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A36037 The lives, opinions, and remarkable sayings of the most famous ancient philosophers. The first volume written in Greek, by Diogenes Laertius ; made English by several hands ...; De vitis philosophorum. English Diogenes Laertius. 1688 (1688) Wing D1516; ESTC R35548 235,742 604

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them were Servants to them For that fear was the Property of 〈…〉 Servant but wild Beasts kept men in ●…ear He had in him a very strange ●a●ulty of persuasion insomuch that he would take whom he would with his Conversation It is related how one O●esicritus an Aeginese having two Sons sent the younger of them by name Androsthenes unto Athens who when he had heard Diogenes Discourse tarried there with him And that thereupon he sent his elder Son also being the before named Philiscus and that Philiscus also was detained there And yet in the third place the Father himself went and was also joyned in Philosophy with his Children So great ● Charm there was in the Discourses of Diogenes There heard him also Pho●… Sirnamed the Good and Stilpon of Meg●… and many other Persons of great Quality He is said to have died at abo●● ninety years of Age But there are different accounts of his Death For s●… say that upon eating a raw Pour●●●trel he was taken with the Griping of the Guts and so died But others say he 〈…〉 in his Breath until he died of which number is Kerkidas the Megapolitan or Cr●… as others call him saying in his Meli●… bicks thus That Sinopese is no more what he was Feeding abroad with Staff and folded P●… He clapt his Lips to 's Teeth and bit his Bre●… And flew to Jove So now Diogenes Thou art Joves Son indeed and Heavens D●… Others say that as he went to share a Pourcontrel among the Dogs they bit him by the Ligament of his Leg whereof he dyed But his familiar followers as Antisthenes relates in his Successions were of the opinion that he dyed by holding in his Breath For he then passed his time in the Craneon which is a place for publick Exercises before Corinth where his Disciples according to their Custom coming unto him found him closely wrapt up in his Mantle and not believing him to be asleep for he was not of a sleepy nor drowsie Temper they opened his Mantle and found him expired And they believed he had done this from a great desire he had now to steal privately out of the World. Whereupon they say there arose a strong Contest among his Followers who should have the burying of him Yea that it went so high as to come to blows But that at last their Parents and Governours coming in he was by them interred by the Gate that leads to the Isthmus They also set a Pillar upon his Grave and upon that a Dog of Parian Marble And afterwards his Citizens honoured him with Statues of Copper and wrote upon them thus Copper decays with time but thy Renown Diogenes no age shall e're take down For thou alone hast taught us not to need By thinking that we do'nt And hast us freed From eares and shew'd the casy way to Life There is also this of my own upon him in the Prokeleusmatick Measure Diogenes what made thee take thy flight To th' Netherlands It was a mad Dogs bite But some others say that as he was dying he gave a great Charge to those about him to cast him out unburyed that every Beast might have part of him Or else to throw him into a Ditch and cover him with a little dust But others that he desired to be flung into the River Ilissus that he might benefit his Brethren there Demetrius in his Treatise of Name-sakes saith that Alexander dyed at Babylon and Diogenes at Corinth upon the very same day He was an Old man in the Hundred and Fourteenth Olympiad And there go about these Books of his His Dialogues His Kephalion His Fishes His Jay His Leopard His Commons of Athens His Republick His Art of Morality His Treatise of Riches His Love Discourse His Theodore His Hypsias His Aristarchus His Treatise of Death His Letters His seven Tragedies viz. His Semele His Thyestes His Hercules His Achilles His Medea His Chrysippus His Oedipus But Sosicrates in the First Book of his Successions and Satyrus in the Fourth of his Lives say there is nothing of Diogenes's extant And Satyrus adds further that those trifling Tragedies were written by Philiscus of Aegina Diogenes's Follower But Sotion in his seventh Book saith that these following were the only things Diogenes ever wrote Of Vertue Of Good A Discourse of Love The Beggar Tolmaeus The Leopard Casander Kephalion Philiscus Aristarchus Sisyphus Ganymedes His sayings His Letters There have been in all five Diogeneses The First was Diogenes of Apollonia the Naturalist His Book began thus Now I am to begin my whole Discourse I think it my Duty to render the beginning of it indisputable The Second was he of Sicyon who wrote of the Affairs of Peloponnesus The Third was this Diogenes The Fourth was a Stoick born at Selencia but named the Babylonian by reason of the Vicinity The Fifth of Tarsus who wrote about Questions in Poetry which he attempts to resolve But the Philosopher Diogenes Athenodorus saith in the eighth Book of his Walks to have always appeared with a Shining Countenance by reason he used to anoint himself often The LIFE of MONIMVS MONIMVS was born at Syracuse he was a Disciple of Diogenes and a Servant of a certain Banker of Corinth as Sosicrates relates Xeniades who had bought Diogenes coming very often to see him and telling him of his rare Perfections as well in Conversation as Behaviour brought Monimus at last to be passionately in Love with the Man. For he presently began to feign himself Mad and flung about the Change Money and all the Silver that was on the Board Insomuch that his Master was glad to part with him Upon which he presently betook himself to Diogenes He also often followed Crates the Cynick and kept much Company with such kind of Men which help'd to confirm his Master in his Opinion that he was Mad. And he afterwards became a Man of good account insomuch that Menander the famous Comoedian made mention of his Name for in one of his Drama's called Hippocomus he spoke thus O Philo Monimus was very wise Although of small esteem few such can prize Not Master of one Scrip for he had three A rich Philosopher indeed yet he Vtter'd no Sentence grave like a deep fellow Like KNOW THY SELF which Vulgar sages bellow But was above such toys For he said that Concoited thoughts begot conceited Chat. This Man was of a Genius so ponderous that he slighted Praise and wholly made after Truth He composed certain Ludiorous Tracts in which he privately couched very serious things He wrote also two Treatises of the Inclinations and one Perswasive The LIFE of ONESCRITVS SOme say that he was of Aegina But Demetrius of Magnesia saith he was an Astypelaecan He also was one of Diogenes's Prime Disciples And he seemed to have something in him that made him very much to resemble Xenophon For Xenophon followed Cyrus into the Wars and he Alexander Xenophon wrote the
concerning the Soul one of Sleeping and Waking one of Labours one of old Age one of Thoughts four of the Sight one of things that change their Colour one of Tears entituled Callisthenes two of hearing one of the Diversity of the volces of Animals of the same sort one of Odours two of Torment one of Folly one of the Palsi● one of the Epilepsie one of the Vertigo and dazling of the Sight one of the fainting of the Heart one of Suffocation one of Sweat one of the Pestilence Mathematics A Book of Numbers one of Indivisible Lines one of Measures one of Harmony three of Music another of Music one of Great and Small one of Images one of Twi-lights and Meridionals one of Seasons one of ●●thmetical Histories according to Augmentation four of Geometrical Histories ●●● Astrological Histories one of Democritus's Astrology Discourse A Book of the Art of Rhetoric one of Precepts for the Art of Rhetoric seven sorts of the Art of Rhetoric one of the Art of Poetry one of Solo●cisins one of a Word one of proper Orations of judicial Orations one of Proposition and Narration one of the Exemplar one of the Collection of Words one of Proverbs one of Sentences one of Favour one of Provocation to Laughter one of Beauty of Praise of Injuries of Flattery of Tumult of Comedy one of History six Books of the History of things spoken of God of the Praises of the Gods three of Lives one of Solemnities one of Confabulations a Collection of Diogenes's Propositions one of Calumny two of things invented Of Reason One how many ways a a Man may understand one of true and false three of false two of terms one of differences one of Signs five containing a Collection of Problems one of the Judgment upon Syllogisms one of the solution of Syllogisms one of Enthymemes two of Epicheremes Eighteen Epicheremes one of Affirmation and Negation one of Occasions or Contradictions an Epitome of Definitions two of Divisions one of Causes an Epitome of Analytics three of the first Analytics seven of the latter a Preamble of Topics two of the deducation of Places one of the Speculation of things that belong to contentious Discourse two of Sophisms one of Solutions one of simple doubts three of Controversies three Questions Twenty four other Questions one of the Collections of Metrodorus one of Zenocratic Questions Of Manners Of divine Felicity another of human Felicity of Voluntary of the Passions of Vertue of the differences of the Vertues one of Pleasure as well as Aristotle of Choice of Counsel of Wise Men of Faith reposed without cunning three of Friendship one entituled Amatorious another of Love two of Liberallity one of Pleasure Men take in Lying of Dissimulation of Moral Figures of Moral Schools Of Otconomics Of Piety of the means to instruct Children of Vertue of Discipline of Frugality of what it is to give of Experience three Books of Epistles more Epistles to Astycreon Ph●●ias and Nicanor Of Commonwealths Two Abstracts of Pla●●'s Common-wealth of the Condition of a good Republic three Books of Civil things four of Civil Customs two of Government four of Politics for the time three of Legislators An Epitome of the Laws in ten Books one of Laws twenty four of Laws disposed according to Order and Alphabet one of unjust Laws one of an Oath one to shew how Cities may be peopl'd Of Kingdoms One of a Kingdom two more of a Kingdom one of the Education of a King one of Tyranny one of Kingdom to Cassander one of Riches All these Books and Treatises were composed by Theophrastus I also met with his Will in these words My will shall be well and duly performed ●● I hope if when I come to dye it be no otherwise executed than I have enjoyned it by this my Testament First I give to Melanthus and Pancreon the Sons of Leo all my Moveables that belong to ●ly House For what Hipparchus obliged me withal I would have it expended upon the Reparations of the School and for adorning the Theatre much be●… it be possible than it was before and ●et the Statue of Aristotle be set up in the Oratory of the said School with all the sacred Jewels that were there before I would have also rebuilt the Portico adjoyning to the same School in the same condition it was before or better if possible and that the Map of the World be set up a● the lower End and that an Altar be ● rected not far from it the same in form●… the other whether for Decency or Perfection Moreover my Will is That the Statue of Nicomachus be finished a●… gave order to Praxiteles but as for the Expences of setting it up let him defray that charge himself and let it be set up where my Executors shall think mo●… Convenient whom I have for that purpose named in my Will. Thus much in reference to the Oratory and its sacred Jewels Moreover I bequeath to my friends who are specially nominated in this my Will and to those that will spend their time with them in Learning and Philosophy my Garden Walk and H●●ses adjoyning upon condition however that none of them shall claim any particular property therein nor go about to alienate 'em from their proper use but that they shall be enjoyed in Common by 'em all as a sacred place where they may similiarily visit one another and discourse together like good friends And these are they to whom I bequeath this Common Possession viz. Hipparchus Nel●●● Callio Demoticus Demaratus Calli●th●ues Melantus Pan●reo● and Ni●●ppus to whom I add Aristotle the Son of Midias and Pythias who if he please to addict himself to Philosophy may enjoy equal Privileges with the rest I recommend him to his most ancient Friends to take care that he be instructed in Philosophy For my part I desire to be buried in any part of the Garden where they shall think most convenient charging them not to be at any superfluous Expence either upon my Funeral or upon my Tomb. Which being done my Will is That Pompylus who lives in the House take care of every thing as he did before To which purpose I recommend him to all that shall enjoy the forementioned Privileges and that it be as much to his profit as may be Moreover it is my Will as I have formerly testified to Melantus and Pancreon That there be an Assignation of two thousand Drachma's to Pompylus and Threptes my free'd Bondmen who have served me faithfully and That this Assignation be made upon Hipparchus besides those other Emoluments which they have received at my hands and that the said Assignation be made over to them firmly in their own Names Moreover I give them Sotomales and a Servant Maid As for my Boys it is my Will that Molo Cymo and Parmeno be forthwith set at Liberty As for Manes and Callias I will not have them enfranchized till they have laboured four years longer in the Garden so that there
