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
in his various History he died in a Litter upon the Road where Antigonus himself was coming to meet him and bear him Company However after his Death we displayed him to the World in these nipping Verses of our own Bion the Man whom Soythian Earth On Borysthenian Banks gave Birth When he all herds of Sects had tryed The Gods themselves at last denied In which if fix'd I would presage Him Virtuoso of his Age. But long he could not thus persist An Accident dispers'd the Mist And made him surcease to pursue Thoughts surely false tho' seeming true A lingring Sickness on him seiz'd And neither Drink nor Diet pleas'd His Sight grown dim and short his Breath sure Symptoms of approaching Death He that the Gods call'd Sons of Whores with Prayers and Tears their aid implores He that at sight of Temples smil'd And scornfully their Rites revil'd With Superstition now oregrown No Zeal can please him like his own Their Altars oft by him despis'd With adoration now are priz'd With far-fetch'd Gums and rich Perfumes To expiate his Guilt presumes Such strange Effects works Big ot Fear Now Godâ— can Smell as well as Hear His Neck stoops down to bear whole loads Of Old Wives Charms and parched Toads His wrists the Philter'd Bracelet binds And strong Perswasion Reason Blinds White-Thorn and Laurel deck his Gates Vncertain Spells for certain Fates A thousand Tricks he 'd gladly try Rather than once submit to dye Confounded Sot to take such Pain To fashion Gods for thine own Gain As if that Gods must then be made Only when Bion wants their Aid All this too late when parch'd to Cole And nothing left but only Soul Nothing remains for thee to do But the Infernal God to woe And he no doubt will make thee room When thou shalt cry Great Bion's come We find that there were ten Bions in all the first was a Proconnesian in the time of Pherecydes the Syrian of whose Writing we have ten Treatises The second was a Syracusian who wrote a tract of Rhetoric The third was he whose Life we have exposed The fourth was an Abderite a follower of Democritus who wrote of the Mathematics in the Attic and Ionic Dialect and the first who affirm'd that there were Regions where there was six Months of Day and six Months Night together The fifth was a Native of Soli who wrote the Ethiopic History The sixth was a Rhetorician of whose Writings we have nine Books every one under the name of a particular Muse The seventh was a Lyric Poet. The eighth a Statuary of Miletum of whom Polemo makes mention the ninth a Tragic Poet of the number of those whom we call Tarsicks And the tenth a Statuary of Clazomenia or Chio of whom Hipponax makes mention THE LIFE OF LACYDES LACYDES a Native of Cyrene was the Son of Alexander Head of the new Academy succeeding Arcesilaus a Person certainly of an exquisite severity and one that had a number of Scholars that followed his Precepts From his Youth he was much addicted to study but very Poor which made him the more complaisant and delightful in Conversation 'T is reported that he had a custom to fix his Seal upon the Keyhole of his Buttery and then threw the Ring into the Buttery again through a small slit in the Door that no Body might get to his Victuals but himself Which his Servants observing did the same as he did for they took off the Seal stole his Meat then fixing the Impression of his Seal upon the Lock threw the Key into the Buttery again which little Theft though they frequently practised yet could they never be caught But now Lacydes being Head of the new Academy retired to the Garden which King Attalus caused to be made where he set up his School and call'd it Lacydion from his own Name He was the only Person who in his Life surrendered the Charge of his School to another for they report that he turned it over to two Phoceans Teleclus and Evander to whom succeeded Hegesinus a Pergamenian and from Hegesinus Carneades The chiefest of his Repartees were these Attalus sent for him one day to come to him to whom he returned for answer That Images were to be view'd afar off To one that check'd another for studying Geometry in his old Age and crying to him Is this a time to be learning Lacydes replied When wouldst thou have him learn then after he is Dead As to his death he ended his days presently after he was made chief of the School which was in the fourth Year of the Hundred thirty fourth Olympiad after he had spent six and twenty Years in the Schools He died of a Palsy which he got with excessive Drinking Which was the reason we gave him the following Epigram All the report about the