHILANDER VON DER WEISTRITZ, Kopenhagen, 1756, 8vo.

AUG. E. ZINSERLING, Pythagoras-Apollon, Lips. 1808, 8vo.

JOH. SCHEFFER, De Natura et Constitutione Philosophiæ Italicæ, Ups. 1664. Edit. II, cum carminibus, Vitemb. 1701, 8vo.

+ J. LE CLERC, in his Bibliotheca, tom. X, art. II, p. 79. RITTER, Geschichte der Pythagoräischen Philosophie, 1826; (in his History of Philosophy, vol. I, pp, 326 and seq. Bohn's translation). WENDT, De rerum principiis secundum Pythagoreos, 1827.

REINHOLD, Beitrag zur Erlaüterung der Pythagoräischen Metaphysik, 1827.

For the ancient works relative to Pythagoras and his Philosophy, see the + Acta Philos. of HEUMANN, part II, p. 370, part IV, p. 752.

88. The difficulties which embarrass this part of history and demand the exercise of much critical discernment are, -The want of authentic writings, the abundance of those which are apocryphal, the mystery which appears to involve everything belonging to the person, the character, and views of Pythagoras and his society; the difficulty of discriminating between what was his own, and what was borrowed from the Egyptians, or may have proceeded from others of his school, and, finally, the re-establishment of the same school at a later period, under different masters, and with somewhat different views.

89. Pythagoras was born at Samos; and improved him1 In 584, according to Meiners.

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