cannot be lost contrary to Cleanthes They also affirm That Justice is Justice by Nature and not by Constitution of Law as Love it self and right Reason are according to the Opinion of Chrysippus in his Treatise De Honesto They also hold that Discord it self is not contrary to Phylosophy For if this were not true there would be a Deficiency in Life it self as Possidonius affirms Chrysippus also asserts the Liberal Sciences to be of great Use in his Treatise of Justice And Possidonius maintains the same Opinion in his Book De Officiis The same Authors aver That we are not just to other Creatures because of the Dissimilitude that is between us and them They allow a Wise man to be in Love with young Lads that carry in their more beautiful Aspects the Marks of Ingenuity and a Propensity to Virtue as Zeno in his Common-Wealth and Chrysippus in his Lives and Apollodorus in his Ethics declare For Love say they is an Endeavour to gain Friendship for the sake of appearing Beauty nor is it for the sake of Coition but of Friendship Therefore Thraso having his Mistress wholly at his Command abstain'd from her for fear of being hated So then Love is a Tie of Friendship not to be blam'd as Chrysippus acknowledges in his Treatise of Love. Beauty they define to be the Flower of Love. Now there being Three Sorts of Lives the Speculative the Practical and the Rational Life they say The Third is to be preferr'd For that a Rational Creature was created by Nature sufficient for Contemplation and Practice Farther they say That a Wise man will readily surrender his Life for his Country and his Friend though he suffer Torment Mutilation of Members or the most incurable Diseases 'T is their Opinion also That Wives should be in common so that a man might make Use of the first he met by accident for thus Zeno and Chrysippus both ordain'd in their Common-Wealths for that they will all have the same Charity and Affection for their Offspring and by that means Adultery and Jealousie will be remov'd out of the World. They affirm that Common wealth to be the best which is a mixture of Regal and Popular Power And this is a Brief Accompt of their Morality though they have asserted many other Opinions not without probable Grounds As for their Natural Philosophy it is comprehended under the Places of Bodies Principles Elements Deities the End Place and Vacuum Thus specifically But generally they divide it into Three Places Of the World of the Elements and of Causes The Place of the World they divide into two Parts For by the means of one Consideration they associate to themselves the Mathematics which teach 'em to enquire into the Nature of the wandring and fix'd Stars and the like As Whether the Sun be as big as he seems to be And the same concerning the Moon the Rising and Setting of the Stars and the like By means of the other Speculation which is only proper for Naturalists they enquire What is the Substance of Natural Philosophy what the Sun is and what the Stars are as to Matter and Form whether Created or not whether Living Bodies or no whether corruptible or not whether govern'd by Providence and so of the rest The Place of Causes also they distinguish into two Parts Under one Consideration falls the Question common to Physicians concerning the Dominion of the Soul what things are existent in the Soul of the Seed c. What remains is common also to the Mathematics as How we see what 's the Cause of the Optic Fancy what the Cause of Clouds Thunder Rainbows Halo's Comets and the like They assert two Principles of all Things the Active and Passive The Passive that same lazy and feneant Substance call'd Matter The Active God which is the Reason contain'd in it Who being Sempiternal was the Architect of the whole Structure and of all things contain'd in it This is the Opinion of Zeno the Cittian in his Treatise of Substance With whom agree Cleanthes in his Book of Atoms and Chrysiyppus in his First Book of Physics toward the End Archedemus in his Treatise of the Elements and Possidonius in his Second Book of Natural Philosophy However they make a Distinction between Principles and Elements for the one they hold to be without beginning the other Corruption that the Elements shall perish by Fire for that the Elements are corporeal but the Principles incorporeal and incorruptible A Body as Apollodorus defines it is that which consists of Longitude Latitude and Depth and this he calls a Solid Body The Supersicies is the Termination of a Body or that which has only Length and Latitude but no Depth And this falls as well under Thoughts as Substance A Line is the End of a Supersicies or Length without Breadth or having only Length A Point is the Termination of a Line and is the smallest Mark that can be They hold but one God to whom they give the Names of Intelligence Fate Jove and sundry other Appellations This God at the Beginning when he was alone by himself turn'd all Substance into Water having rarify'd it first into Ayr. And as the Sperm is contain'd in the Birth thus this Spermatic Reason of the World remain'd in the Water preparing the Matter for the Generation of external Beings and then the four Principles were created Fire Water Ayr and Earth This is the Discourse of Zeno in his Book of the World of Chrysippus in his first Book of Physics and of Archedemus in a certain Book of Elements An Element is that out of which all things were at first produc'd and into which they are to be dissolv'd again That all the Elements together at first compos'd that motionless Substance Matter That Fire is hot Ayr cold Water liquid and Earth dry and that the same Part still remains in the Ayr That the Fire is uppermost which they call the Sky where the Sphere of the Planets was first created next to that the Ayr below that the Water and the Earth the Foundation of all as being in the middle They affirm the World to be God three manner of ways First The peculiar Quality of the whole Substance incorruptible and without Beginning the Architect of the whole adorn'd Structure after some Periods of Time consuming and swallowing up the whole Substance into Himself and then restoring it out of Himself again In the next Place they affirm the Ornamental Order of the Stars to be the World. And Thirdly A Being consisting of both Possidonius defines the World to be the peculiar Quality of the whole Substance compos'd of Heaven and Earth and the Nature of the things therein contain'd Or a Systeme of Gods and Men and of those things created for their sakes That the Heaven is the outermost Periphery or Superficies upon which all that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Divine Nature was fix'd Moreover That the World was
DIOGENES LAERTIUS THE LIVES OPINIONS AND REMARKABLE SAYINGS Of the Most Famous Ancient Philosophers Written in GREEK by DIOGENES LAERTIUS Made English by Several Hands The First Volume LONDON Printed for Edward Brewster at the Crane in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1688. The LIFE of DIOGENES LAERTIUS SInce our Author Diogenes Laertius has so highly oblig'd Posterity by the Pains which he has taken in collecting the Lives of the most Famous Phylosophers without which Assistance we could never have attain'd the Knowledg of so many remarkable Discourses and Means to understand their Learning my Opinion is that it is but reasonable to do him the same Justice to publish whatever we have found as well in Ancient as in Modern Authors in reference to his own Life Nevertheless because there are but very few who have made mention of him we must be forc'd to do as they do who not daring to stare impudently in the Face of any Lady for that they never had the opportunity of Access to speak to her are constrain'd to fix their Eyes upon her Hands in like manner shall I ground my Discourse for the greater Confirmation of the Reasons which I bring upon his Book of Lives from which we shall endeavour to collect his own as we do the Cause from the Effect not being able to compass more ample Testimonies of his Qualities by reason of the great Distance between the Age he liv'd in and our Times and the Negligence of those who have writ the Lives of Remarkable Persons without making mention of His. In the first place then to remove all Disputes concerning the Time wherein he flourish'd most certain it is that it could not be but very few Years that he preceded the more Modern Philosophers of whom he makes mention in certain Places of his Lives that is to say Simon Apollonides who liv'd in the Reign of the Emperor Tiberius Plutarch and Sextus Empiricus who liv'd in the Time of Marcus Antoninus Nevertheless 't is very probable that he might survive a long time after them seeing that Eunapius the Sardian who liv'd under the Reign of Julian the Emperor makes no mention of him in the Catalogue of Authors who have collected the History of the Ancient Philosophers which makes me question Whether the same Accident did not befal Eunapius Diogenes as befel Sotion Porphyrius the Elder whereof wrote the Lives of the Philosophers who liv'd nearest to his Time and the Younger the Lives of such as were most remote from the Age wherein he liv'd So that there is no Faith to be giv'n to Suidas who asserts that our Historian liv'd both before and after the Death of Augustus As for the Place of his Birth I am not of their Opinion who will have it to be a Village of Cilicia call'd Laertes grounding their Opinion upon his Additional Sirname for their Conjecture is fallacious in regard there is no reason to think but that it ought to be either his Proper Name or given him by reason of some Accident without deriving it from the Place of his Nativity nay though they might have some reason to derive his Name from the Place of his Birth yet there will another doubt arise whether there might not be some other Village in Greece that bore the same Name to prevent his being a Cilician for had they but read with Consideration the Life of Timon the Phliasian they might there observe by his own Testimony that he was of Nice in Macedonia of the same Country with Timon Apolloniates as is manifestly apparent by that Expression of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Countryman which Words cannot be understood in any other Sence as the Learned Reader may judge by the Greek Text in the same Place for there is no Credit to be giv'n to the Latin Version If it be a thing possible to judge of the Manners of a Person by his Physiognomy and of the Cause by the Effect what should hinder us to make a shrewd Conjecture of the Manners of Diogenes in regard that Books much more manifestly discover the Inclinations of those that wrote them then Words and Words more clearly then the Countenance It is impossible to understand the Discourse of a Man by his Face unless he speaks nor whether he can play on the Lute or no unless you hear him touch the Strings But we may apparently discover his Manners in his Works as we may his Face in a Mirror in regard that by his faithful setting down in Writing what Men have done and said we find that he never approves their Vicious Acts but on the other side censures them by some Explication or other As when he tells us that Bion entertain'd his Friends with lewd Discourse which he had learn'd in the School of Prophane Theodorus Or by some Epigram of his own making as when in the same place he laughs at the Folly of Bion who had all along liv'd an impious Life yet dy'd at length in the height of Superstition In the next place we may observe his Humanity or rather true Morality in other places while he overthrows the Impostures of Backbiters and Slanderers and makes it his Business to defend the Virtue of others as we maysee in the Life of Epicurus His Justice is also remarkable in this that he never dissembles what is truly good nor the Errors of any Person which is observable in the Life of Zeno the Cittean and Chrysippus and in this That in all his Writings he is never observ'd to be a rigid Affecter or Favourer of any Sect. Moreover he shews himself so much an Abhorrer of all manner of Venereal Excess that he never lets any Person escape unbranded who was guilty of that Vice yet in Terms so modest as not to offend the Reader as we may observe in the Life of Crates and several others As to the Sects then in Being it is more easie for us to tell of which he was not then to make him a Follower of any one for that he shews himself a Neuter in all his Writings Nevertheless if we may speak by Conjecture our own Sentiments we have some Reason to believe him a Follower of Potamon of Alexandria who after all the rest and a little before his Time set up a Sect of those that were call'd Choosers or Eclectics and bore the Title also of Lovers of Truth because they made Choice out of every Sect of that which they thought was best to stick to Which was the Reason that Clement Potamon's Countryman says in one Place We ought neither to be Zenonians nor Platonics nor Epicureans nor Aristotelics but rather Eclectics chusing out of every Sect that is most Noble and nearest approaching to the Truth His Learning appears by his Writings For if we observe his Style we shall find it concise and full of Efficacy his Words well chosen and his Discourse eloquent Yet is he not altogether exempt from blame as to the Disposal
Superfluity or Defect of Matter which some excuse by laying the Fault upon his Memory others upon his Multiplicity of Business which would not permit him to take a Review of what he had written Nevertheless he keeps his Station among those that may be thought most accomplish'd in all manner of Learning so that if I may speak my own Thoughts neither the Life of Plato nor the Epitome of the Zenonian Dogma's nor the three Epistles of Epicurus seem to be of his weaving Certain it is he wrote his Pammeter before his Lives which is nothing else but a Volume of Poems and Epigrams in all sorts of Meter in the Praise of several Persons which was divided as he testifies himself in the Life of Thales into several Books Some time after he had publisht it he collected out of several Authors the Lives of the most Illustrious Philosophers and dedicated them to a certain Lady as appears in the Life of Plato where he has this Expression Since you are so great an Admirer of Plato and a Lover of his Doctrine above any other c. Besides these Works of his we have no Authentic Testimony to confirm that he ever wrote any Thing more I also find several Remarkable Persons who bear the Name of Diogenes The First was a Sporadic Philosopher a Native of Apollonia and a Disciple of Anaximenes in the Seventieth Olympiad whose Life is recorded in the Ninth Book of this History and of whom Cicero makes mention in his First Book of the Nature of the Gods where he says But what kind of Thing can that Ayr be which Diogenes Apolloniates will have to be a God What Sence can it have or what Form The Second was the Cynic who was in his Declension about the 113th Olympiad whose Life is related at large in the Sixth Book of this History The Third was an Epicuredn born at Tarsus and a Disciple of Epicuriis who wrote a Treatise of the Most Famous Schools The Fourth a Stoic Sirnam'd the Babylonian though he were of Seleucia he flourish'd some Years before Cicero who testifies in the Fourth Book of his Tusculane Questions that he was sent with Carneades by the Athenians Ambassador to Rome You may see his Opinions in the Third Book De Finibus and the First De Natura Deorum the Second Of Divination the Third De Officiis and the Fourth De Oratore The last was our Laertius whose Life we here conclude The Names of the Translators THe First Book Translated from the Greek by T. Fetherstone D. D. The Second Book Translated from the Greek by Sam. White M. D. The Third Book Translated from the Greek by E. Smith M. A. The Fourth Book Translated from the Greek by J. Philips Gent. The Fifth Book Translated from the Greek by R. Kippax M. A. The Sixth Book Translated from the Greek by William Baxter Gent. The Seventh Book Translated from the Greek by R. M. Gent. Diogenes Laertius OF THE LIVES and SENTENCES of such Persons as were Famous in PHILOSOPHY The First Book Translated from the Greek by T. Fetherstone D. D. The Prooeme SOme there are who affirm That the study of Philosophy deriv'd its first Original from among the Barbariàns For that among the Persians there were the Magi among the Babylonians or Assyrians the Chaldaeans and the Gymnosophists among the Indians Among the Gauls were another sort that went by the name of Druids or Semnotheans as Aristotle reports in his Magic and Sotion in his Thirteenth Book of Succession Among the Phoenicians flourish'd Ochus Zamolxes grew famous among the Thracians and Atlas among the Lybians Add to this That the Egyptians asserted Vulcan to be the Son of Nilus from whom among them Philosophy first commenc'd and over which they who presided as Presidents and Guardians were both Priests and Prophets From whence to the Time of Alexander the Macedonian were to be numbred Forty Eight Thousand Eight Hundred Sixty three Years In all which space of Time there appeared Eclipses of the Sun no less than Three hundred seventy three of the Moon Eight hundred thirty two From the Magi of whom the chiefwas Zoroastres the Persian by the computation of Hermodorus the Platonic in his Book of the Sciences to the Taking and Destruction of Troy were five thousand years though Xanthus the Lydian reck'ns from Zoroastres to the Descent of Xerxes not above six hundred years To which Zoroastres afterwards succeeded several other Magi under the various names of Ostanes Astrapsychi Gobryae and Pazatae till the total subversion of the Persian Monarchy by Alexander But they are grosly mistak'n while they attribute to the Barbarians the famous Acts and Inventions of the Grecians from whom not only Philosophy but even the Race of Mankind had its first Beginning For among the Athenians we behold the Ancient Musaeus among the Thebans Linus Ofwhich two the former reported to be the Son of Eumolpus is said to have first made out the Pedigree of the Gods to have invented the Sphere and first to have taught the World that All things were created of one Matter and should again be dissolv'd into the same This great Person ended his days at Phalerae where the following Elegy was ingrav'd upon his Tomb Here in Phalerian Dust beneath this stone Sleeps lov'd Musaeus once Eumolpus Son. Also from the Father of Musaeus the Eumolpidae among the Athenians deriv'd their Name As for Linus he was the Son of Mercury and the Muse Urania He wrote of the Creation of the World discovered the course of the Sun and Moon and from whence all Plants and Animals had their first Being Which lofty Poem of his began after this manner Once was the time when Nature's God display'd All things in Order and together made Whence Anaxagoras borrowing affirms that All things appear'd at first without shape together and at the same instant at what time the high Intelligence coming embellish'd and adorn'd the several Compositions This Linus ended his Life in Euboea being shot with an Arrow by Apollo After which accident this Epitaph was inscrib'd upon his Monument Here Theban Linus rests in Sacred Ground Vrania's Son with honour'd Garlands Crown'd And thus Philosophy had its Beginning among the Greeks which is also the more apparent from hence That in the very name it self there is not the least of barbarous Sound or Etymology True it is they who ascribe the Invention of it to the Barbarians produce the Thracian Orpheus to make good their Assertion whom they averr to have been a Philosopher and of great Antiquity But for my part I cannot understand how we can think him to be a Philosopher who utters such things as he does concerning the Gods while he asperses the Deities as guilty of all humane Passions and loads 'em with those Vices which are seldom discours'd of less frequently committed by the worst of Men. And therefore though the Fable reports him to have perish'd by the fury of enrag'd Women yet the Epigram