Country goes Friend Lacydes how Bacchus bound thy toes And haul'd thee bound to Hells infernal Gate Where then he left thee overcharg'd in Pate What Riddle 's this for Riddle it must be When chearful Wine sets all the Members free That 's the Mistake for Bacchus did not bind him He only found him bound and so resign'd him The LIFE of CARNEADES CARNEADES the Son of Epicomus or according to Alexander in his Book of Successions the Son of Philocomus was a native of Cyrene He diligently employed his time in reading the Books of Speusippus and other Stoics which having done he was not readily drawn to consent to their opinions though if he were constrained to oppose 'em he did it with all the Modesty imaginable as he that was wont to say unless Chrysippus were I could not be He was wonderfully studious more especially in moral Philosophy for of natural Philosophy he made no great reckoning Nay he was so intent at his Study that he would not allow himself leisure to Comb his hair and pair his Nails So that at length his Discourses were so Sinewy in matters of Philosophy that the Orators flocked from all parts to his School on purpose to hear him Besides he had a very strong and sonorous Voice insomuch that the head of the Colledge sent to him not to speak so loud to whom he sent word that he should send him a Measure for his Voice upon which the Principal replied that Carneades had answered wisely and to the purpose For that the Auditory was the measure that set Bounds to the Voice However he was a violent Man and almost insupportable in his Disputes and therefore never cared to appear at great Meetings and Festivals It happened that Mentor a Bithynian fell in Love with his Concubine as Phavorinus in his Miscellanies reports which made him so angry that he could not refrain to give him a sharp Reprimand in the following Verses Within these Walls I see a Letcheroâ—â— Knave An old decripit fornicating Slave So like to Mentor both in Speech and Chins That they who saw 'em both would swear 'em Twins Him good for nothing but to play the
that was sold That if any Man put out the Eye of him that had but one he should lose both his That where a Man never planted he should never take away if he did the Crime to be punish'd with death That it should be death for a Magistrate to be taken in drink Homer's Poems he ordain'd to be transcrib'd in such a Contexture that where the first verse ended the next should begin So that Solon illustrated Homer beyond Pisistratus as Diochidas testifies in his fifth Book of Megaries He was the first that call'd the Thirtieth day of the Month 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Old and the New And first ordain'd the number of nine principal Magistrates to pronounce Sentence as Apollodorus relates in his Second Book of Legislators In a certain Sedition that happen'd he would neither side with the Citizens nor the Country People nor the Seamen Among the rest of his Apothegms he was wont to say That Speech was the Image of Deeds That he was a true King who was strongest in Power and that the Laws were like to Spiders Webs which held whatever was light and weak but were easily snapt asunder by what was big and ponderous That Speech was seal'd up by Silence and Silence by Opportunity He compar'd the Favourites of Tyrants to Counters for that as they sometimes made the number greater sometimes lesser so were Favourites advanc'd or disgrac'd by the Tyrant at his pleasure Being ask'd Why he made no Law against Parricides He reply'd Because he despair'd of meeting any such Criminals To the Question Which was the best way for a Man to preserve himself from doing injury He answer'd If they who were unprovok'd had the same sence of the injustice as they who were injur'd He was also wont to say That Plenty sprang from Wealth and that Plenty begat Contempt He advis'd the Athenians to regulate the days according to the course of the Moon And forbid Thespis to Act or Teach the making of Tragedies as an unprofitable and fabulous sort of Learning So that when Pisistratus wounded himself he cry'd out I know his Instructors Among the public Admonitions which he scatter'd among Men according to Apollodorus in his Treatise of the Sects of Philosophers these were the Principal To look upon Virtue and Probity to be more faithful than an Oath Not to tell a Lye To follow noble and generous Studies Not hastily to enter into friendship but the choice made not rashly to break it Then to govern when a Man has learnt to be governed To give Counsel not the most acceptable but most wholesom To be guided by Reason and Judgment