THALES TO LINNAEUS 9 



different from them which is infinite, from 

 which arise all the heavens and the worlds 

 within them." "Man," he boldly asserts, "is 

 like another animal, namely, a fish, in the be- 

 ginning," a shrewd guess which is now an 

 established fact. 



Anaximenes, the third and last of the 

 Milesian philosophers, while following his 

 predecessors closely in time, disagreed with 

 them as to the raw material of the universe. 

 He declares it to be air which, "when it is 

 dilated so as to be rarer becomes fire while 

 winds, on the other hand, are condensed air, 

 Cloud is formed from air by 'felting' and this, 

 still further condensed, becomes water. Water, 

 condensed still more, turns to earth ; and when 

 condensed as much as it can be, to stones." 

 All of which proves that Anaximenes had a 

 very fertile brain. 



Herakleitos, one of the greatest of all Greek 

 thinkers, lived for a time at Ephesus and ex- 

 pressed the following forceful opinion of his 

 fellow citizens : "The Ephesians would do well 

 to hang themselves, every grown man of them, 

 and leave the city to beardless youths ; for they 

 have cast out Hermodoros, the best man 

 among them, saying: 'We will have none who 

 is best among us ; if there be any such, let him 

 be so elsewhere and among others.' " Accord- 



