THALES TO LUCRETIUS 



that * except the blind forces of Nature, nothing 

 moves which is not Greek in its origin,' and we feel 

 how hard it is to avoid exaggeration when speaking 

 of the heritage bequeathed by Greece as the giver 

 of every fruitful, quickening idea which has developed 

 human faculty on all sides, and enriched every pro- 

 vince of life. Amid serious defects of character, as 

 craftiness, avariciousness, and unscrupulousness, the 

 Greeks had the redeeming grace of pursuit after 

 knowledge which nought could baffle (Plato, 

 Republic, iv. 435), and that healthy outlook on 

 things which saved them from morbid introspection. 

 There arose among them no Simeon Stylites to 

 mount his profitless pillar ; no filth-engrained fakir 

 to waste life in contemplating the tip of his nose ; 

 no schoolman to idly speculate how many angels 

 could dance upon a needle's point ; or to debate 

 such fatuous questions as the language which the 

 saints in heaven will speak after the Last Judgment. 

 In his excellent and cautious survey of Early 

 Greek Philosophy, which is mainly followed in this 

 section, Professor Burnet says that the real advance 

 made by the lonians was through their * leaving off 

 telling tales. They gave up the hopeless task of 

 describing what was when as yet there was nothing, 

 and asked instead what all things really are now.' 

 For the early notions of the Greeks about nature, 

 being an inheritance from their barbaric ancestors, 

 were embodied in myths and legends bearing strong 

 resemblance to those found among the uncivilised 

 tribes of Polynesia and elsewhere in our day. For 

 example, the old nature-myth of Cronus separating 

 heaven and earth by the mutilation of Uranus occurs 