Not to converse with bad Society To honour the Gods And reverence our Parents They report also that upon Mimnormus's writing the following lines Vnhappy Man who free from cares and pain And Maladies that seek for cure in vain To sixty years of age can seldom reach Er'e death the swift Career of Age impeach gave him this smart Reprimand I hear thy sad complaint but leave it out Nor take it ill that we advis'd thee to 't Or else enlarge and write That cannot reach To eighty years e're Death his course impeach Other Admonitions also he gave in Verse of which these are recorded to be part Beware for wicked Man must still be watch'd Lest secret mischief in his heart be hatch'd When smooth he speaks and with a smile as fair As new blown flowers exhaling fragrant Air. Man's double Tongue can flatter or can howle When prompted by a black corrupted Soul. Moreover most certain it is that he wrote partly Laws partly Speeches partly Admonitions to himself as also concerning the Common-wealths of Salamine and Athens above five thousand Heroic Verses besides Iambics and Epodes And at length upon his Statue this Epigram was engrav'd She that the pride of unjust Medians tam'd Fair Salamis for Naval Combat fam'd More famous she for Solon's Birth hecame Whose Sacred Laws immortaliz'd his Name He was in the flower of his Age much about the forty sixth Olympiad in the third year of which he was Prince of the Athenians as Sosicrates affirms at what time also he made his Laws He dy'd in Cyprus aged fourscore years with this Command that his Bones should be translated to Salamine and being burnt to Ashes should be sow'd over the Island For which reason Cratinus in Chiron introduces him speaking after this manner This Island I possess so fame resounds Sown o're the fertile Telamonian Bounds There is also extant an Epigram of our own in our Book of Epigrams which we formerly Consecrated to the Memories of all the Wise and Learned Men deceas'd Fam'd Solon's Body Cyprian fire did burn His Bones at Salamis are turn'd to Corn. His Soul into a nimble Chariot made The Tables of his Law to Heav'n conveigh'd Not to be wonder'd at for well they might The weight of all his Laws was then so light He is also reported to have been the first who utter'd that Apothegm Nothing to Excess And Dioscorides in his Commentaries relates that as he was weeping and wailing for the death of his Son whose name we could never yet understand to a friend of his that reprov'd him saying What does this avail thee He reply'd Therefore I weep because it avails me nothing More than this we find nothing in his Life remarkable but only that the following Epistles are said to be his Solon to Periander THou writest me word of several that lye in wait for thy Life I must tell thee that shouldst thou resolve to put 'em all to death 't would nothing avail thee For it may be one of those persons that conspires against thee is one of whom thou hast the least suspicion either jealous of his own Life or condemning thee and resolving thy destruction not only for thy pusillanimous fear which renders thy suspicions dangerous to all Men but to gratifie his fellow Citizens Therefore 't is thy best way to forbear to avoid the cause of thy fears But if thou art resolv'd upon violence consider which is strongest whether thy own foreign Guards or the Trained Force of thy own Subjects For then having no Body to fear there will be no need of Rigour or Exilement Solon to Epimenides NEither had my Laws been of much advantage to the Athenians neither hadst thou by repealing 'em done the City any good For neither God nor the Lawgiver alone can be profitable to a Common-weal but they who govern the Multitude as they please themselves Who if they sway the People as they ought then God and the Laws may do good but if wrong they will be but of little use 'T is true perhaps my Laws were not better than others yet they that refus'd to observe 'em did a great injury to the Common-wealth And such were they who would not oppose Pisistratus in his design to invade the Government They would not believe me when I foretold the Truth but more credit was given to them that
