46 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



the oldest statement of this character is the one credited to Thales, 

 the Milesian, to the effect that it rests on water, floating like a piece 

 of wood or something else of that sort.' . . . And Thales, according 

 to what is related of him, seems to have regarded the soul as some- 

 thing endowed with the power of motion, if indeed he said that the 

 loadstone has a soul because it moves iron. . . . Some say that soul is 

 diffused throughout the whole universe; and it may have been this 

 which led Thales to think that all things are full of gods. Aristotle. 



Of those who say that the first principle is one and movable, to 

 whom Aristotle applies the distinctive name of physicists, some say 

 that it is limited; as for instance Thales of Miletos . . . who 

 seems also to have lost belief in the gods. These say that the first 

 principle is water, and they are led to this result by things that appear 

 to the senses ; for warmth lives in moisture and dead things wither 

 up and all germs are moist and all nutriment is moist .... Thales 

 is the first to have set on foot the investigation of nature by the 

 Greeks ; although so many others preceded him, he so fai surpassed 

 them as to cause them to be forgotten. It is said that he left nothing 

 in writing except a book entitled Nautical Astronomy. Theo- 

 phrastw. 



It is said that Thales of Miletos, one of the seven wise men, was 

 the first to undertake the study of Physical Philosophy. He said 

 that the beginning (the first principle) and the end of all things is 

 water. All things acquire firmness as this solidifies, and again, as it 

 melts, their existence is threatened ; to this are due earthquakes and 

 whirlwinds and movements of the stars .... Thales was the first 

 of the Greeks to devote himself to the study and investigation of the 

 stars and was the originator of this branch of science ; on one occa- 

 sion he was looking up at the heavens and was just saying he was in- 

 tent on studying what was overhead, when he fell into a well ; where- 

 upon a maid-servant named Thratta laughed at him and said : ' In 

 his zeal for things in the sky he does not see what is at his feet.' And 

 he lived in the time of Krcesos. Hippolytus. 



Thales of Miletos regards the first principle and the element as 

 the same thing. ... So we call earth, water, air, fire, elements. . . . 

 Thales declared that the first principle of things is water. The 

 Physicists, followers of Thales, all recognize that the void is really a 

 void. The earth is one and spherical in form. It is in the midst 

 of the universe. Thales and Democritus find in water the cause 



