132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



" We must state whether it belongs to one or to different sciences to 

 inquire into the truths which are in mathematics called axioms, and 

 into substance. Evidently the inquiry into these also belongs to one 

 science, and that the science of the philosopher . . . And for this rea- 

 son no one who is conducting a special inquiry tries to say anything 

 about their truth or falsehood, — neither the geometer nor the arithme- 

 tician. Some natural philosophers (<£uo-ckoi) indeed have done so, and 

 their procedure was intelligible enough ; for they thought that they alone 

 were inquiring about the whole of nature and of being " (irept -re t^s oX-ys 

 <f>v(j€w<; Kal irepi tov ovtos). In like manner Plato 201 refers to the 

 philosophers as those " who discourse and write about nature and the 



universe " ( ol irepi <£ucrea)S re Kal tov oXov SiaAcyo/xcvoi ko.1 ypdcf>ovTes). 



Again 202 he pictures Hippias enthroned in the chair of philosophy at 

 the home of Callias with a crowd of admiring students at his feet, who 

 " appeared to be plying him with certain astronomical questions about 

 nature and the phenomena of the heavens " (l<paivovro Be. irepi <jh'o-ews re 



Kal twv p.eTeojpuv aarpovop-iKa. arra hiepwTav) . Here irepi <pvo-ews gives 



the general subject, which includes -ra p.eTeu>pa, and this in turn com- 

 prehends 6.0-Tpovop.LKa ttTra. 203 We may, therefore, safely say that 

 liepl <pvo-ea)<> was the general title 204 by which the comprehensive philo- 

 sophical works of the early philosophers were called because they were 

 devoted to the universal Berwm Xatunt. 205 For this reason also Ilepi 



201 Lysis, 214 B. 202 Protag., 315 C. 



203 This seems also to be the interpretation put upon the passage by Gilbert, Die 

 mcteorol. Theoricn des griechischen Altertums, p. 3, n. 3, although he emphasizes the 

 (undoubted) fact that in many cases irepi p.eTewpwv and 7repJ <pu<reus were used inter- 

 changeably. 



204 See Gilbert, 0. c, p. 6, n. 1 : " Es haben deshalb Anaximenes und Anaxi- 

 mander, Xenophaues und Parmenides, Empedokles and Anaxagoraa jeder in einem 

 "Werke die Metaphysik, Physik, und Meteorologie gleichmassig behandelt. Audi des 

 Diogenes von Apollonia angefiihrte Schriften fxerewpoXoyia und irepi avOpdiirov (pvcrews 

 waren wohl nuv Teile seines Werkes ir . <pv<rews. Erst Demokrit, der auch hierin 

 epochemachend erscheint,- hat — neben der Darstellung seines Gesamtsystems — in 

 einer Menge von Specialschriften seine Forschungtn niedergelegt." Diels, Vorsokr. 

 p. 333, is of the same opinion regarding the titles attributed to Diogenes. It was 

 the common tradition in after times that IT. (pvaews was the general title ; cp. D. L. 

 IX. 5 (of Heraclitus) to de <pep6p.evov avrov fiifiXLov earl p.ev curb tov <tiWxoj'tos ITept 

 <f>vaews, diyprjTai 8£ els rpels \6yovs, eh re tov irepi tov iravrbs Kal ttoXitikov Kal ffeoXo- 

 yiKov. Hippolytus, Philos. 2 (Diels, Dox. 555, 17) says of Pythagoras : met ovtos de 

 irepi cpvo-LKuv (= irepi <pv<rews) i'rjTrjo-as 'ipn^ev dor povop.lav Kal yeuip-erpiav Kal fiovaiKqv 

 Kal apidp.i)TLK-qv. Cp. ibid. 1. 24 : elra eireiSav . . . irepi daTpuv Kal (pvceus (plXoao- 

 <pr]o-uxn, kt\. Philolaus, fr. 6, irepi (pvcreios Kal apfiovlas Hide txei. To the Pythago- 

 reans, we are told, IcxTopla meant yeufteTpla ; cp. Xichomachus, apud Iamblichus, 

 Vita P'/thag. 89. 



205 It is therefore not surprising to find in Plato uses of <pv<ns corresponding to 