Money he delivered the one half of his Gold to Megabyztes the Priest of Diana to keep till his Return but if he never came back for the consecration of a Statue to the Goddess Of the other half he sent a good part in Presents and Offerings to Delphos From thence he accompany'd Agesilaus into Greece being call'd home to command in the Theban War at what time the Lacedemonians kindly entertain'd him and afforded him all necessary Accommodations After that taking his leave of Agesilaus who retir'd to Scilluntes in the Territory of Elea not far distant from the City whither a certain ordinary Woman called Philesia as Dentetrius the Magnesian relates together with two Children Gryllus and Diodorus which were also said to be Twins as Dinarchus reports in his Book of Divorce against Xenophon Soon after Megabyzus coming to attend the public Solemnities of the Place he receiv'd his Money with which he purchased a piece of Land and consecrated the same to the Goddess lying upon the River Selenus which bare the same name with that which ran by the Walls of Ephâ—sus There he spent his time in Hunting feasting his Friends and writing Histories Though Dinarchus affirms that his House and Lands were the free gift of the Lacedemonians Philopidas also the Spartan sent him several Dardanian Captives of which he dispos'd as he thought fit himself At what time the Eleans marching against Scilluntes while the Lacedaemonians delay'd their assistance took the Country But then the Sons of Xenophon privately withdrew themselves with a small retinue and came to Lepreum Xenophon himself also first retir'd to Elis then to Lepreum to his Sons and thence all together getting safe to Corinth there settl'd themselves At the same time the Athenians having resolv'd to assist the Lacedaemonians he sent his Sons to Athens to serve in the Wars For they had been both bred up at Sparta as Diocles relates in his Lives of the Philosophers As for Diodorus he escap'd out of the Battel without performing any remarkable Atchievment But Gryllus serving among the Cavalry for it was at the Battle of Mantinea after he had behav'd himself with a more than ordinary courage dy'd valiantly in the Throng of his Enemies as Euphorus relates in the five and twentieth Book of his History Ctephisodotus then leading the Horse and Agesilaus commanding the Foot And the same Fate befalling the Theban General for Epaminondas was slain in the same fight It is reported That when the news of the defeat was brought to Xenophon he was then offering Sacrifices with a Crown upon his Head at what time when he heard that his Son Gryllus was slain he laid aside his Crown but afterwards finding by the continuance of the Relation that he had bravely fought and dy'd honourably he put on his Crown again Some report that he did not so much as shed a Tear only sigh'd out these words I know that my Son was not Immortal Aristotle also tells us That an infinite number of Persons wrote the Praises of Gryllus and bestow'd Epitaphs upon him partly to celebrate his Name and partly to gratifie his Father Hermippus moreover asserts That Socrates wrote an Encomium of Gryllus which Timon thus derides A sorry Duad or a Leash perhaps Of Doggrel Distichs he together scrapes To claw kind Xenophon or else to please His Friend and Scholar bawling Aeschines Xenophon flourish'd in the fourth year of the ninety fourth Olympiad and he accompany'd Cyrus in his Expedition at what time Xenaretus govern'd Athens a year before the death of Socrates He dy'd according to Stesiclides in his Epitome of the Archontes and Olympiaes in the first year of the hundred and fifth Olympiad during the Government of Callidemides at what time Philip the Son of Amyntas reign'd in Macedon And Demetrius the Magnesian affirms That he was far strick'n in years at the time of his decease A person of great Vertue and among his other Excellencies a great Lover of Horsemanship Hunting and Warlike Discipline as is manifest by his Writings He was very Religious a constant Offerer of Sacrifices one who was able to judge of Religion and an exact Emulator of Socrates in every thing He wrote about forty several Treatises the Ascent of Cyrus annexing a Prologue to every particular Book but not any to the Whole the Education of Cyrus the Transactions of the Greeks and several Commentaries his Symposium and Oeconomics He wrote also of Horsemanship and of Hunting an Apology for Socrates of Seeds Hiero or the Tyrant Agesilaus the Common-wealth of Athens and Lacedaemon Which latter Demetrius the Magnesian denies to be Xenophon's It is reported also that when it was in his power to have stifl'd the Works of Thucydides he was the first who made 'em public to the World for the honour of the Author He was call'd the Athenian Muse for the sweetness of his Style For which he was envy'd by Plato as we shall declare in his Life Nor could we our selves refrain his commendations in the following Epigrams By Cyrus call'd to assist his bold Ascent The valiant Xenophon not only went But back returning he so bravely fought As one