Dionysius of whom he makes mention in his Anterastae and he perform'd his Wrestling Exercises under Aristo of Argos by whom for his lovely Shape and Proportion he was called Plato whereas before he had been nam'd Aristocles from the name of his Grandfather as Alexander relates in his Successions Though ●thers will have him to be so call'd from his broad manner of Pronunciation or else from the breadth of his fore-head according to Neanthes Others report him to have been a great Wrestler at the Isthmian Games among whom was Dicaearchus in his Book of Lives also that he was addicted to Painting and Poetry and that first he wrote Dithyrambies afterwards Odes and Tragedies His voice was but shrill and somewhat effeminate as Timotheus the Athenian relates of him in his Book of Lives It is reported that Socrates should dream that a Cygnet newly hatch'd came and sate down upon his knees and that the wings of the Bird growing out of a sudden she flew away sweetly singing in her flight The next day Plato being brought to him by his Father he cry'd out This is the Bird which I dreamt of He began to divulge his Philosophy first in the Academy then in the Garden adjoyning to Colonus as Alexander relates from the Testimony of Heraclitus Then resolving a contest in Tragedy before the Dionysian Theatre after he had heard Socrates he threw his Poems in the fire crying out Hast Vulcan hith●● Plato wants thy aid And from that time forward being then twenty years of age he became a Hearer of Socrates After whose decease he stuck to Cratylus the Disciple of Heraclitus and Hermogenes who maintain'd the Philosophy of Parmenides When he arriv'd at eight and twenty years of age according to Hermodorus together with some other Socratics he betook himself to Megara where he admir'd and follow'd Euclid from whence he departed for Cyrene to hear Theodorus the Mathematician and from thence he travell'd into Italy to the Pythagoreans Philolaus and Eurytus Thence into Aegypt where he associated with the Priests and Prophets whither it is also reported that Enripides accompany'd him and falling sick was by the Priests cured with a Salt-water Medicine which occasion'd that verse of his The briny Ocean scoures away All the Distempers that on Mortals prey Moreover with Homer he affirm'd that all the Egyptians were Physicians Plato had also design'd to have visited the Magi but the Wars breaking forth in Asia forc'd him to desist from his purpose Returning therefore to Athens he continu'd in the Academy This was a pleasant place in the Suburbs shaded with Trees and so call'd from a certain Hero whose name was Academus of whom Eupolis makes mention in his Astrateuti In those delightful shades the sweet abode Of Academus now a Semi-God And Timon also speaking of Plato thus writes But above all was Plato still allow'd To be the Captain of the Charming Croud Upon his Lips the Charms of Eloquence In Clusters hung sweet words and sublime Sence More tunef●l notes ne'er chirp'd the Grass-hoppers In Hecademian Groves to list'ning Ears For in those Groves was Plato wont to sing Out-charming all the Music of the Spring For formerly the same place was call'd Hecademia with an Epsilon That our Philosopher was a friend to Isocrates appears also from hence for that Polyxenus has committed to writing a certain discourse concerning the Poets that happen'd while Isocrates continu'd with Plato at his Country-House And Aristoxenus farther asserts that he was three times a Souldier once in the Expedition to Tanagra a second time in the War with Corinth and lastly at the Delian Conflict when he won the Victory He made a mixture of the Opinions of the Heraclitans the Pythagoreans and the Socratics and as to those things which appertain'd to the sense he held with Heraclitus where the understanding was concern'd he adher'd to Pythagoras but in Ethics and Politics he follow'd Socrates Some there are and among the rest Satyrus who affirm that he sent into Sicily to Dio a hundred Minas to purchase of Philolaus three Pythagorical Books for his own use For he was then full of money having receiv'd from Dionysius above fourscore Talents as Onetor testifies in his Treatise entitl'd Whether a Wise Man should be Rich. For many other things he was also beholding to Epicharmus the Comedian most of whose Writings he transcrib'd as Alcimus assures us in his Books that he wrote to Amyntas which are four in number In the first of which he runs on in these words It is apparent says he that Plato took many things out of Epicharmus As for Example Sensible says Plato is that which never continues permanent either in Quality or Quantity but is also perpetually flowing and lyable to the inconstancy of Change. As if we should substract Number out of those things which are neither equal nor such nor subjected to Quantity or Quality And these are such things of which there is a continual Generation but never any Substance Intelligible is that which neither encreases or diminishes And this is the nature of things Sempiternal as being always alike and ever the same That the Soul did apprehend some things by the Help of the Body as it happen'd in Seeing and Hearing but that for the understanding of other things she needed no assistance of Corporeal Organs as being endu'd with a sufficient Penetration of her self Which is the reason that Plato from Epicharmus affirms That they who have a desire to collect the Beginnings and Principles of the Whole must first make a distribution of the several Ideas by themselves as Likeness Vnity Multitude Magnitude Rest and Motion In the next place he ought to consider Honest Good and Just every one by themselves Thirdly It behoves him to compare the Ideas one with another and observe which have the truest Agreement and Correspondence one with another as Knowledge Magnitude and Dominion ● As likewise whether those things which are existing in our selves in regard that we partake of their Qualities are Homonymous to those other things For example just things are those that partake of Justice honest that partake of Honesty Now every Species is Eternal and the understanding in reference to these things is void of all Perturbation And therefore the Ideas subsist in Nature like so many Exemplars But as for those other things which are like to these they subsist according to their nearest resemblance to the other And therefore Epicharmus discourses of Good and of Ideas in this manner Can playing on the Flute be said to be any thing Most surely Why then playing upon the Flute is a Man. Not so neither Go too then Dost not thou think a player upon a Flute to be a Man Most certainly And does not the same Argument hold concerning Good This is Good that is the Thing which he who studies by it self shall become Good. For as he that pipes is call'd a Piper he that dances a Dancer so whoever he be that
of various Names to preserve his Writings from being thumbed by rude and illiterate Readers For he said that Wisdom was properly the knowledg of those things which were apprehended by the Understanding and were truly existent which was separated from the Body in the Contemplation of God and the Soul. Moreover he defin'd Wisdom and Philosphy to be an inbred desire of Divine or Heavenly Wisdom But generally he took it for all sort of Skill and Knowledg as when we call an Artificer a Knowing Man. He also makes use of the same words to signifie several things Thus he makes use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify Plain or Simple as in Euripides thus speaking of Hercules in his Lysimnius Careless and Plain but for the most part honest Who measured Wisdom still by Deeds not words What e're he said he meant The same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato frequently uses sometimes for Honest sometimes for Small tho' at other times he makes use of different words to signify one and the same thing Thus he calls Idea sometimes Genus sometimes Species as also the Beginning the Exemplar and the Cause Sometimes he expresses the same thing by contrary words Thus he give● the Names of Entity and Non Entity to Sensible Entity because it is generated Non Entity because of its being subject to continual Change. Moreover he calls Idea that which never is moved nor is permanent the same one and many And this he uses to do in several other things As for his works they require a threefold Exposition First what every one of the Subjects are that are discoursed of Then the end of the Discourse whether according to the first Intention or in lieu of an Example whether to assert or 〈◊〉 fute and thirdly whether rightly and truly said In the next place in regard there are several marks and Characters affixed tohis Books let us take some account of Them also The Letter X. is affixed to Sentences and Figures altogether according to the Platonic Custom Double XX. to his peculiar Opinions and Tenents X′ accented to his more polite and elegant Flourishes Double accented X″ to the Emendations of others A little Dagger † accented for the rejecting ridiculous Confutations An Antisigma to shew the double use and transpositions of Writing A small Half-Moon to shew the Context of the Philosophy An Astcrisk * to shew the Concurrently of Opinions A Dagger to denote a Confutation And thus much for the Notes and particular Marks which he that desired to understand gave s much Money to his instructor as Antigonus the Carystian relates in his Treatise concerning Zeno late put forth As for his Opinions which he most fancied they were these That the Soul was Immortal and transmigrated into several Bodies having its beginning from Number but that the Beginning of the Body was Geometrical He defined it to be the Idea of a Spirit altogether separate moveing it self and consisting of three parts That the Rational part was seated in the Head. That part which was subject to Passion and Anger in the Heart and the Part which brought forth Desire and Concupiscence in the Navel and Liver That it encompassed the one half of the Body all over in a circular Form consisting of the Elements and that being divided according to Harmonical Intervals made two Semi-circles joined together● the innermost of which being divided into six Parts made all the other seven Circles and lay Diametrically to the Left side within the other close to the side upon the Right and therefore it was most predominant as being but one For the other was divided within of which the one was of the same and the rest of the Other alledging this to be motion of the Soul that of the Universe and of the Planets and that by means of the middle Segments holding Proportion with the Extreams she comprehends all Beings and adapt● 'em together as having the Principles of all things in her self according to Harmony That Opinion arises from the Elevation of the Circle of the Other Knowledg from the Elevation of the Circle of the same That there were two Beginnings of all Things God and Matter which he calls Intelligence and nominates to be the Cause That Matter is without form and immense from the coalition and conjunction of Forms That this Matter at first being hurried up and down without order was at length rammassed together into one Place by the wise God who deem'd Ordel more seemly than Disorder That this existent Matter is divided into four Elements Fire Water Air and Earth Out of which the World and all things therein were Created only that the Earth is immutable believing it to be the cause of that Diversity of Forms whereof it consists for that the Forms of all other things are of the same kind being all composed of one Oblong Triangle tho' the Figure of the Earth be peculiar to it self seeing the Figure of Fire is Pyramidical the Air resembles an Octaedron the Water an Icosaedron but the Form of the Earth is Cubical Which is the reason that the Earth never changes into Them nor they into the Earth However he denies every Element to be confin'd to its proper place for that the Circular Motion by constraining and depressing to the Center congregates the smaller but separates the more bulky things which is the reason that when they change their forms they also change their Places That the World was Created single and one and was made a sensible Being by the Creator as being for its greater Excellency endued with Life and as the most glorious of Fabricks proceeding from the best of Causes and therefore but one though not Infinite because the Exemplar by which it was Created is but one That it is of a Sphaerical Figure as being the Form of the Creator For he encompasses the whole Creation and the World contains all other Forms of all things Moreover that it is smooth without any other Circular Organ as having no need of any such thing farther that the World is Immortal because it cannot be dissolv'd again into God. But that Cod was the cause of the whole Creation since only that which was good could do good That the best of causes was also the cause of the Creation of Heaven For that there could be no other cause of the most lovely part of the Creation than the best and most excellent of intelligible Beings which it being certain that God himself is and that the Heaven is also likest to him as being the next that transcends in Beauty there can be no Creature that it can resemble but only God. That the World consists of Fire Water Air and Earth Of Fire to the end it might be visible Of Earth that it might be solid of Air and Water that it might not want Proportion For solid things derive their Solidity from two Mediums to the end the whole may be made One. But then it takes its
