Greece, 
— 
Pah Oa 
Literature 
478 
gainful occupation, in communicating to others those 
literary acquisitions which had become so subservient 
and science, tO the success of public men. At length every city in 
“Theology. 
Greece, but especially Athens, abounded with those 
persons, who, under the. name of Sophists, undertook 
to geach every branch of science ; and, at a time when 
books were few and expensive, the oral communication 
of knowledge was obviously a matter of the utmost im- 
portance. * These professors of wisdom studied the ac- 
complishments of eloquence, to render their instructions 
more attractive ; and frequenting all the places of public 
resort, strove to recommend themselves to notice by an 
ostentatious display of their abilities, especially by pub- 
lic disputations with one another, or with any who 
chose to converse with them amidst a circle of hearers. 
Grecian philosophy is generally admitted to have ori- 
ginsted with Thales of Miletus, the contemporary of 
‘olon, and the founder of the Ionian school. Soon 
after him arose Pythagoras, a native of Samos, who was 
compelled, by political troubles, to take refuge in Italy, 
and thus became the leader of what has been called the 
Italian school. Both these sages are understood to have 
acquired their learning in Egypt and Persia; but so 
much was it the practice of the Greeks to claim as their 
own, what they had merely purloined from the lite- 
rary treasures of other nations, that it is impossible to 
ascertain what portion ef their science was indigenous, 
and what of foreign growth. Both Thales and Pytha- 
goras inculcated many valuable moral precepts, but 
they were not teachers of ethics as a system; and their 
countrymen of the Asiatic Greeks were more delighted 
with those metaphysical enquiries, respecting the na- 
ture of matter and spirit, the formation of the world, and 
laws of the heavenly bodies, which gratified their imagi- 
nation, without proposing any restraint to their passions, 
It was during the administration of Periander at Co- 
rinth, and Pisistratus in Athens, that the love of these 
sciences was first kindled in Greece; but the growth 
of every liberal art was entirely checked by the violent 
political contests and revolutions which ensued, and 
particularly by the general alarm of the Persian inva- 
sion, which left no. leisure for speculative pursuits. But 
when the commanding talents of Pericles had. quieted 
the tumults of faction in Attica, the pursuits of science 
revived at Athens. with new vigour ; and, together.with 
the fine arts, continued to receive improvement duri 
all the turbulence which attended the progress and ef- 
fects of the Peloponnesian war. During this period it 
was, that Anaxagoras of Clazomene introduced the best 
principles of the Ionian school, that Socrates dispensed 
his more practical instructions, that Plato wrote and 
taught his more refined speculations, that Lysias and 
Isocrates pleaded in the forum, and that Aristotle and 
Demosthenes studied in the schools of Athens. Anax- 
agoras first taught in Athens the existence of one eter- 
nal and supreme Being, or, as, he is said to have ex. 
pressed himself, “ a perfect mind, independent of body,” 
GREECE. 
gether penem euioneidonit solely and, by enabling 
the 
his pupils to calculate eclipses sun and moon, 
Seale these hitherto reputed divinities to be mere ma- 
terial substances. But his doctrine was so directly re~ 
pugnant to the whole religious notions of the Grecian 
people, that he was accused of impiety, and obliged to 
withdraw from the eran Pent ig p Socrates, early 
impressed by the sublime principles of theology ht 
by the exiled philosopher, yet, perceiving the Phutily, 
or at least the unpopularity of such discussions respect- 
ing the nature of the Deity, applied himself rather ‘to 
investigate the duty which man ought to render to such 
tor. He seems to have settled it as a first principle, 
that, if the providence of God interfered in the go« 
vernment of the world; the duty of man to man must 
form a apn 6" hed branch of the divine will. He 
therefore appli 
social duties ; and, sing a most di i 
and ready eloquence, he rendered his conversation 
(the only mode of teaching which he employed) at 
once amusing and instructive. He was always to be 
found wherever there was the greatest resort of compa 
ny, and was ready either to receive or,to communicate 
information ; but he would neither undertake the of« 
fice of private instruction, nor accept a reward for his: 
ublic labours. While he maintained the perfect wis- 
sean and perfect goodness of the Supreme Being, and 
the constant superintendence of his providence over the 
affairs of men; he continued to observe and to recome. 
mend the varicus acts of religious means which were 
practised in his native country, But all his caution 
and worth were unable to secure his protection anne 
the jealous tyranny of Athenian democracy ; and, ei- 
ther from an impression that he disapproved of their 
popular constitution, or from a dislike of his purer sys 
tem of morals, he was rendered so obnoxious to his fel- 
low citizens, that a decree was easily procured for his: 
death. After the time of Socrates, the Greek philoso- 
phers were divided into twe opposite sects, the Theists 
and Atheists. The latter, among whom were. Leucip= 
pus, Democritus, Epicurus, &c. supported the opinion 
of Anaximander, that, without the aid of a supreme 
intelligence, all things were produced by a necessary 
action of matter, assuming all kinds.of forms ; and the 
former, among whom were Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, &c, 
adhered to the doctrine of Anaxagoras, respecting the 
existence of a Deity, while they held different notions. 
as to his nature and attributes. Even those, however, 
who possessed the more correct ideas of the Supreme 
Being, almost without exception conceived the world 
to be governed by a number of inferior divinities, to 
whom different departments of the universe had been 
committed ; and, as they rend conformed. to the ex 
isting religious usages of their. respective countries, 
thew eter hical system and private example, rather 
countenance 
* If aw attempt were made to estimate the literary and scientific attainments of the ancient Greeks, the following would probably 
be found to be a few of: the principal results ; namely, that, in literature, it was rather in the entertaining than in the instructive 
branches that they made any extraordinary progress, and, even in history, produced merely exquisite narratives of events, without 
any exposition of their causes or relations ;—that, in moral science, they excelled in acute disputations upon practical questions, and 
‘elegant manuals of useful precepts, but never ascended to any enquiry deserving the name of philosophy ;—that, in political science, 
they described the most striking phenomena of government in the different states of their own country, or of the neighbouring na- 
tions, but made. no researches into the principles, the ends, the. safeguards of national constitutions ;—that, in physical seience, 
their progress. was astonishing in the single branch of geometry, while they never thought of investigating the properties of physical 
bodies, or the order of physical events ;—that, in the philosophy of mind, the logic of Aristotle contains an. ingenious but unsuccessful 
analysis of the process of general reascning, while his metaphysics explains only the various uses which were made of general terms, 
and vainly attempts to penetrate the essences and causes of things, but nothing is done to arrange the phenomena of thought, or to 
ascertain the order of their succession ; that * not one, in short, of the ancient philosophers had any. conception of the real nature of 
general terms, or of the operation of mind which is called abstraction; and that it was chiefly by this radical defect, that they were 
perpetually perplexed, and led into all their trifling and absurdity.” 
a Being, as Anaxagoras had described the great Crea- _ 
ed himself to examine and inculcate the. 
than counteracted the popular poly 
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