408 NOVUM ORGANUM. [bOOK I. 



from tlie Greeks ; for the addition of the Eoman, Arabic, or more 

 modern writers, are but few and of small importance, and such, 

 as they are, are founded on the basis of Greek invention. But 

 the wisdom of the Greeks was professional and disputatious, and 

 thus most adverse to the investigation of truth. The name, 

 therefore, of sophists, which the contemptuous spirit of those 

 who deemed themselves philosopliers, rejected and transferred 

 to the rhetoricians, — Gorgias,* i*rotagoras, Hippias, Polus, — 

 might well suit the whole tribe, such as Plato, Aristotle, Zono, 

 Epicurus, Theophrastus, and their successors, — Chrysippus, Car- 

 neades, and the rest. There was only this diiferencc between 

 them, — the former were mercenary vagabonds, travelling about 

 to different states, making a show of their wisdom, and requiring 

 pay ; the latter more dignified and noble, in possession ol' fixed 

 habitations, opening schools, and teaching philosophy gratui- 

 tously. Both, however (though differing in other respects), were 

 professorial, and reduced every subject to controversy, establish- 

 ing and defending certain sects and dogmas of philosophy, so 

 that their doctrines were nearly (what Dionysius not unaptly 

 objected to Plato) the talk of idle old men to ignorant youths. 

 But the more ancient Greeks, as Empedocles, Anaxagoras, 

 Leucippus, Dcmocritus, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Xenophanes, 

 Philolaus, and the rest"" (for I omit Pythagoras as being super- 



' Gorgias of Leontium went to Athens in 424 B.C. He and Polug 

 were disciples of Empedocles, whom we have already noticed (Apho- 

 rism 63), vrhere he sustained the three famous propositions, that nothing 

 exists, that nothing can be known, and that it is out of the power of man 

 to transmit or communicate intelligence. He is reckoned one of the 

 earliest writers on the art of rhetoric, and for that reason, Plato called 

 his elegant dialogue on that subject aftec^his name. 



■" Chrysippus, a stoic philosopher of Soli in Cilicia, Campestris, born 

 m 280, died in the 143rd Olympiad, 208 B. C. He was equally distin- 

 guished for natural abilities and industry, seldom suffering a day to 

 elapse without writing 500 lines. He wrote several hundred volumes, 

 of which three hundred were on logical subjects ; but in all, borrowed 

 largely from others. He was very fond of the sorites in argument, 

 which is hence called by Persius the heap of Chrysippus. He was called 

 the Column of the Portico, a name given to the Stoical School from 

 Zeno its founder, who had given his lessons under the portico. Ed. 



Carneades, born about 215, died in 130. He attached himself to 

 Chrysippus, and sustained with eclat the scepticism of the academy. 

 The Athenians sent him with Critolaus and Diogenes as ambassador to 

 Rome, where he attracted the attention of his new auditory by the sub- 

 tilty of his reasoning, and the fluency and vehemence of his language. 

 Before Galba and Cato the Censor, he harangued with great variety of 

 thought and copiousness of diction in praise of justice. The next day, 

 to establish his doctrine of the uncertainty of human knowledge, he 

 uad^rtQ^k ^ refute £^U hJ^ arguineiitSt IJe iftfiintai^ed yfi^h the New 