King's Presents both accepted of his Invitation and held private Conferences with him he would neither do one nor t'other Neither indeed was it for Philip's interest to admit him Wherefore when the Ambassadors return'd to Athens they complain'd Xenocrates had done 'em no Service upon which the Senate was ready to have Fin'd him But being inform'd by himself when he came to plead in his own justification how much it behov'd 'em at that time more than ever to take care of the City in regard that Philip had corrupted his Accusers already but could never bring him over to his Designs then they gave him double honour And Philip himself afterwards confess'd that of all the Ambassadors that were sent to his Court only Xenocrates was the Person whom no Gold could dazle Another time being sent Ambassador to Antipater for the Redemption of the Athenian Captives taken in the Lamiac War and invited by the Prince to a Banquet he return'd him these Verses in answer O Circe thy allurements tempt in vain The Man whose Vertue prudent thoughts sustain For who can come with pleasure to a Feast Before he see his Captive Friends releas'd Which was so well taken by the Prince that he presently order'd all the Captives their liberty Another time a Sparrow being pursu'd by a Hawk flew into his Bosom where he secur'd the Bird saying withal That it was not generous to betray a Suppliant Being sharply reprimanded by Bion he would make him no return saying That Tragedy when injur'd by Comedy never vouchsafed her any answer To one who neither understanding Music Geometry nor Astronomy would yet frequent his School Be gone said he for thou want's● the supports of Philosophy Others report that he thus reprov'd him For this is no place to hatchel Wooll in Dionysius threatning Plato in these words Some body will take off thy head Xenocrates being present and shewing his own No body said he before he take off this Farther they report of him that Antipater coming to Athens and saluting him he return'd no answer to the Prince until he had finish'd the discourse which he had begun Lastly being a great contemner of Pomp and Vain-glory many times he spent the day time in Contemplation and dedicated one hour particularly to Silence The most of the Commentaries proverbial Verses and Exhortations which he left behind him were these Of Nature six Books Of Philosophy six Of Riches one Arcas one Of Infinity one Of a Boy one Of Continency one Of Profitable one Of a Freeman One Of Death one Of Voluntary Acts one Of Friendship two Of Writing one Of Memory one Of Modesty one Of Contrary two Of Felicity two Of a Lye one One inscrib'd Callicles Of Prudence two One Oeconomic Of Frugality one Of the Power of the Law one Of a Common-wealth one Of Sanctity one That Vertue is subject to Treachery one Of that which is one Of Fate one Of Perturbations one Of Lives one Of Concord one Of Disciples one Of Justice one Of Vertue two Of Specios one Of Pleasure two Of Life one Of Knowledge one One Political Of Fortitude one Of the Number one Of Idea's one Of Art one Of the Gods two Of the Soul two Of Skill one One call'd Parmenides Archedemus or of Justice one Of Good one Of those things that belong to the mind eight A solution of those things that happen to discourse one Of Natural Hearing six One entitl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Head Of Kinds and Species one Pythagories one Solution two Divisions eight Books of Positions thirty three Of the study and practice of Discourse fourteen After this fifteen Books and sixteen more Of Logical Instructions concerning reading six Of things relating to the Mind other two Books Of Geometricians five Books Of Commentaries one Of Contraries one Of Numbers one Of the Theory of Numbers one Of Intervals one Of those things that belong to Astrology six Elements to Alexander concerning Rule four To Arybas To Ephestion Of Geometry 345 Verses Nevertheless as great a person as he was the Athenians sold him once thinking to break his heart by Exilement He was bought by Demetrius Phalereus who salv'd up the matter between both to their satisfaction by restoring Xenocrates to his liberty and ordering the Athenians to receive their Exile This is recorded by Myronianus the Amastrian in the first of his Historical similar Chapters He succeeded Speusippus and govern'd his School five and twenty years beginning under Lysimachus in the second year of the 110th Olympiad He dy'd in the night-time stumbling at a Platter in the fourscore and second year of his age Whose death produc'd these following Lines of ours Xenocrates so learned and so grave Mark what a strange Fate brought him to his Grave 'T was late and dark and in his way a Platter Now whether toapt or sober 't is no matter But stumbling down he fell and broke his forehead And what was yet far more to be deplored Depriv'd of time to speak he only groan'd His Soul abhorring such a Scullion wound There were five others of the same name the first very ancient and both a Kinsman to the forementioned Philosopher and his Fellow-Citizen There goes about in public a Poem of his Entitl'd Arsinoetica upon Arsinoe deceas'd Another a Philosopher and a writer of Elegies but little taken notice of For so it happens that Poets endeavouring to write in Prose fortunately succeed but writers of Prose when they give themselves to Poetry unhappily falter And the reason is because the one is the Gift of Nature the other the Toyl of Art. The other was a Statuary and the last by the testimony of Aristoxenes a Writer of Odes The LIFE of POLEMO POlemo an Athenian the Son of Philostratus and born in the Village called Oeta when he was a young Man was so dissolute and profuse that it was his custom to carry summs of Money along with him where-ever he went that he might be provided still with sufficient supplies for the satisfaction of his pleasures Nay he would hide his money up and down in holes and corners of the streets in so much that some of his Cash was found in the Academy near a certain Pillar laid there to be ready when he had occasion to fetch it for his private uses Now it happen'd that one time among the rest as had been agreed between him and his companions in the height of their Carousing that in a drunken frolick with his Garland upon his head he brake into Xenocrates's School Who nothing disturb'd at the rudeness of such Roysters pursu'd his discourse which then fell out to be concerning Temperance the more vigorously And this Oration it was which so prevail'd at first upon the list'ning Debauchee that stopping the Career of his Extravagance at length he became quite reclaim'd And such were the effects of his laborious and industrious studies that he surpassed all others and himself succeeded in the School beginning from the hundred
all the other Sciences and will have it to have a double End that is to say Truth and Probability Each of which is of some principal use to the two faculties For the use of Rhetoric and Logic tends to Probability Philosophy and Analytics to Truth Moreover he has omitted nothing of that which appertains either to Invention or Judgment or to the use of either for he sets before Invention a great number of Propositions from whence by way of Method and common Places an infinite number of probable Arguments may he drawn for every Question In reference to Judgment he has wrote his first and second Analytics The first to shew how to make a right Judgment of the Agreement of one Proposition with another and the latter to examine the Consequences of them by collecting what went before and what followed after As to the use of things which are in Controversy and under dispute either among the Logicians or the Sophisters he has shewn how to satisfy the Arguments as well of the one as the other He holds that Sence is the Rule upon which the Judgment of Truth relies as to actions that are in the Imagination But that the Judgment is the rule of Truth in reference to the Moral Vertues whether in relation to public or domestic affairs or in the Composition and making of Laws He proposes the use of Vertue in a perfect Life to be the end of all Mens Living He holds Felicity to be an Assemblage of three things really beneficial of that which depends upon the Soul which is the best and most powerful of that which proceeds from the Body as Health Strength Beauty and the like and lastly upon that which is grounded upon outward Conveniences as Riches Nobility Reputatation and the like which depend upon Fortune But that Vice is sufficient of it self to render Life miserable though accompanied with all outward and Corporeal Conveniences That a wi●● Man might be miserable being afflicted sometimes with Pain sometimes with Poverty and sometimes with other Inconveniences That the Vertues do not depend one upon another For it may happen says he that a Man may be Prudent and Just and yet addicted to Intemperance and Incontinency That a wise Man can never be wholly exempt from Passions but only he may be able to govern 'em with more Moderation than another That Friendship is the Reciprocal Justice of good-will of which he makes three sorts of Parents of Lovers of Hospitality That Love does not only concern the Conversation of other Men but of Philosophers for says he a Wise Man may love as well as another mind the public affairs marry a Wife and live with a King. And lastly having established three several manners of Living the first in Contemplation the second in Action and the third in Pleasure he always preferred Contemplation before the rest He held that the Knowledge of the liberal Arts was of little Importance toward the attaining of Vertue There never was any Philosopher who 〈…〉 diligently enquired into the causes of Natural things than he so that he was able to give a Reason for the smallest thing that could be asked him and hence it was that he wrote so many Commentaries concerning natural Things He asserted with Plat● that God was incorporeal and immoveable whose providence did not pass beyond the limits of the Colestial Bodies with which all terre●… things agreed and were disposed by Sy●●p●●hy That there was a fifth Element which gives being to the Heavenly Bodies whose Motion i● different from that of the other four Elements of which the inferiour World was composed For that the Motion of this Element was circular ●●d theirs in a right ●ine Also that the Soul is incorporeal and the first Entelechy of an Organick Natural Body having Life in P●… Now you are to understand that he calls Entelechy an incorporeal Nature which imparts to the Corporeal power to move it self of which he makes two sorts the one Potential the other in Effect That which is in Potenti● is manifest in a thing that is not but may be a● a piece of Wax or a great ●ingot of Copper of which there may be made an Image or Statue of Marble by shaping the Wax or giving Lineaments to the Brass But that which is in the Effect is manifest in the thing it self which is already finished and perfected as Wax or Copper when wrought or cast into a Statue He adds Natural Bodies because there are some Bodies that are either wrought by the Hand as are all the Manifactures of Artisans as a Tower or a Ship or else others that are produced from the Earth as Plants and Animals Farther he adds Organic that is designed and prepared for some design as the Eye to see the Ear to hear Lastly he adds having Life in Potentia For Potentiality being less than the Effect always preceeds Action in every thing but the Effect cannot be without Action As for Example a Man that sleeps is enlivened with a Soul in Po●tentia but he that wakes is animated with a Soul in Act for he sees and understands such and such things which he that is a sleep does not do though he has a power so to do Such were his Philosophical Reasonings concerning these and many other things which would be here too long to recite For he was so Laborious and Industrious in all things and so acute in finding out Arguments for his Discourses that it was a thing almost incredible as may be seen by the great number of Volumes which we have already number'd up exceeding in all four hundred Volumes together with several others and an infinite Number of Sentences though I question whether all that are ascribed to him be his own In the last place we find that there were eight Aristotles The first the Great Philosopher himself A second formerly chief Magistrate of Athens Several of whose Orations or Judicial Pleadings very neat and elegant are extant to this day A third who Transcrib'd Homer's Iliads A fourth a Sicilian Orator who wrote an Answer to the Panegyric of Isocrates The fifth Sirnamed Mythus a Companion of Eschines the Socratic The sixth of Cyrene who wrote a Book of Poetry The seventh a Paedagogue of whom Aristoxenus makes mention in Plato's Life The last a Grammarian of little Esteem Of whose writing there is extant a small Treatise of Pleon●sm But as for the Stagyrian Philosopher he had several Disciples among whom Theophrastus was the chiefest and whose Life we are therefore next to write The LIFE of THEOPHRASTVS THEOPHRASTVS an Etesian was the Son of Metant●s a Fuller as Artemidorus reports in his Eighteenth Book of Deambulations He was first a Hearer of Le●cipp●s his Countryman and in the same City afterwards he went to Athens and heard Plato and at length rang'd himself in the number of Aristotle's Scholars to whom he succeeded in the Government of his School after he had withdrawn himself to Chalc●● which was about the
180. Olympiad They report likewise that his Servant Pompylus was a very great Philosopher as Myronius Amastrius relates in the first of his a like Historical Chapters Theophrastus was a Man of great Judgment and who as Pamphilus writes in the thirteenth Book of his Commentaries delighted very much in Comedies and was the Person that instructed and Moulded Menander Moreover he was a Person that would do Kindnesses voluntarily and was very affable to all Men. Cas-sander held him in High Esteem and Ptolomy also sent him several Presents He was so extreamly Popular and so greatly ●everenced by the Athenians that one Agnonides who accused him of Irreligion had much ado to escape th Punishment of the same Crime for which he had accused Theophrastus His Auditors ●looked to him from all parts to the number of above two thousand In a Letter written to Phanias the Peripatetic among other things touching the Decree made against Philosophers he thus discourses I am so far says he from calling together great Assemblies of the People that I seldom appear in any Company For by such a Retirement I have the advantage to review and correct my Writings This was part of his Epistle to Phanias wherein he calls him Scholar Nevertheless notwithstanding all his endowments he made no Opposition to the Decree but withdrew for some time as did all the rest of the Philosophers For Sophocles the Son of Amphiclides had made a Law by which it was enacted and commanded that none of the Philosophers should intrude themselves to preside in Schools without the consent of the People and Senate and that whoever it were that disobey'd this Decree should be punished with Death But it pleased God that Philo prefixed a day to answer to certain Treacheries by him committed but then the Philosophers returned the Athenians having ● brogated that Law the Philosophers were restored to their Employments and The●phrastus presided as he did before in his School He was called before Tyrtamus but Aristotle taking notice of the sub●imity of his Language and Discourses changed his Name and called him Theophrastus He also had a great Esteem for Nicomachus the Son of Aristotle and shewed him a more particular friendship then it was usual for a Master to do as Aristippus reports in his fourth Book of the Delights of the Ancients It is reported how that Aristotle should say the same thing of Callisthenes and Theophrastus as Plato had uttered concerning him and Xenocrates as we have mention'd in another place for of one he said that apprehended he made all things plain through the nimbleness and quickness of his gentile Wit but that the other was slow and heavy and so thick-scull'd and dull that the one required a Bridle and the other Spurrs T is said that he took possession of Aristotle's Garden so soon as he was retired to Chalcis by the Assistance of Demetrius Phalereus who furnished him with Money He was wont to say that 't was better to trust a Horse without a Bridle than to one irregular and improperly disposed To a certain person that at a great feast listened to others but spoke not a word himself If thou art ignorant said he thou dost well but if thou art learned 't is thy Folly makes thee