92 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



authentic utterances of the philosophers of the sixth and fifth centu- 

 ries B.C., that we should study with especial interest the body of liter- 

 ature emanating in great part from the pamphleteers who assimilated 

 and disseminated the teachings of the great masters. The latter were, 

 as is the wont of true men of science, more reserved than the motley 

 crowd of pseudo-scientists who caught up their half-expressed conclu- 

 sions and published them in the market places to eager laymen, for 

 whom the scientists entertained only an ill-concealed contempt. 52 

 No opinion was so well established that they would not sap its roots ; 

 no question was too obscure to baffle explanation. A certain decorous 

 respect was still shown for the gods ; but they had in fact become su- 

 pernumeraries so far as concerned the explanation of the world. Thus 

 Hippocrates 53 says: "In matters human the divine is the chief cause ; 

 thereafter the constitutions and complexions of women " ; but while the 

 divine is then dismissed, the constitutions and complexions of women 

 are considered at length and made to account for everything. In other 

 cases, as, e. g., in the treatise n. Upfjs vova-ov, the gods are definitely 

 ruled out as a particular cause, and only the elemental substances, which 

 rule in the human frame, are recognized as divine. 54 Thus the divine 

 working becomes another name for the operation of Nature. 



A good illustration of this procedure is found in Hippocrates, II. aepwv 

 vSJltojv tottw. After remarking that the Scythians worship the eunuchs 

 because they attribute their estate to a god and fear a like fate for 

 themselves, the author says: 55 "I myself regard this as divine, as 

 well as everything else. One is not more divine nor human 56 than 

 another ; but all are on the same level, and all are divine. Yet every 

 one of these things has its natural cause, and none occurs without a 

 natural cause. I will now explain how in my opinion this comes about." 

 Whereupon the author proceeds to give a purely naturalistic explana- 

 tion. You will note here the words eKauTTOV . . . €,\ei <j>v(riv ttjv eavrov 57 



62 See above, n. 37. For the physicians, see Hippocr. II. dpdpwv, 67 (4, 280 

 Littre), UpopprjTiKov, 2 (9, 10 Littre), II. r^ X "Vh 1 (6, 2 Littre). 



83 II. ywaiKelrj! (pvaios, 1 (7, 312 Littre). Similarly UpoyvutrriKdv, 1 (2, 112 Littre) 

 it is required that the physician study the nature of the disease to see whether it is 

 too powerful for the strength of the body, fi/xa 8e Kal dri dtlov iviuri iv rrjcn voiktokti, 

 Kal rovriov ttjv irpovocav eKnavdaveiv. Yet, the main business of the physician is with 

 the disease and its natural causes, which he must combat. 



84 Hippocr. II. leprji vovaov, 18 (6, 394 Littre) : ravra 8' earl de'ia, (bare p.r\Uv 

 dtcLKpivovTa rb vovcr-qpa deiorepov twv \olwQv lovcr-qparcov vopdfciv, dXXd ir&vra 6eia Kal 

 avOpunriva navra. ■ tpvcriv de ?x el tKaarop /cot duvap.t.v e0' ewi/roO. For the last phrase 

 see n. 57. 



5» Ch. 22, p. 64 Kiihlewein. B6 Cp. n. 54. 



67 Natorp, Fhilos. Monatshefte, 21, 581 detects in these words a protest against 

 teleology. 1 think he is in error : it is rather a protest against the supposition of 



