Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/280

258 258 HISTORY OF THE must have originated with the master of the school. But the scientific development of these doctrines, in works composed in the Doric dia- lect (as we find them in the extant fragments of Philolaus, who lived ahout the 90th Olympiad, B. c. 420), belongs to a later period. The doctrines so developed are, that the essence of things consists, not, ac- cording to the ancient Ionians, in an animate substance, nor, according to the more recent Ionians, in a union of mind and matter, but in a form dependent upon fixed proportions ; and that the regularity of these proportions is itself a principle of production. The doctrines in ques- tion derived much support from mathematical studies, which were in- troduced by Pythagoras into Italy, and, as is well known, were much advanced by him, until they were there first made an important part of education. The study of music also promoted the Pythagorean opi- nions, in two ways ; theoretic ally, because the effects of the relations of numbers were clearly seen in the power of the notes ; and practically, because singing to the cithara, as used by the Pythagoreans, seemed best fitted to produce that mental repose and harmony of soul which the Pythagoreans considered the highest object of education. CHAPTER XVIII. § 1. High antiquity of history in Asia; causes of its comparative lateness among the Greeks. § 2. Origin of history among the Greeks. The Iouians, particularly the Milesians, took the lead. § 3. Mythological historians ; Cadmus, Acusilaus. § 4. Extensive geographical knowledge of Hecatsus; his freer treatment of native traditions. § 5. Pherecydes ; his genealogical arrangement of traditions and history. § 6. Charon; his chronicles of general and special history. § 7. Hel- lanicus ; a learned inquirer into mythical and true hi-tory. Beginning of chro- nological researches. § 8. Xanthus, an acute observer. Dionysius of Miletus, the historian of the Persian wars. § 9. General remarks on the composition and style of the logographers. § 1. Tt is a remarkable fact, that a nation so intellectual and culti- vated as the Greeks, should have been so long without feeling the want of a correct record of its transactions in war and peace. From the earliest times the East had its annals and chronicles. That Egypt possessed a history ascending to a very remote antiquity, not formed of mythological materials, but based upon accurate chrono- logical records, is proved by the extant remains of the work of Mane- tho*. The sculptures on buildings, with their explanatory inscriptions, afforded a history of the priests and kings, authenticated by names and numbers ; and we have still hopes that this will hereafter be completely deciphered. The kingdom of Babylon also possessed a very ancient phus (284 b.c.) three books of y^gyptiaca.
 * Manetho, high-priest at Heliopolis in Egypt, wrote under Ptolemy Philadel-