silent He was always w●nt to have this saying in his Mouth That there was nothing cost so dear as the waste of Time. He was very old when hee dy'd as having lived four score and five years after he had retired a while from his former Exercises Which produced this Epigram of ours upon him Th●● vainly talk that cry unbend your Bow L●●st by continual stress it slacker grow For Theophrastus here his Bow unbent His Labour quitted and to Orcus went. His Scholars beholding him ready to ●●pire upon his Death-bed asked him as t●● reported what commands he had to lay upon 'em before he departed this Life To whom he returned this answer I have nothing said he more to say but only that this Life deceives us for that it flatters us with many pleasing Dreams under the p●●t●●ce of Glory but when 〈◊〉 th●●● to live Death comes and snatches us away So that there is nothing more vain th●n the lo● of Honour My Dear friends live happi●● and ●ear my words in mind and either forget the saying for the labour i● gre●● 〈◊〉 st●●fastly apply 〈◊〉 minds to it for g●●●● is the Glory that ●tt●●ds it H●●ev●● will not have undertake to advise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the two ●o Elect but consider among 〈◊〉 solves what ●e have to do And with these words in his mouth he expir●d 〈◊〉 was honourably attended at his Fu●●ral by all the Athenians who followed him 〈◊〉 his Grave ●●av●●in●● reports That wh●● he was very old he was wont to 〈◊〉 ●●ry'd about in a Litter and after hi● Hermippus testifies the same thing acknowledging that he had taken his Inf●●mation out of the History of Arces●●●● the ●ytan●●● He left behind to Posterity several ●●numents of his sublime Wit of which I think it but requisite to give the Readers Catalogue to the end that there by it 〈◊〉 be known how great a Philosopher 〈◊〉 was First several Treatis●● under the na●● of the Persons to whom they are dedicated A Book to Anaxagoras an●●her to the same one to Anaximenes one to Archel●us one to those that belonged to the A●ademy entituled Acicar●us one to E●pedocles one en●it●led Eviades one of Democritus one entituled Megacles another entituled Megarica An Epitome of Aristotles Works one Book of Commentaries one of Natural Moral and Civil Problems and of Love Seven of Aristotles Commentaries or Theophrastics Of Nature Three Books of the Gods one of Enthusiasm an Epitome of Natural Things A tract against Naturallists one Book of Nature three more of Nature two Abridgments of natural things eighteen more of Natural things seventeen of various Opinions concerning Natural things one of Natural Problems three of Motion two more of Motion three of Water one of a River in Sicily two of Meteors two of Fire one of Heaven one of Nitre and Alum two of things that putrifie one of Stones one of Metals one of things that melt and coagulate one of the Sea one of Winds two of things in dry places two of Sublime things one of Hot and Gold one of Generation ten of the History of Plants eight of the causes of them five of Humours one of Melancholy one of Honey eighteen first Propositions concerning Wine one of Drunkenness one of Spirits one of Hair another of Juices Flesh and Leather one of things the sight of which is unexpected one of things which are subject to wounds and bitings seven of Animals and other six of Animals one of Men one of Animals that are thought to participate of Reason One of the Prudence and Manners or Inclinations of Animals one of Animals that dig themselves Holes and Dens one of fortuito●● Animals 1182 Verses comprehending all sorts of Fruits and Animals A question
be no fault found with their Labour and Diligence but then let them have their Freedom Let my houshold Goods be appraised and sold for the Benefit of those to whom I have bequeathed them with this proviso That Pompylus may have enough for his own use as the Executors shall think reasonable I give Cano to Demotimus and Donax to Neleus As for E●bius I would have him sold and that Hipparchus give three thousand Drachma's to Callio Had I not a respect for Hipparchus as to a Man to whom I have been greatly beholding and who is now perplexed in business of his own I had joyned him with Melantus and Pancreon in the Execution of this my Will. But I thought it better to assign a sum of Money upon Hipparchus than to put him to that trouble Therefore let Hipparchus pay Melantus and Pancreon two Talents each being also bound by that means to furnish the ●●d Executors as occasion shall require with Money to defray the Expences in Execution of this my last Will and Testament Which being done I discharge him from all farther trouble according to the Covenants and Articles between us Moreover my will is That all the Profit which Hipparchus receives from Chalcis in my Name shall be entirely his own Now for the Executors whom I desire to be Executors of this my last Will let them be Hipparchus first then Neleus Strato Callio Demotimus Callisthenes and Cresarchus This was Theophrastus's Will of which a Copy being sealed with his Seal was put into the hands of Hegesias the Son of Hipparchus Witnesses to it were Calippus the Pelanean Philomelus Euonymus Lysander Hybeus and Philo of Alopeca Olympiodorus also received another Duplicate of the same Will in the presence of the same Witnesse●… Adimanthes another from Andrusthenes his Son to which were other Witnesses Acimuestes the Son of Cleobulus Lysistratus the Son of Phido the Thrasian Strato the Son of Arcesilaus of Lampsacum Thesippus the Son of Thesippus one of the Potters and Dioscorides the Son of Dionysius the E●icop●… Some there are who affirm That Er●…stratus the Physician was one of his Hearers which I will not contradict However Strato succeeded him in his School The LIFE of STRATO STRATO of whom Theophrastus makes mention in his Will was a Native of Lampsacum the Son of one Arcesilaus a Man certainly of great Eloquence and who formerly assum'd the Title of a Physician as being by reason of his great Industry superiour to other in those kinds of Speculations But among other Employments that he had he was tutour to Ptolomy Philadelphus from whom they say he received a present of four and twenty Talents He began to precide in the forementioned School as Ap●ll●derus testifies in his Chronicles in the hundred thirty third Olympiad and held it eighteen years He wrote several Volumes of which these were the chiefest An Extract of Royal Philosophy three Books of Enthusiasm of Causes of Vacuum of Time of Light and Heavy of the Heaven of the Generation of Animals of Coition of the Faculties of the Wit of Growth and Nourishment of Dreams of the Sight of Colds of the Nature of Man of Sickness of Crises's of Hunger of dimness of Sight of Animals whose Original was uncertain Of Discourse Of Accident of more and less of Antecedent and Consequent of a Definition of the Principles of Places some Solutions of Doubts As to Manners Of Felicity three Books of Good of Pleasure of Strength three of Justice and a single Tract of Injustice As to Civils Three Books of a Kingdom two or three of a Magistrate A Tract of Judgments another of Metallic Engines He also wrote some Lives and some Commentaries but it is questioned whether they were his or no. There are also extant about 450 of his Epistles that begin Strato to Arsinoe Health He is reported to have been of so thin and exhausted a Constitution that he was not sensible of his Death as we have described him in the following Epigram At length reduced to Skin and Bone Strato was quite transparent grown A Candle set in Mouth upright Would through his Cheeks have giv'n ye light His Soul perceived it and afraid Of catching cold so thinly clad Away she stole as Nurses creep From Beds of sick Men when asleep Or as they steal from drinking Trade That leave the Reckoning to be paid So parted Strato and his Soul For whom all Athens did condole We meet with eight Strato's in all among the Writings of other Authors The first a hearer of Isocrates The second our Philosopher himself The third a Physician the Disciple or as others say the Foster-Child of Erasistratus The fourth was a Historian who wrote the Wars of Philip and Perseus who headed two Armies against the Romans The sixth a writer of Epigrams The seventh an Ancient Physician as Aristotle testifies The eighth a Peripapetic who lived in Alexandra His Will is also Extant in this Form. Seeing that according to the Frail Condition of other Men I must be laid in my Grave I dispose before my Death of my Affairs First my Will is that Lampyrion and Arcesilaus be possessors of all that I have in my House Moreover I assign the Expence of my Funeral upon the Money which I have lying at Athens charging my Executors that it be performed with all solemn Decency imaginable but not superfluous My Executors shall be Olympicus Aristides Mnesigenes Hippocrates Epicrates Gorgylus Diocles Lyco and Athanes I leave Lyco Head of the School as being not so full of business as the rest besides that he has a Body able enough to undergo the Trouble I also leave him all my Books except those that I have written my self with all the Vessels Pots and Carpets which I made use of when I entertained my Friends My Will also is That my Executors shall give to Epicrates five hundred Drachma's and a Boy such a one as Arcesilaus shall judge most convenient Moreover my Will is That Lampyrion and Arcesilaus shall cancel the Bonds which Daippus made for Hireus that he may be discharged from them and their Heirs of all dues and demands whatever And in regard of the Kindnesses and Benefits which we have received from him We order our Executors to pay him five hundred Drachma's and a Boy such a one as Arcesilans shall think fit that he may live handsomly I set free Diophantes Dioctes Ab●● and Dromo but as for Simmias I leave him to Arcesilans It is also my Will that till Arcesilaus shall return that Hir●● shall give up his Accompts to Olympicus in the presence of Epicrates and the Re●● of the Executors deducting my Funeral Expences and other necessary Ceremonies As for the rest of the Money remaining after the stating of the Accompts in the hands of Olympicus let Arcesilaus take it to his own use exacting nothing from him for Time or interest Lastly I desire Arcesilaus to cancel the Writings between me and Amimas and the said Olympicus which
Philosophical sometimes intermixed with Rhetorical vigour and force of Eloquence Understanding that the Athenians had pulled down his Images However said he they have not overturned that Vertue for which they were set up He was wont to say that the Eye-brows were Members which were not to be despised because of their smallness for that by them we might understand the whole course of our Lives that Riches were not only blind but Fortune their Mistress That Eloquence had as much power in Republicks as the Sword in War. One day beholding a young Debauch that liv'd a desolute Life Look there said he a perfect Mercury with a Belly Beard and Privy-Parts When he saw Men puffed up with Honour he was wont to say That the growing height should be taken down and only the understanding left behind He held it for a Maxim That young Men were to pay Reverence to their Parents at Home and in the Streets and when they were alone to respect themselves Moreover that it was not proper for a Man to visit his Friends in Prosperity without being called We meet with twenty more of the same Name all Persons of note and worthy to be remmembred The first Orator of Chalcedon the second our Philosopher the third a Peripatetic of Constantinople the fourth sirnamed Graphicus a Person ready in Discourse and a Painter withal the fifth an Aspadian and Disciple of of Apollodorus the Solensian the sixth a Calatinian who wrote twenty Books of Asia and Europe and eight more of the acts of Antiochus and Ptolemy and of the Government of Africa under their Reigns the eighth a Sophister who wrote of the Art of Rhetoric while he lived at Alexandria the ninth a Grammarian of Adramytum Sirnam'd Ixion because he was thought to have put some affront upon Juno the tenth a Grammarian of Cyrene sirnamed Stannus a Person of great Reputation the eleventh a Sceptian rich noble and a Lover of all learned Men who left his Estate to Metrodorus the twelfth a Grammarian of Erythraea registred among the Citizens of Temna the thirteenth a Bithynian the Son of Diphylus a Stoic and Disciple of Panaetius the Rhodian the fourteenth an Orator of Smyrna All these wrote in Prose The Poets of this name the first was a Comedian the second an Epic Poet of whose Writings we find nothing extant but these Verses against Envious Persons The Man whom lately Envious Fend So hotly to the Grave pursu'd How do they now his Aid implore That wrought his Bane but just before They who contemn'd the vigorous Life Are for the Tombstone now at strife The Man was scorn'd who Shadows claim'd And Potent Cities are inflam'd To War they go and slaughter make As if the Idol were awake And saw well pleased how bloody War Reveng'd his causless Massacre The third of Trasus and a writer of Satyrs The fourth a troublesome Scribler of Iambics The fifth a Statuary of whom Polemo makes mention The sixth and last an Erythraean both a Historian and a Rhetorician The LIFE of HERACLIDES HERACLIDES an Heracleote the Son of Euthyphron was a Person of a great Estate He came from Pontus to Athens where he made it his Business to hear the Philosophers and among the rest Spensippus to whom he first became a Scholar after that he went among the Pythagoreans in imitation of Plato and lastly was a Hearer of Aristotle as Sotio testifies in his Book of Successions He was very gorgeous in his Apparel He was shaped squat and with his Belly strutting out so that they gave him the nickname of Pompic as one that made a great Show in the Streets instead of Pontic otherwise he was a Man grave and of a graceful Deportment His Works also demonstrate the Excellency and soundness of his Judgment And first his Dialogues about the institution of evil Manners and Behaviour One of Justice one of Temperance one of Piety one of Strength one of Vertue one of Vertue so generally taken of Felicity of a Prince of Laws and things that are agreeable with them of Words of Bargains of forc'd Love otherwise entituled Clinias of the Understanding of the Soul of the Soul and Nature of Images against Democritus of Heaven of things in Hell two Books of Lives of the Causes of Sickness of Good against Leno against Metto of the age of Homer and Hesiod and Archilochus in two Books a tract of Music of things written by Sophocles and Euripides of Music in two Books one entituled Theorematic of the three Tragic Poets Characters four enarrations of Heraclitus an Enarration to Democritus two Books of Solutions advertisements to Dionysius of Rhetoric in two Books the Duty of an Orator Entituled Protagoras the History of the Pythagoreans of Inventions Here we are to understand that he handles some of these Subjects under Comical Fictions as Pleasure and Chastity others under Tragical Fictions as Piety Power and those things that are in Hell. He also keeps close to the Character of the Persons whom he introduces in his Dialogues so that still a Philosopher speaks like a Philosopher a Captain like a Captain a Citizen like a Citizen And besides those Dialogues already mentioned we meet with others that are of his Composition concerning Geometry and Logic In short he was a Man to whom nothing came amiss as being furnished both with Matter Phrases and Words for all manner of Subjects and Discourses Some report that he set his Country free from the yoak of Tyranny after he had put to death the Tyrant that held it in Subjection and among the rest Demetrius the Magnesian in his Homonymia's not only asserts this for Truth but recites another Story of him how that he charged one of his Familiar Friend to hide his Body after his Decease where it might not be found and that he should lay in his Bed a certain Snake which he had privately foster'd in his House from a young one on purpose that they might think he was taken by the Gods up into Heaven That his Friend did as he was ordered but that the Imposture wa● discover'd For his Fellow-Citizens flocking from all Parts to deisy him with their Encomiums the silly Snake terrified with the noise came hissing from under the Bed-cloths and frighted all the Company out of the Room By which means the Cheat being discovered Heraclides wa● adjudged quite another sort of a Man than he design'd to have been which was the Reason we made him this Epigram Great Heraclides thought to cheat the World To leave between his Sheets a Serpent furl'd As if the Gods had ravish'd their Delight To tast Ambrosial Food with them that Night T is true the Dragon might be call'd a Beast But yet more Beast was he with Heaven to jest For which with a swift Palsey struck his End Shew'd us how vainly Men with Gods contend Hippobotus avers the same But Hermippus tells the Story of his Death quite another way For he says that the Hera●…es seeing their Country
