A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



dieted eclipse. Herodotus, who tells the story, was 

 not born until about one hundred years after the inci- 

 dent occurred, but time had not dimmed the fame of 

 the man who had performed the necromantic feat of 

 prophecy. Thales, the Milesian, thanks in part at 

 least to this accomplishment, had been known in life 

 as first on the list of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, 

 and had passed into history as the father of Greek 

 philosophy. We may add that he had even found 

 wider popular fame through being named by Hippo- 

 lytus, and then by Father ^Esop as the philosopher 

 who, intent on studying the heavens, fell into a well; 

 "whereupon," says Hippolytus, "a maid - servant 

 named Thratta laughed at him and said, ' In his search 

 for things in the sky he does not see what is at his f eet . ' ' ! 

 Such citations as these serve to bring vividly to 

 mind the fact that we are entering a new epoch of 

 thought. Hitherto our studies have been impersonal. 

 Among Egyptians and Babylonians alike we have had 

 to deal with classes of scientific records, but we have 

 scarcely come across a single name. Now, however, 

 we shall begin to find records of the work of individual 

 investigators. In general, from now on, we shall be 

 able to trace each great idea, if not to its originator, 

 at least to some one man of genius who was prominent 

 in bringing it before the world. The first of these 

 vitalizers of thought, who stands out at the beginnings 

 of Greek history, is this same Thales, of Miletus. His 

 is not a very sharply defined personality as we look 

 back upon it, and we can by no means be certain that 

 all the discoveries which are ascribed to him are spe- 

 cifically his. Of his individuality as a man we know 



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