56 THE GREEK SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY. 



placed Pythagoras at the origin of the Italic School, one of the two 

 main lines of succession of the early Greek philosophers : but the 

 other, the Tonic School, which more peculiarly demands our attention, 

 in consequence of its character and subsequent progress, is deduced 

 from Thales, who preceded the age of Philosojrfiy, and was one of the 

 sophi, or " wise men of Greece." 



The Ionic School was succeeded in Greece by several others ; and 

 the subjects which occupied the attention of these schools became very 

 extensive. In fact, the first attempts were, to form systems which 

 should explain the laws and causes of the material universe ; and to 

 these were soon added all the great questions which our moral condi- 

 tion and faculties suggest. The physical philosophy of these schools 

 is especially deserving of our study, as exhibiting the character and 

 fortunes of the most memorable attempt at universal knowledge which 

 has ever been made. It is highly instructive to trace the principles 

 of this undertaking ; for the course pursued was certainly one of the 

 most natural and tempting which can be imagined ; the essay was 

 made by a nation unequalled in fine mental endowments, at the period 

 of its greatest activity and vigor ; and yet it must be allowed (for, at 

 least so far as physical science is concerned, none will contest this), to 

 have been entirely unsuccessful. We cannot consider otherwise than 

 as an utter failure, an endeavor to discover the causes of things, of 

 which the most complete results are the Aristotelian physical treatises ; 

 and which, after reaching the point which these treatises mark, left 

 the human mind to remain stationary, at any rate on all such subjects, 

 for nearly two thousand years. 



The early philosophers of Greece entered upon the work of physical 

 speculation in a manner which showed the vigor and confidence of the 

 questioning spirit, as yet untamed by labors and reverses. It was for 

 later ages to learn that man must acquire, slowly and patiently, letter 

 by letter, the alphabet in which nature writes her answers to such in- 

 quiries. The first students wished to divine, at a single glance, the 

 whole import of her book. They endeavored to discover the origin 

 and principle of the universe ; according to Thales, water was the ori- 

 gin of all things, according to Anaximenes, air ; and Heraclitus con- 

 sidered fire as the essential principle of the universe. It has been con- 

 jectured, with great plausibility, that this tendency to give to their 

 Philosophy the form of a Cosmogony, was owing to the influence of 

 the poetical Cosmogonies and Theogonies which had been produced 

 and admired at a still earlier age. Indeed, such wide and ambitious 