take him with them a Hunting To one that said to him I have got the day of the men in the Pythian Games he answered It is I have the day of the men but thou of the Slaves To some that said to him thou art an Old man slacken a little now he answered What if I were running of a Race should I slacken towards the End or mend my Pace Being invited to Dinner he said he would not come for he had no Thanks Yesterday for coming He would walk upon the Snow with his bare Feet and do such other things as were above spoken of He did also essay to eat raw meat but could not digest it He once catch'd Demosthenes dining at a publick house and as he went to steal away he said to him Thou wilt be so much the more in a publick house Certain Strangers being once desirous to see Demosthenes he reached out his middle Finger and said This is the Athenians Rabble Guide As one threw out a piece of Bread and was asham'd to take it up again he willing to reprove his Folly tyed a string to the Neck of an Earthen Pot and drew it after him across the Potters Yard He was used to say he did imitate Musick-masters for they were wont to go higher than the Note that others might hit the true Note He us'd to say That most men were within a Finger of Madness For that if a Man as he goes along put out his middle-Finger he will be thought to be mad but if he put out his Fore-Finger he will be in his right Wits He used to say That things of most value were sold for nothing and on the contrary for that a Statue would ●●●● three Thousand Silver Drachmaes and ●● Bushel of Meal but two small pieces of Copper He said to Xeniades that brought him Come let me see how you will do what you are bidden and he replied Rivers swift Streams unto their Springs return He said If in your Sickness you had bought you a Doctor would not you be obedient to him and not say Rivers swift Streams unto their Springs return One would fain have come to him to learn Philosophy of him and he gave him a Hough of Bacon to carry and made him follow him But as he flung it down for very shame and went his way So sometime after he meeting him laugh'd at him and said the Bacon Hough hath dissolved the Friendship betwixt me and thee But Diocles tells us the Story thus One saying to him give me your Command Diogenes he took him along with him and gave him half an Obolus worth of Cheese to carry but he refusing it he said Half an Obolus worth of Cheese hath dissolved the Friendship betwixt me and thee Seeing once a little Boy drinking Water out of the Hollow of his Hand he took his little Dish out of his Scrip and threw it away saying This little Boy hath out-done me in Frugality He threw away his Bowl also when he likewise saw another little Boy after he had broken his Dish receiving his Lentile Pottage into a hollow piece of Bread. He would also argue that all things are the Gods. And wise Men are the Gods Friends and Friends have all things common therefore all things are wise Mens Seeing on a time a Woman Prostrating her self to the Gods after an unseemly manner and willing to free her from her * slavish fear as Zoilus of Perga relates he came to her and said Art thou not afraid Woman least God should stand behind thee for he fills all places with his Presence and see thy unseemly Posture He devoted the Picture of a Club-man to Aesculapius which as People threw themselves down upon their Faces ran to them and broke their Heads He was wont to say That the Curses in the Tragedies were all light upon him for he was without City without House without Country Poor a wanderer and had but one days Provision He often said he opposed Magnanimity to Fortune Nature to Law and Reason to Passion As he was Sunning himself one day in the Craneon Alexander standing by him said Ask of me what thou wilt and thou shalt have it he answered Stand out of my Light. As one was reading a tedious Discourse and at last disclosed the Blank at the end of the Book he said Courage my Masters I see Land. When one would prove by a Syllogism that he had Horns he clapped his Hand to his Forehead and said I feel none In like manner when one offered to prove there was no motion he rose up and walked about To one that discoursed of the Heavenly Bodies he said How long is it since thou camest from Heaven A wicked Eunuch having written upon his House LET NO ILL THING COME IN HERE He said Which way will the Master of the House come in As he anointed his Feet with Perfumed Ointments he said The Perfume goes up from the Head into the Air but from the Feet into the Nose When the Athenians advised him to be initiated affirming that such as were admitted to those Secrets shall obtain Preheminence in the Nether World he said It would be an absurd thing if Agesilaus and Epaminondas must live in Mire and certain mean Fellows if but ini●ated be in the Islands of the Happy As he saw Mice creeping upon his Table he said Look you here Diogo●es also feeds Parasites When Plato called him Dog he said Very right for I am returned to those that sold me When o●● asked him as he was coming out of ●●e Bagnio Whether there were many M●● a Bathing he answered No But to another that asked whether there was a great Croud he said Yes Plato having desired a Man to be an Animal with two Legs without Feathers and having gaine great applause thereby he stript a C●… and brought him into his School and 〈…〉 here is Plato's Man for you which occasioned him to add to his Definition With broad Nails To one that asked him what time of Day was best for a Man to 〈…〉 his Dinner in he answered If he be a rich Man when he will but if a p●●● Man when he can get Meat Seeing among the Megaricks their Sheep clad with Skins and their Children nak●● he said It is better to be a M●g●… Ram than his Son. To one that hi● 〈…〉 with a piece of Timber and afterward said have a Care he said Dost thou ●●tend to strike me again He called ●● Oratours the Waiting-men of the Rabb●● and Garlands the Buddings out of Glory Once he highted a Candle at Noon day and said I look for a Man. He stood once under a great Spout of Water and when they that stood about him much pittied him Plato being there also said If you design him any Kindness go from him intimating his Vain-glory. As one gave him a ●low on the head with his Knuckle Hercules said he What a thing
Iniquity masks and paints it self but Honesty always delights to shew it self Bare-fac'd That they should be no great Lovers of Business which many times draws 'em from their Duty And that they should beware of Drunkenness which causes Madness and the Loss of the Sences for a time Yet it may happen that they may have extravagant Thoughts through the Redundancy of Black Melancholy not that their Reason fails 'em but because Nature is weak Nor ought a Wise Man to submit himself to Grief in regard that Passion is a Rational Contraction of the Soul according to Apollodorus in his Morals Also That they ought to be Religious and well skill'd in the Sacred Constitutions as enjoying a kind of Divinity within themselves Whereas the Irreligious are without any Divinity as being contrary to the truly Pio●s Piety they define to be the Knowledge of Divine Worship therefore when Wise Men Sacrifice to the Gods it behoves 'em to be chast and pure as detesting all Transgressions against the Gods by whom they are belov'd so long as they remain sincere and holy More especially that the Priests should be Wise Men to whom the Care of the Sacrifices the Temples Processions Purifications and other Ceremonies due to the Gods is committed That the next Reverence to that which is due to the Gods is to be paid to Parents and Brothers That Wise Men are naturally indulgent and affectionate to their Children which Wicked Men are not They believe all Transgressions to be alike as Chrysippus Persaeus and Zeno acknowledge For as Truth is not more true then Truth nor Falshood then Falshood so Fraud cannot be greater then Fraud nor Sin then Sin For he that is a hundred Furlongs distant from Canopus is no more in Canopus then he that is but one Furlong distant from it so they that offend more or less are equally Transgressors But Heraclides of Tarsus an intimate Acquaintance of Antipater of the same City together with Athenodorus are both of a contrary Opinion That some Offences are more heinous then others Chrysippus also asserts That a Wise Man is not so reserv'd but that he will undertake the Management of Public Affairs unless he meet with any Impediment knowing that he may be a means to prevent the Growth of Vice and to excite his Fellow-Citizens to Virtuous Actions Also That it may be lawful for him to marry for the Procreation of Off-spring which Zeno allows in his Common-wealth That a Wise Man will not obstinately uphold a Falshood nor assent to a Lye and that he will embrace the Cynic Sect as being a near way to Virtue as Apollodorus confesses in his Morals That he will taste of Human Flesh if necessary Chance constrain him That the wise Man is the only Free-Man all Evil Men being no more then Slaves For that Liberty is the Power of acting according to a Man 's own Will which Evil Men cannot do Servitude the Privation of acting freely Of which there is one sort that consists in Subjection and another sort in Possession and Subjection To which Lordship and Mastership are Opposites and evil in themselves That Wise Men are not only Free-Men but Princes as Governing a Kingdom subject to none which can be asserted only of Wise Men according to the Opinion of Chrysippus For he must be acknowledg'd to be a Prince of Good and Evil Things which Power no Wicked Man can assume to himself In like manner They are the only Persons fit for Magistracy for Judicature and to plead at the Bar and no others For that they cannot well commit an Error as not being easily corrupted For that they are circumspect and no less wary of wronging others as of injuring themselves For that they are not to be guided by false Pity and so not apt to pardon Offenders or remit the Punishments ordain'd by the Law. For neither Severity nor Pity nor Equity it self begets any Mercy in the Soul in matter of Punishment nor are they counted the more cruel for the Punishments which they inflict Neither does a Wise Man admire at any of those Things which to others seem Wonders and Paradoxes such as are Abysses the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Hot Springs or Mountains vomiting Fire Neither would a Wise Man be confin'd to a Desert For Nature loves Familiarity and delights in Action and Exercise to keep the Body in Health A Good and Wise Man also will pray to the Gods and crave Blessings at their Hands So say Possidonius and Hecato the first in his Book of Offices and the latter in his Treatise of Paradoxes They affirm That there is no true Friendship but only among Good Men which is occasion'd by the Sympathy of Dispositions and therefore Society is a kind of imparting in common the Necessaries of Life because we make Use of our Friends as of our selves for which Reason they desire Friends and esteem it a Blessing to have many But that there can be no Friendship among Evil Men. That it is a vain Thing to contend with Evil Men For that all Fools are mad or act with a Phrenzy equal to Folly. That every Wise man does Good as we say that Ismenius play'd well upon all manner of Wind-Music Besides that all Things are in the Power of a Wise man for the Law has given him an absolute Authority They assert That the Virtues are lin●● one to another so that he who enjoys one possesses all the rest for that the Speculation of Virtue is in common as both Chrysippus Apollodorus and Hecato severally testifie Concomitants to Wisdom are Prosperity in Counsel and Perspicacity Upon Temperance Order and Modesty attend To Justice Equity and Probity are Handmaids And Fortitude is attended by Resolution and Valour They allow no Medium between Virtue and Vice For as a Stick may be either streight or crooked so it may be with Justice or Injustice yet neither can Just be more Just nor Unjust more Unjust Chrysippus also affirms That Virtue may be lost which on the other side Cleanthes absolutely denies The former avers it may be lost through Drunkenness or Melancholy which the latter will not allow by reason of the firm footing it has got in the Soul which is the true Virtue which is to be desir'd And therefore we are asham'd when we do ill because we know there is nothing good but what is honourably virtuous and this is that which suffices to render us happy according to the Opinion of Zeno and Chrysippus in his Treatise of the Virtues and of Hecato in his Second Book De Bonis For say they If Magnanimity be sufficient to raise a mans Soul to such a lofty pitch certainly Virtue must be sufficient to render a man happy that is able to contemn all Things which can give her any Trouble However Panaetius and Possidonius will not allow this prevailing Sufficiency in Virtue but affirm the Necessity of Health Riches and Strength to be assistant However they assert That Virtue
