20 INTRODUCTION. 



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governed." It extended therefore to God and spiritual beings ; man 

 and all animals ; the earth and the starry heavens ; matter and mind, 

 and all their properties or attributes. The name philosopher, is 

 derived from the Greek, <t>t\os, a friend or lover ; and <0oj, a sage, 

 magus, or wise man. It was introduced by Pythagoras ; who 

 modestly declined the title of sophist, or wise man, but styled him- 

 self a lover of the wise, or of wisdom. Philosophy has also been 

 defined, " the science of the fundamental truths of human know- 

 ledge ;" or '* the science of reason ;" and it has been subdivided into 

 Natural, Mental, Moral, and Metaphysical Philosophy ; of which 

 divisions we shall speak hereafter. 



In ancient Greece, where knowledge was so much cultivated, it 

 was disseminated, to a great extent, by the oral instructions of the 

 philosophers ; and perpetuated by means of the schools, or sects, 

 which they founded. Those schools, considered as sources of know- 

 ledge, we may here properly mention. The first of them was the 

 Ionic school, or sect, founded by Thales, of Miletus, in Ionia, who 

 died about 548 B. C. He taught that water, or rather fluidity, was 

 the great principle of life and activity, throughout nature; and hence 

 he called it the divine principle, or the soul of the world. Having 

 travelled in Egypt, he acquired and even extended the science of 

 geometry ; and he is said to have been the first who predicted an 

 eclipse. He taught that the stars were material : but believed in the 

 existence of demons, or spirits, pervading the universe; and ascribed 

 souls to inanimate objects. 



The second important school, or sect, was the Italic, founded by 

 Pythagoras, of Samos, who died about 506 B. C. He travelled in 

 Chaldea and Egypt, and finally retired from Greece, to Magna 

 Gra3cia, in Italy, where he established his school. He taught that 

 the sun is a great central fire, the principle of warmth and life ; that 

 the planets revolving around it must be ten in number, because he 

 regarded ten as a perfect number ; and that by dividing the ether in 

 their course, they produced tones, varying with their size, distance, 

 and velocity, which together composed the harmony of the spheres. 

 He believed that the Deity, or Universal Spirit, is in substance 

 similar to light; a monad or unit, from whom gods, demons, heroes, 

 and human souls emanated ; and that the human soul consists of two 

 parts, the one residing in the heart, sentient and perishable ; the 

 other residing in the brain, rational and immortal ; which, on leaving 

 the body, assumes an ethereal vehicle, till it enters some other human 

 or animal body, to be farther purified, before admission to the divine 

 presence. 



Contemporary with Pythagoras was Xenophanes, who settled 

 about 536 B. C. at Elea, and founded the Ehatic school. He 

 maintained that God is the only being ; in whom all others are com- 

 prehended ; and that the variety of forms and objects in nature is not 

 real, but only imaginary. He believed that all things are produced 

 from fire, air, and water; and contended that the moon was inhabited. 

 The Socratic school was founded by Socrates, of Athens, who 

 died a martyr to virtue and truth, 400 B. C. Rejecting the wild 

 hypotheses and fallacies of the Sophists, or speculative philosophers, 



