Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/405

 XEXOPHANJLS.-THE ELEATIC SCHOOL. 887 discussed dialectically, or by reasonings expressed in general Ian guage ; reasonings sometimes, indeed, referring to experience fot the purpose of illustration, but seldom resting on it, and nevei looking out for it as a necessary support. The physical expla- nation of nature, however, once introduced by Thales, although deserted by Anaximander, was taken up by Anaximenes and others afterwards, and reproduced with many divergences of doc- trine, yet always more or less entangled and perplexed with metaphysical additions, since the two departments were never clearly parted throughout all Grecian philosophy. Of these sub- sequent physical philosophers I shall speak hereafter : at present, I confine myself to the thinkers of the sixth century B.C., among whom Anaximander stands prominent, not as the follower of Thales, but as the author of an hypothesis both new and tending in a different direction. It was not merely as the author of this hypothesis, however, that Anaximander enlarged the Greek mind and roused the powers of thought : we find him also mentioned as distinguished in astronomy and geometry. He is said to have been the first to establish a sun-dial in Greece, to construct a sphere, and to ex- plain the obliquity of the ecliptic ; l how far such alleged author- ship really belongs to him, we cannot be certain, but there is one step of immense importance which he is clearly affirmed to have made. He was the first to compose a treatise on the geog- raphy of the land and sea within his cognizance, and to construct a chart or map founded thereupon, seemingly a tablet of brass. Such a novelty, wondrous even to the rude and ignorant, was calculated to stimulate powerfully inquisitive minds, and from it may be dated the commencement of Grecian rational geography, not the least valuable among the contributions of this people to the stock of human knowledge. Xenophanes of Kolophon, somewhat younger than Anaximan- der, and nearly contemporary with Pythagoras (seemingly from about 570-480 B.C.), migrated from Kolophon a to Zankle and Katana in Sicily and Elea in Italy, soon after the time when 1 Diogen. Laurt. ii, 81 2. He agreed with Thales in maintaining that fche earth was stationary, (Aristotel. de Ccelo, ii, 13, p. 295, ed Bckk.)
 * Diogcm Lacrt. ix, 18.