Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/271

249 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 249 taiiied by all the physical philosophers who preceded Anaxagoras, viz. that all thing's are different forms of the same elementary substance; which principle he proved by saying that otherwise one thing could not proceed out of another and be nourished by it. Diogenes, like Anaximenes, supposed this elementary substance to be air, and, as he conceived it endowed with animation, he found proofs of his doctrine not only in natural phenomena, but also in the human soul, which, according to the popular notions of the ancient Greeks, was breath (Lvx7])i and therefore air. In his explanations of natural appearances Diogenes went into great detail, especially with regard to the structure of the human body ; and he exhibited not only acquirements which are very respectable for his time, but also a spirit of inquiry and dis- cussion, and a habit of analytical investigation, which are not to be found even in Anaxagoras. The language of Diogenes also shows an attempt at a closer connexion of ideas by means of periodic sen- tences, although the difficulty of taking a general philosophical view is very apparent in his style.* Diogenes, like Anaxagoras, lived at Athens, and is said to have been exposed to similar dangers. A third Ionic physical philosopher of this time, Archelaus of Miletus, who followed the manner of Anaxa- goras, is chiefly important from having established himself permanently at Athens. It is evident that these men were not drawn to Athens by any prospect of benefit to their philosophical pursuits; for the Athe- nians at this time showed a disinclination to such studies, which they ridiculed under the name of meteor osophy, and even made the subject of persecution. It was undoubtedly the power which Athens had ac- quired as the head of the confederates against Persia, and the oppres- sion of the states of Asia Minor, which drove these philosophers from ClazomenGe and Miletus to the independent, wealthy, and flourishing Athens. And thus these political events contributed to transfer to Athens the last efforts of Ionic philosophy, which the Athenians at first rejected as foreign to their modes of thinking, but which they after- wards understood and appreciated, and used as a foundation for more extensive and accurate investigations of their own. § 10. But before Athens had reached this pre-eminence in philo- sophy, the spirit of speculation was awakened in other parts of Greece, and had struck into new paths of inquiry. The Eleatics afford a re- markable instance of independent philosophical research at this period; for, although Ionians by descent, they departed very widely from their countrymen on the coast of Asia Minor. Elea, (alterwards Velia, ac- cording to the i oman pronunciation,) was a colony founded in Italy by the Phocseans, when, from a noble love of freedom, they had deli- ed. Panzerbieter.
 * Especially ia the fragment in Simplicius ad Aristot. Pins. p. 32. G ; Fragm. ii.