HISTORY 325 



revealed account of the origin and essential nature of 

 the beautiful world which Grecian eyes beheld. 



Such explanations of Nature, as well as the inculcation 

 of moral doctrines, belonged not to religion but to 

 philosophy. Philosophy, after having studied the world, 

 the nature of man and his duties, also occupied itself 

 with attempts to penetrate divine things, the meanings 

 of the popular tales concerning the gods, and the nature 

 and attributes of the Supreme Being. 



As to the explanations of the world w r hich philosophy 

 suggested, Thales, a man of Phrenician descent, born 

 about 640 B.C., taught that water is the original source 

 of all things ; Anaximander, of Miletus (6 1 1 B.C.), affirmed 

 that the principle of all things is an undefined matter, 

 at once the source of what he deemed the elementary 

 contraries namely the warm, the cold, the moist and 

 the dry. The earth, he said, arose from fluid, and all 

 animals were at first aquatic. But he appears to have 

 held that man has a soul of the nature of air. 



Pythagoras (529 B.C.) founded a very influential 

 society, and instituted numerous ethical regulations. He 

 taught * that " number " was the principle underlying 

 all things in the word " one " is the beginning of 

 them all. 



Anaximenes, of Miletus (about 528 B.C.), represented an- 

 as the first principle, and fire, wind, clouds, water and 

 earth, as having been thence produced by condensation. 



Diogenes, of Apollonia, a contemporary of Pytha- 

 goras, followed Anaximenes in holding air to be the 

 origin of things, but believed such air to be vital and 

 intelligent, like the human soul. 



Xenophanes (569 B.C.) taught that "the one" of 



* See ante, p. 5. 