govern'd by Providence and the Grand Intelligence according to Possidonius in his Treatise of the Gods and that this Grand Intelligence diffuses it self through the whole as also into our Souls but more abundantly into some into others less Into some as a Habit through the Bones and Nerves into others as the Understanding through the Principality of the Mind That the whole World was a Living Creature and endu'd with Reason having the Ayr for its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Principality of the Mind Which was the Opinion of Antipater the Tyrian But Chrysippus and Possidonius affirm the Heaven to be the Principality of the World's Mind or Intelligence and Cleanthes to be the Sun. Soon after Chrysippus contradicting himself affirms Part of the Air to be that Hegemonicum or Receptacle of the World's Intelligence which they affirm'd to be the first Divine Nature so apprehensible to Sence that it was perceiv'd to be diffus'd as it were through the Conduits of the Air into all Creatures and Plants and through the World it self as a Habit That there was but one World Finite and of a Spheerical Form as being a Figure more proper for Motion as Posidonius and Antipater assert That beyond the World there was an immense and surrounding Vacuum But that it was incorporeal because it could contain but not be contain'd by Bodies Moreover That there was no Vacuum in the World but that all was clos'd up together in a miraculous Unity Which happen'd through the Concord and Congruency of the Celestial with the Earthly Beings Of this Vacuity Chrysippus discourses in his Book De Inani and his First Book of Natural Sciences Apollonius also and Posidonius in the Second Book of Natural Reason That all Things like to these were also incorporeal Moreover they held Time to be incorporeal being the interval of the World's Motion That the Time past and to come were infinite only the present finite They also maintain'd the World to be corruptible as being created by the Reason of those Things which are perceptible by Sence Of which the Parts being corruptible so likewise the Whole But the Parts of the World were corruptible for they change reciprocally one into another therefore the World was corruptible More especially that which may be prov'd to change for the worse is corruptible but the World is subject to that sort of Change therefore corruptible for it is plain that the Parts are subject to be dry'd up then soak'd with Moisture again Now the World was created by the Change of the Substance into Moisture being first rarify'd into Air afterwards the Water thicken'd into Earth while the thinner Part turn'd to Air again which being yet more rarify'd produc'd Fire And lastly out of a mixture of all these Plants Animals and other Beings were created Of this Generation and Corruption of the World Zeno discourses in his Treatise of the Vniverse Chrysippus in his Physics Posidonius in his Book of the World Cleanthes and Antipater in their Works under the same Title And besides these Panaetius affirms the World to be corruptible Now that the World is a Creature endu'd with Life Rational and Intelligible Chrysippus affirms in his First Book of Providence together with Apollonius in his Physics and Posidonius who asserts that the World being a Living Creature is likewise endu'd with Sence for that a Living Creature is much more noble then an inanimate Creature Moreover that it is a Living Creature is manifest from hence that the Soul of man is as it were more violently torn out of it But on the other side B●●thus affirms That the World as not a Living Creature But that it is but one Zeno O●ry●ippus Apollodorus and Posidonius all agree And Apollodorus adds that the World is one way call'd the Vniverse and after another manner the Vast Systeme consisting of the World and the Vacuity beyond it So that the World is finite but the surrounding Vacuity infinite As for the Stars they aff●rm That the Fix'd Stars are whirl'd about by the Circular Motion of the Heaven but that the Planets observe their own peculiar Motions That the Sun makes an oblique Revolution through the Circle of the Zodiac and so the Moon likewise That the Sun is a most pure sort of Fire according to Posi●onius in hi● Seventeenth Book of Meteors and bigger then the Earth but Sphaerical in proportion to the World. That it is made of Fire because Fire produces all things and bigger then the Earth because it enlightens all the Earth and not only the Earth but the Heaven Of which a farther Proof is this That the Earth casts a Conical Shadow and for that the Sun is every where seen by reason of its Magnitude That the Moon partak●s more of the Earth because it is nearer to it That these Fiery Bodi●● receive continual Nourishment The Sun being a sensible Fl●●beau from the vast Ocean the Moon from the Potable Rivers bei●g mi●● d with Air and near to the Earth as Pos●doni●● a●●●r ●● in his 6. Book of the R●●son of Nature The r●st receive their nouri●●ment from the Earth They believe the S●●●● also to be Spherical ● the Earth ●o be immoveable That the Moon doe● not ●hine with her own borrow'd Light but borrow● it from the Sun. That the Sun happens to be ●●lipsed when th● Moon interpos●s h●r self between the Sun and that part of the Earth which is next us as Z●no writes in his Book of the Vniverse That the Moon is eclips'd when she falls into the Shadow of the Earth so that she is never eclips'd but when she is at the Full and diametrically opposite to the Sun which happens on●● in every Month For moving obliquely contrary to the Sun she alters her Latitude sometimes more to the North some●imes more to the South But when her Latitude comes to the Latitude of the Sun and that which lies between and so becomes diametrical to the Sun then she suff●r● an Eclipse Now she moves in her middl● Latitude the Claws of the Crab the Scorpion the Ram and the Bull as Posidoni●● asserts They affirm God to be an immortal Creature rational perfect blessed void of all Evil governing by his Providence both the World and all things contain'd in it That he is not only the Architect of the whole but the Father of all things but generally that Part of him which penetrates all things is call'd by sever●l Names according to the Effects In the first Place Jupiter by whom all things were made then Zous from 〈◊〉 because he gives Life to all things next Athenai because his Dominion extends into the Sky which is ●ither in the Greek Hera as b●ing Lord of the Air V●lcan from the Use of Fire in forging of Iron N●ptune from hi● Power over the Sea Ceres from his Power over the Earth with several others for Reasons altog●ther as probable As ●or the Divine Substance Z●no conclude it to be the Wo●ld an● the Heaven But
because their Virtue is exhal'd Moreover Sphaerus affirms that this Seed flows from all Parts of the Body by which means it comes to generate all the Parts of the Body That the Seed of a Woman conduces nothing to Generation being but small in Quantity and watery as Sphaerus asserts That the Hegemonicum is the most principal Part of the Soul where the Imagination and Desires reside and from whence the Reason proceeds which is the Heart And thus much for their Opinions in Natural Philosophy which is sufficient considering the Brevity design'd in this present Undertaking We are next to observe wherein they have differ'd and contradicted one another The LIFE of ARISTO ARISTO the Chiote and Phalanthian Sirnam'd the Syren affirm'd that the End and Scope of Mankind was to live in differently between Virtue and Vice observing no distinction between 'em but an equality in every one That a Wise Man was like a Famous Actor who whether he acted Thyrsites or Aganiemnon did both Parts well So that he rejected the Places of Natural and Rational saying That what was above us nothing concern'd us That therefore only Morals concern'd us He compar'd the Subtleties of Logic to Spiders Web which though Artificial to Sight were yet of no Use He neither introduc'd many Virtues like Zeno neither did he advance any one particularly above the rest giving to it particular Titles or Names like the Megarics And thus professing this kind of Philosophy and disputing in the Cynosarges he gain'd the Honour to be the Founder of a peculiar Sect. So that Miltiades and Dychilus were call'd Aristonians for he had an extraordinary perswasive Eloquence and very taking among the vulgar sort However as Diocles reports he was worsted by Polemo in a Dispute at what time Zeno fell into a tedious Fit of Sickness Yet he was a great Admirer of that Opinion of the Stoics That a wise man could never doubt Thereupon Persaeus brought him two Twins and order'd the one to deliver him a Trust with Instructions to the other to demand it again soon after from him at what time seeing him in a Doubt which to restore it to he convinc'd him of his Error He was an utter Enemy to Artesilaus So that it being his Chance to see a monstrous Bull that carry'd a Matrix Wo is me said he to Artesilaus as an Argument against Evidence To an Academic that deny'd he apprehended any thing Why said he Dost thou not see that Rich Man sitting by thee Who answering No he retorted upon him this Verse Who struck thee blind or from thy sight Remov'd the glittering Lamps of Light He is said to have been the Author of all the following Volumes Of Exhortations in two Books Dialogues concerning Zeno's Opinions Six Dialogues concerning Schools Seven Discourses upon Wisdom Amorous Exercises Commentaries concerning Vain-Glory Commentaries upon Fifteen Commentaries in three Volumes Eleven Books of Proverbs and Sentences Against the Orators against Alexinus against Logicians in three Volumes Four Books of Epistles to Cleanthes But Panatius and Sosicrates will allow no more then the Epistles to be his own The Report is that being Bald the Heat of the Sun pierc'd his Skull which brought him to his End. Old as thou wer't and Bald it was ill done T' expose thy Noddle to the Roasting Sun For when thou sought'st for more then needful Heat Thou found'st cold Death and Styx to cool thy Pate There was also another Aristo of Iliete a Peripatetic a second an Athenian and a Musitian Another a Tragic Poet a fourth who wrote the Art of Rhetoric and a fifth a Peripatetic of Alexandria The LIFE of ERILLVS ERillus the Carthaginian asserts Knowledge to be the End and Scope of Mankind which is to live for ever referring all things to a Life of Knowledge by which means we avoid the Death of Ignorance He defin'd Knowledge to be a Habit proceeding from a Crowd of Imaginations not to be express'd in Words Sometimes he held there was no End as being alter'd and chang'd as various Accidents and Businesses alter'd the Resolutions of Men. As if the same Metal may serve to make a Statue for Alexander or Socrates But he distinguish'd between the End and the thing subjected to the End For the one Fools as well as Wise Men apprehend the other only the Wise can conceive He also maintain'd that there were things Indifferent between Virtue and Vice. His Treatises are but short however full of Pith and Sence and full of Contradictions of Zeno. It is reported that when he was a Boy he was belov'd by several Men whom Socrates not being willing to admit caus'd Erillus to be shav'd and then they ceas'd to make any farther Addresses He wrote several Dialogues under the following Titles Of Exercise of the Affections of Apprehension the Legislator the Midwife Antiphero the Schoolmaster Preparatives Direction Mercury Medea and Moral Questions But Dionysius Sirnam'd Metathemenus asserted Pleasure to be the End and Aim of all men For having a Pain in his Eyes he was so tormented with it that he cry'd out that Pain could not be a thing indifferent His Father's Name was Theophantus of the City of Heraclea and when he came of Age he was first of all a Hearer of Heraclides his Fellow-Citizen after that of Alexinis and Menedemus and lastly of Zeno 〈…〉 Yet he lov'd none so clearly as Aratus whom he labour'd to imitate At length when he left Zeno he betook himself to the Cyrenaics frequented the Common Prostitutes and indulg'd himself to all manner of Voluptuous Pleasures Several Writings are Father'd upon him under these Titles Of Calming the Passions in two Volumes Of Exercise two Volumes Of Pleasure four Of Riches Favour and Punishment Of the Vse of Men Of Happiness Of the Ancient Kings Of Things deserving Applause Of Barbarous Customs These were they that differ'd from the Stoicks But to Zeno himself succeeded both his Scholar and Admirer Cleanthes The LIFE of CLEANTHES CLEANTHES the Son of Phanius and Asian as Antisthenes reports in his Successions was at first a Fisty-Cuffer but coming to Athens with no more then four Drachma's in his Pocket and meeting with Zeno he betook himself most sedulously to the Study of Philosophy and adher'd altogether to his Precepts and Opinions It is reported also that being miserably poor he hir'd himself out to draw Water in Gardens in the Night and follow'd his Studies by Day so that they gave him the Nickname of Well-Emptier For which they say he was call'd in question by the Judges who demanded of him Wherefore being such a stout and well made Fellow he follow'd such an effeminate Employment And being cast by the Testimony of the Gardiner that set him at Work and of a Woman whose Ovens he heated he was acquitted by the Judges who admiring his Parts order'● him ten Mina's which Zeno forbid him to accept though afterwards it is reported that Antigonus sent him three Thousand Another time as he was
Person Again What is not in the City is neither at home in the House but there is ne'r a Well in the City therefore not in the House Again There is a certain Thing call'd a Head but thou hast not that Thing therefore thou hast ne'r a Head. In like manner He that is at Megara is not at Athens but there is a Man at Megara therefore there is no Man at Athens In like manner What a man speaks passes through his Mouth but he speaks Cart therefore a Cart passes through his Mouth Lastly What thou didst never lose that thou hast thou never didst lose Horns therefore thou hast Horns Moreover there are not wanting some that foully bespatter Chrysippus and tax him for having written many things obscenely For that in his History of the Ancient Naturalists he feigns many scurrilous things of Juno and Jupiter reciting in six hundred Verses those things which no other then a foul-mouth'd Person would have utter'd fitter for a Brothel-House then to be spoken of the Gods though he applauds it for a Natural Allegory For which Reason it was left out by those that collected the Catalogues of Books in those Times for that neither Polemo nor Hypsicrates nor Antigonus make any mention of it That in his Common-wealth he allows a Community between Mothers Daughters and Sons And that he vents the same Paradoxes in his Treatise of those Things which are to be preferr'd for their own sakes That in his Book of the Law he allows and exhorts People to eat their Dead In his Second Book of Livelihood and Trade endeavouring to find out a way how a Wise Man might deal in the World and to what end he might be admitted to seek after Gain If for the sake of a Livelihood says he Life is an indifferent thing If for Pleasure's sake that is also an indifferent thing If for Virtue 's sake that alone is sufficient to render Life happy Besides the ways of gaining are very ridiculous for if a Man be supply'd by his Prince he must creep and cringe for it if he accept from his Friend his own Friendship is bought if he gain by his Wisdom that also becomes Mercenary And these are the Extravagancies which they lay to his Charge Now then to give a Catalogue of his Works which are highly esteem'd among others we find 'em number'd up in this Order Logical Topics Logical Questions Philosophical Questions Philosophical Considerations Logical Terminations Six Books to Metrodorus of Logical Names his Art of Logic against Zeno. To Aristagorus of conjoyn'd Probabilities to Dioscorides The first Syntaxis Of Logical Moods relating to Things of Enunciates of Compound Enunciates of Connex'd Propositions to Athenades of Negations to Aristagoras of Predicables to Athenodorus of Things according to Privation to Thearus of the Best Enunciates to Dio of the Difference of Indefinites of Things spoken according to Time in Two Books of Perfect Enunciates in Two Books of Truth disjoyn'd to Gorgippides of Truth conjoyn'd to the same Person in Four Books of Consequences of the Number Three of Possibles to Clitus in Four Books of Significations to Philo one Book What Things are false in one Book The Second Syntax of Precepts Two Books of Interrogations in Two Books of Answers in Four Books An Epitome of Answers in one Book of Questions again Two Books of Answers in One Book The Third Syntax Of the Predicaments to Metrodorus in Ten Books of Right and Crooked Lines to Philanthus of Conjunctions to Apollodorus of the Predicaments to Pasylus in Four Books The Fourth Syntax Of the Five Cases in one Book of Enunciates defin'd according to the Subject in one Book of Appellatives of Explanation to Stesagoras in Two Books A Logical Argument concerning Words and Speech which consists of Words The First Syntaxis Of single and compound Enunciates in Six Books of Expressions to Sosigenes and Alexander in Five Books of the Inequality of Words to Dio in Four Books of some Questions of Soloecisms one Book Soloecizing Orations to Dionysius of Orations contrary to Custom Readings to Dionysius The Second Syntax Of the Elements of Speech five Books Of the Order of Words in those things which are spoken Of the Order and Elements of those things that are spoken to Philip in Three Books Of the Elements to Nicias one Book of what may be said in reference to other things The Third Syntax Against those that never divide of Ambiguities one Book of the Connexion of Tropic Amphibology An Answer to Panthoedus concerning Ambiguities of