that for Immortal honour sought Then writing his bold acts he plainly shew'd How much to Socrates his Valour ow'd Then this upon his Death Tho' Thee Great Xenophon thy Native Soil For Cyrus sake condemn'd to long Exile More kindly far by Corinth entertain'd A happy life thou lead'st where mildness reign'd In some other Authors I have read that he flourish'd about the Eighty ninth Olympiad together with the rest of the Socraetics On the other side Ister asserts that he was banish'd by the Decree of Eubulus but that afterwards the same person gave his Voice for his return home Of his name there were seven in all Himself the first The second an Athenian the Brother of Pythostratus who wrote a Poem entitl'd Theseis as also the Life of Epaminondas and Pelopidas The third was a Physician of Coos A fourth who compil'd the History of Hannibal The fifth a Collector of Fabulous Prodigies The sixth a Parian and a famous Statuary The seventh a writer of Comedies after the Ancient strain The LIFE of AESCHINES Aeschines an Athenian as some say was the Son of Charinus whose Trade it was to make Sawcidges as others assert of Lysanias industrious from his Infancy And therefore he never forsook Socrates Which occasion'd that saying of his Master The Sawcidge-makers Son is the only person that ever knew how to give us respect This was he as Idomeneus relates and not Crito who advis'd Socrates to make his escape out of Prison though Plato more a friend to Aristippus will have Crito to be the Author of that good Counsel However Aeschines was question'd for it and eagerly prosecuted by Menedemus the Eretrian because he had divulg'd several Dialogues under Socrates's name and which he pretended to have receiv'd from Xantippe Of which those that bear the Title of Acephali are very
lye in the hands of Philocrates the Son of Tisameâ—es And the let them make me such a Monument â—â— Arcesilaus Olympicus and Lyco shall thiâ—â—â— fitting Thus you may see by what we have already said he was a person of Note and for the Beauty Variety and Grace of his discourse worthy the Admiration of Posterity Nevertheless he was more addicted to the Study of the Natural Sciences than any other as being the most Ancient and that wherein the Greatest Wits had exercised their Ingenuities The LIFE of LYCO LYCO the Son of Astyanax of Troas was a person of great Eloquence and one that was every way fit to form and fashion the manners of young Men for he was wont to say That Shame and Praise were as requisite for Youth as the Bridle and Spur for Horses You may understand by some Touches what a great Person he was whether it were for Discourse or for the Interpretation of his own Conceptions For happening to speak of a Poor Virgin he said thus That a Poor Virgin who being arriv'd to ripe Years and in the Flower of her Age â—â—d lies at home in her Fathers House for â—â—â—â— of a Portion to marry her is an intolerable Burthen And therefore t is reported that Antigonus speaking of him compared the Nature of Men to the Nature of Pears saying that it was impossible to transport the Beauty and sweet Scent of one Pear into another or to exchange the Graces of this for the Endowments of that Man. And therefore in my Opinion we must seek for the true faculty of well expressing every thing in several Men as we do for the sweetness and goodness of Pears not all from one Tree Which was the Reason that some Men considering the sweetness of his Discourse put a G before the L and called him Glyco which signifies as much â— sweet Besides he was a Man that alwaâ—â— wrote different from himself such a Plenty of words he had at his command He often laught at those that repented themselves for having idl'd away theâ—e Youth without ever learning or improving their knowledge with a Resolution by their diligence for the future to repair the losses of their miss-spent time For said he They go about a thing which is almost impossible for that the one had too late repented their folly to think by wishes to repair the defects of their Negligence and they that betook themselves to Study in their old Age though they were not quite out of their wits yet they were next door by and resembled those that sought to see their faces iâ— troubl'd Waters or to find the Nature of a Right in a Crooked Line He was wont to say There were many that strove to out-doe one another at pleading and wrangling but few that ventur'd for the Olympic Crown And as for his Counsels the Athenians found Benefit of 'em more than once or twice There was never any Man more neat and curious in his Apparel than himself For as Hermippus reports