18 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



nostris cceleste nuinen adesse credidissemus." It is obviously very 

 probable that Thales broached simply the absurd notion, that the uni- 

 verse was filled with gods in every part, by way of accounting for the 

 various operations of nature; a^nd that the moral deductions were 

 afterwards appended to it by later philosophers. And what renders- 

 this still more probable is, that the answer of Thales, recorded by 

 Valerius Maximus, is by Plutarch attributed to Pittacus. We may 

 remark by the way, that a strong instance of the uncertainty, under 

 which we labour generally, as to the tenets of the earlier philosophers, 

 is the confusion which prevails, as to the real authors of many sayings 

 recorded by ancient authors. For example, the celebrated apophthegm, 

 yvwdt (Ttavrov, is by some attributed to Chilon of Lacedsemon, by 

 others to Thales, and by some to Apollo himself. M.r}Sev ayav is 

 assigned by Aristotle to Chilon, but by many to Pittacus. This last- 

 mentioned philosopher is also recorded to have said to a person, who 

 inquired of him whether he had better marry a rich wife, or one suited 

 to his own condition, T?)v Kara cravrov t\a; which reply is by others 

 attributed to Solon, and by some to Chilon. Tertullian relates, that 

 Thales, when asked by Croesus what he thought of the gods, after 

 much deliberation could return no answer. Now older and more 

 trustworthy authors relate the same story of Simonides. From these, 

 and from many similar instances which might be adduced, appears 

 the difficulty of ascertaining and marking out the precise property, 

 which belongs to each of the ancient philosophers, in the wide range 

 of physical and moral speculation, which is spread through the writings 

 of many ages. 



His leading It is, however, agreed upon all hands, that the leading doctrine of 

 doctrine. Thales was this, that water was the origin of all things ; which some 

 persons have considered to refer to the reappearance of all things from 

 the deluge. Whether he taught that water was the material, and that 

 the Deity formed the universe out of it, seems to admit of doubt. It 

 is certain that he was not an atheist, and that he believed in the exist- 

 ence of an incorporeal Deity ; but as it is justly observed by Bayle 

 (art. Thales), the opinions of the heathen philosophers were so little 

 connected, that it did not follow as a necessary consequence, from the 

 hypothesis of the existence of a God, that he was the creator of the 

 universe ; but many of them believed the gods to be the governors of 

 the world, having been themselves produced from chaos. 



It is far from improbable, that both. Thales and Pythagoras may 

 have obtained a great part of their mathematical knowledge, and some 

 of their notions respecting the Deity and his operations, from the Chal- 

 dsean philosophers. It is going too far to suppose, as some have done, 

 that they were acquainted with the Mosaic writings ; but they were 

 probably not ignorant of that traditional knowledge, which had 

 descended from the earliest ages of the world, and was preserved 

 amongst the inhabitants of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Assyria. It is 

 observed by Diodorus Siculus (who perhaps had not much better 