Introduction to Ambiguities in Five Books An Epitome of Ambiguities to Epicrates Additions to the Introduction of Ambiguities Logical Places for Orations and Tropes The First Syntax The Art of weaving Orations and Tropes to Dioscorides of Orations three Books Of the Stability of the Moods in two Books to Stesagoras A Comparison between Tropical Enunciates in one Book Of reciprocal and conjoyn'd Orations in one Book to Agatho of consequent Problems in one Book of Conclusions to Aristagoras in one Book That the same Oration may consist of several Moods An Answer to them that aver the same Oration may be Syllogistical and not Syllogistical An Answer to the Objections against Sillogistical Solutions An Answer to Philo Of Tropes to Timostratus Logic conjoyn'd to Timocrates and Philomathes Of Orationsand Tropicks one Book The Second Syntax Of concluding Orations to Zeno in one Book of primary Sillogisins wanting Demonstration to Zeno one Book of the Solution of Sillogisms one Book of Fallacious Orations to Pasylus Of the Speculations of Syllogisms Of Introductory Sillogisms in Answer to Zeno in three Books Of the false Figures of Sillogisms Sillogistical Orations by way of Analysis in such as wanted Demonstration that is Tropical Questions to Zeno Philomathes The Third Syntax Of incident Orations to Athenades In Answer to the Conjunctives of Amenius The Fourth Syntax Of Hypotheses to Meleager Hypothetical Orations relating to Introduction Hypothetical Speculations falsly superscrib'd to Alexander Of Expositions to Leodamus The Fifth Syntax Of Introduction to Palshood of Fallacy to Aristocreon In answer to those who believe True and False to be the same thing In answer to those that analize a false Oration by way of Division to Aristocreon Two Demonstrations that Infinities cannot be divided An Answer to the Objections to the Divisions of Infinite of the Solution of false Oration to Aristocreon A Solution of Hedyllus Hypotheses's to Aristocreon and Apellas The Seventh Syntax In answer to those that affirm a false Oration has false Assertions of Negation to Aristocreon Negative Orations to Gymnasius of pitiful Oratory to Stesagoras of Orations against Suppositions and of Quiescents of Involv'd to Aristobulus of Latent to Athenades The Eighth Syntax Of Profitable to Menacrates of Orations consisting of Infinite and Finite to Pasylus of the Argument call'd Outis to Epicrates The Ninth Syntax Of Sophisms to Heraclides and Pollis of ambiguous Logical Orations in five Books to Dioscorides In answer
Fool Do I intend to banish from my School To which Mentor rising up immediately made this suddain Repartee This having heard the other briskly rose Disdains the Speaker and away he goes He seems to have born impatiently the approach of his last End as one that had this Expression frequently in his Mouth Nature that forms dissolves the frame as soon And thus we dye e're Life is well begun Now hearing that Antipater had killed himself by taking a draught of Poyson his Example encouraged him to do the like to the end he might anticipate the hour of his Death and to that purpose turning toward those that had told him the Story Give me a Potion too said he What Potion answered they A draught of Honied Wine cry'd he 'T is reported that there happened a great Eclipse of the Moon after his Death as if the most beautiful of all the Celestial Luminaries next the Sun had seemed to sympathize with Men for his Loss Apollodorus relates in his Chronicles that he departed this Life in the fourth Year of the Hundred seventy second Olympiad We find some Epistles of his to Ariarathes King of Cappadocia Whatever else was attributed to him was written by some of his Scholars for there is nothing of his own Writing extant Moreover we made him the following Epigram in Logadic and Archebulian Measure Tell me my Muse why dost thou teaz Me thus to chide Carneades Such an illiterate Fop as yet He understood not Nature's Debt Nor could find out the Reason why Men Rational should fear to dye An Vlcer in his Lungs begun Made him a walking Skeleton Whose putrid Fumes affect the Brain And down descend in slimy Rain A constant Feaver and a siow Retards deaths smart and suddain Blow Yet at these Symptoms he ne're starts But damns Physicians and their Arts. Mean time Antipater had quaff't In great distress a poisoned Draught Which having heard t' himself he laugh'd Then jocund to his Friends said he Give me a Dose too such another With equal swiftness Life to smother Dull Nature why so flegmatick That I must for Assistance seek When thou beginnest thou should'st be quick Poor silly Nature thus in vain Building and pulling down again While we have so short time to strive 'T is hardly worth our time to live Thus Bantring Nature e're he went To Staygian Shades himself he bent It is reported that being intent upon his Meditations he took so little notice of a dimness in his Sight to which he was very subject that one day not being able to see and having commanded the Boy to bring him a Candle so soon as he had brought it and told him it was upon the Table he bid him read on then as if it had been Night We find that he had several Disciples among whom was Clitomachus the most excellent of all the rest of whom we shall speak the very next in order There was also one more Carneades an Elegiac Poet who nevertheless was a Person little valued by reason of the meanness of his Stile The LIFE of CLITOMACHVS CLITOMACHVS a Carthaginan was called in the Language of his Country Asdrubal and was wont to argue Philosophically in his own Language among his Countrymen He travelled to Athens at forty years of Age and became a Hearer of Carneades who observing his Industry and Sedulity caused him to be instructed in Learning and took particular Care of him Wherein he attain'd to such a degree of Knowledge that he wrote above four Hundred Volumes and succeded Carneades upon whose Sayings he greatly enlarged in his Writings He principally embraced the Doctrine of the three chief Sects viz. The Academics the Peripateties and the Stoics But Timon was an inveterate Enemy to the Academics and therefore takes all occasions sharply to inveigh against 'em so that Clitomachus could not escape him as for Example Nor must I here omit that prating Fool Chief of the stupid Academic School And thus we have hitherto spoken of the Philosophers descended from Plate let us now come to the Peripatetics descended from Plato of whom Aristotle was the Chief The End of the fourth Book Diogenes Laertius Containing the Lives Opinions and Apophthegms Of those that were most Famous in PHILOSOPHY The Fifth Book Translated from the Greek by R. Kippax M. A. The LIFE of ARISTOTLE ARISTOTLE the Son of Nicomachus and Phaestras was a Native of the City of Stagyra now called Liba Nova As for Nicomachus he derived himself from one of the same Name Nicomachus the Son of Machaon the Son of Esculapius as Hermippus reports in his Treatise of Aristotle He spent a good part of his Years with Amyntas King of Macedon with whom he liv'd partly as a Physician partly upon the Score of that Friendship and Kindness which the Prince had for him This is he who among all the vast number of Plato's Disciples arrived to the most eminent degree of Honour He was of a moderate Stature a shrill squeaking Voice slender Legs and Pink-Ey'd as Timotheus recounts in his Book of Lives He always went very decently clad wearing Rings upon his Fingers his Garments of fine Materials and his Hair trimmed He had a Son called Nicomachus by Herpilis his Concubine as the same Timotheus relates He withdrew himself in Plato's Life-time from the Academy Which was the Reason that Plato said of him Aristotle has done by us like young Colts that lift up their heels and kick against their Damms Hermippus relates That Xenocrates was head of the Academic School when Aristotle was deputed by the Athenians Embassador to Philip but returning home and finding that the School was still in other hands than his own he made choice of a Place to walk in in the Lycaeum where he accustom'd himself so much to walk to and fro while he instructed his Disciples that he was from thence called the Peripatetic or the Walker Others report the original of this Name to have proceeded from hence For that Aristotle attending upon Alexander who had been a long time Sick and upon his Recovery was wont to walk up and down that he might have an opportunity to exercise himself made it his business to observe the motion of the young Prince to whom he discoursed all the while But as soon as the number of his Hearers encreased then he sate down when he taught saying of Xenocrates 'T would be a shame that I should silent walk And suffer still Xenocrates to talk After that he propounded some Proposition in Philosophy upon which he exercised their Wits not forgetting at the same time to instruct 'em in the Art of Oratory Not long after he took a Journey to visit the Eunuch Hermias Tyrant of the Atamensians with whom as some say he went to sport himself in his Male Amours others That he was nearly related to him by the Marriage of his Daughter or at least of his Niece as Demetrius the Magnesian reports in his Book of the Poets and equivocal Writers
The same Author writes that Hermias was a Bithynian who killed his Master and then ●surped his Authority However Aristippus relates this otherwise in his Treatise of the Delights of the Ancients saying That Aristotle was in Love with Pythais Hermias's Concubine whom when Hermias had surrender'd to his Embraces he married to her and for Joy offered Sacrifice to the Woman as the Athenians did to Ceres of Elensina and That he wrote a Paean or Hymn in her Praise intituled the Inside From thence he retired into Macedon to King Philip where he made his abode after he had received his Son Alexander into his Tuition Which gave him an opportunity to request 'em that they would be pleased to restore his Native Country to its former Liberty and Splendour as having been ruined by the Wars of Philip the Father of Alexander Which when he had obtained he fram'd Laws for his City under the form of a Common-wealth He also ordain'd certain Rules and Constitutions for the Government of his School in Imitation of Xenocrates of which one among the rest was to elect a Head-Master once every ten Years At length finding that Alexander had acquired no small Benefit by his Precepts and that he had made him greatly beholding to him he resolved to return to Athens after he had recommended his Nephew Callisthenes the Olynthian to Alexander's Favour Of whom they report that upon his presuming to speak more peremptorily to the Prince than became him and little regarding his Obedience to his Commands he was reproved by him in the words of a little Distick admonishing him to take Care how he behaved himself for that if he did not change his manners it might chance to cost him his Life The Distick was this The words thou speak'st no Mortal can endure I fear thy Life 's not in this World secure Which happened to be a true Prophecy for being discovered to have been in the Conspiracy of Hermolaus against Alexander's Life he was carried about in an Iron Cage wherein being at length over-run with Nastiness and Lice he was thrown to a hungry Lyon and so ended his miserable days Now after Aristotle was come to Athens and had taught in that City thirteen Years he went without disclosing his intentions to Chalcis for that he was accus'd of Impiety by Eurymedon the Inquisitor or rather Over-seer of the sacred Mysteries tho' Phavorinus in his Historical Oglio reports him to have been summoned by Demophilus because he had made a Hymn in Praise of Hermias and caused this following Epigram to be engraved upon one of the Statues in the Temple of Delphos This Man the Impious Persian Tyrant slew Impious indeed since to the Gods untrue Not with his Launce in lawful Combat slain But by the treacherous Hand of Friendship fain'd So that being almost out of hopes to save himself as Eumolus says in his fifth Book of Histories he poysoned himself at Chalcis and dyed in the seventieth Year of his Age. The same Author avers That he was not Plato's Hearer till he was thirty Years of Age whereas it is certain that he was his Disciple at seventeen Now the Hymn for which he was questioned was this Tho' difficult are Virtues ways And few find Clews to trace the Maze Yet once o'ercome this tedious strife A Relish gives to human Life This made the Grecians for thy sake The greatest hardships undertake Their Courage led them to outface A thousand Deaths for thine Embrace Not glittering Gold that stands the Test Or Love of Parents or of Rest Can equal that Immortal Fruit By thee produc'd from Heavenly Root For thee that mighty Son of Jove In Blooming Youth express'd his Love Made Monsters feel his Conquering Hand And wearied Juno to Command Nor did fair Leda's Twins give place Whose valiant acts confirmed their Race Achilles Ajax forc'd their Fates And storm'd Hell's Adamantine Gates Atarnians for thy Radiant Light Brave Hermias depriv'd of Sight To set his Contemplation free And raise his Soul to Ecstasie Things Poets fain'd or Fools believ'd Were not so great as he atchiev'd But could my Muse describe his Mind My verse with Jove might favour find For constant Friendship he alone A model to the World was known With Love like his I 'll sing his Praise And Altars to his Friendship raise Time Marble Monuments may wast But Verse and Friendship ever last This was Aristotle's Hymn in Praise of Hermias for which his Accusation Flight and Poysoning himself produced the following Epigram of our own Eurymedon the Priest deeming his Grief assail'd By Traytor Aristotle for that reason Against the Gods accus'd him of High Treason Th' Offender knew the Crime could not be Bail'd And therefore saves himself by speedy Flight To what Intent For he could but have dy'd Not so for Hangmen he could not abide So Drowned Life in deadly Aconite So strange a way he found and thought it best To vanquish so th' unjust officious Priest Nevertheless Phavorinus in his Historical Oglio replied That finding himself accused of Impiety he wrote a Rhetorical Defence for himself and that he utter'd this Distick in Athens From Pear-trees Pears and Figs from Fig-trees shoot Athens the Tree th' Athenians are the Fruit. Apollodorus relates in his Chronicle that he was born in the first year of the Ninty ninth Olympiad that he came to Plato in the Seventeenth year of his Age and lived with him twenty Years without ever budging out of the School Then he travelled to Mytelene at what time Eubulus was Archon or chief Magistrate of Athens which was in the fourth Year of the Hundred and eighth Olympiad But Plato dying in the first Year of the same Olympiad under the Government of Theophilus he went to Hermias with whom he remained three Years when Pythagoras was Archon he went to Philip at what time Alexander was not above fifteen Years of Age in the second Year of the Hundred and ninth Olympiad After which he returned to Athens in the second year of the hundred and Eleventh Olympiad where for thirteen years together he taught in the Lycaeum Lastly he withdrew himself from thence into Chalcis in the third year of the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad where he fell sick and dyed at the Age of sixty three Years or very near it at the same time that Demosthenes died in Calabria and that Philocles was Governour in Athens It is reported that he fell under Alexander's displeasure by reason of the Conspiracy of Callisthenes against him and that to vex him he preferred Anaximenos and sent Presents to Xenocrates Not was it possible for him as well as it was for other Men to avoid the Quipps and Girds of envious Men and among the rest of Theocritus the Shiot who speaks of him after the following manner To Hermias a noble Tomb he rais'd And with another dead Eubulus grac'd But what was in ' em Why to tell ye Troth As empty as his empty Noddle both Nor is Timon