Sir TKHtlliam {Temple 79 



After Socrates, who left nothing in writing, 

 many sects of philosophers began to spread in 

 Greece, who entered boldly upon both parts 

 of natural and moral philosophy. The first 

 with the greatest disagreement, and the most 

 eager contention that could be upon the greatest 

 subjects : as, whether the world were eternal, or 

 produced at some certain time ? whether, if pro- 

 duced, it was by some eternal Mind, and to 

 some end, or by the fortuitous concourse of 

 atoms, or some particles of eternal matter? 

 whether there was one world, or many ? whether 

 the soul of man was a part of some ethereal and 

 eternal substance, or was corporeal? whether, 

 if eternal, it was so before it came into the 

 body, or only after it went out? There were 

 the same contentions about the motions of the 

 heavens, the magnitude of the celestial bodies, 

 the faculties of the mind, and the judgment of 

 the senses. But all the different schemes of na- 

 ture that have been drawn of old, or of late, by 

 Plato, Aristotle, Kpicurus, Descartes, Hobbes, 

 or any other that I know of, seem to agree but 

 in one thing, which is, the want of demonstra- 

 tion or satisfaction to any thinking and un- 

 possessed man ; and seem more or less probable 

 one than another, according to the wit and 

 eloquence of the authors and advocates that 

 raise or defend them ; like jugglers' tricks, that 