he was wont to wear the most fashionable and the richest Stuffs he could buy so that his Effeminacy in that particular was almost Incredible However he was very much given to Exercise and preferred Wrestling before all others by which means he was very strong vigorous and lusty Antigonus the Carystian reports that in his younger days he was very feeble and tender of Body But having Convenience in his Country of Wrestling and hurling the Ball he omitted no means that might render a Man active and lusty He was always welcome to Attalus and Eumenes who with some few others held him in high Esteem and many times gave him signal Testimonies of their Royal Munificence Antigonus laboured by all ways imaginable to have had him in his House but all his Hopes and Contrivances fail'd him But he had such an Antipathy against Jerome the Peripatetic that he of all the Philosophers was the only Person who absented himself from the annual Solemnity to which they were invited because he would not come into his Enemies Company He governed the School forty two years from the day that Lyco surrendered up the Employment to him by his Will which was in the Hundred twenty seventh Olympiad Nor must I here forget to tell you that he was a hearer of Panthoedes the Logician He died in the Seventy fourth year of his Age being strangely tormented with the Gout as we have describ'd him in the following Epigram Fettered in Oily Rag and Cloâ—t Lyco long lay tormented with the Gout Till Death his Pain to ease Cur'd him at once of Life and his Disease But here 's the Wonder He that alive could hardly Crawl But still in danger of a Fall When dead and stiff ne'e stood to blunder But in the twinkling of an Eye To Pluto's Mansions in a Night could fly There were also several other Lyco's The first a Pythagorean the second himself the third a Writer of Verses and the fourth a Maker of Epigrams We have also recovered his last Will after much toil and diligent Search which was to this Effect My Will is if I cannot overcome the force of my present Distemper that my Estate shall be disposed as I hereby ordain First I give to Astyanax and Lyco my two Nephews all the Goods in my House unless what I have borrowed or taken upon Mortgage in Athens and what shall be expended upon the Solemnities of my Funeral As for what I have in the City and at Aegina I give it particularly to Lyco because he bears my Name and because we have liv'd long in great Friendship together as it was his duty to do because I have always looked upon him as my Son. I â— leave my walking place to my Friends and Familiars Bulo Callio Aristo Amphio Lyco Pytho Aristomachus Heroclius Lycomedes and to Lyco before-mentioned my Brothers Son. Moreover I desire Bulo and Callio and my other Friends to take Care that there be no want nor superfluity at my Funeral As for my part in Aegina let Lyco see it distributed after my Decease to the Youngmen to buy 'em Oil for their Exercises and that they may have an occasion to remember their Benefactor I would have him advise with Diophantes and Heraclides the Son of Demetrius where to set up my Statue As for my Estate in the City I desire Lyco to pay every Man his due and what Bulo and Callio shall have laid out upon my Funeral but for that Money let him charge it upon my Houshold Goods Let him satisfy my Physicians Pasithemis and Midas Persons highly deserving by reason of their great Skill and for the pains they took about me in my Sickness I give to Callinus's Son two fair Cups and to his Wife two pretious Stones and two Carpets the one Shagged the other smooth a Jacket and two Pillows that they may see we have not forgot 'em as far as it stood with our Honour I forgive Demetrins made free long since the Price of his
them were Servants to them For that fear was the Property of 〈…〉 Servant but wild Beasts kept men in â—…ear He had in him a very strange â—aâ—ulty of persuasion insomuch that he would take whom he would with his Conversation It is related how one Oâ—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 â— Charm there was in the Discourses of Diogenes There heard him also Phoâ—… Sirnamed the Good and Stilpon of Megâ—… and many other Persons of great Quality He is said to have died at aboâ—â— ninety years of Age But there are different accounts of his Death For sâ—… say that upon eating a raw Pourâ—â—â—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 Crâ—… as others call him saying in his Meliâ—… bicks thus That Sinopese is no more what he was Feeding abroad with Staff and folded Pâ—… He clapt his Lips to 's Teeth and bit his Breâ—… And flew to Jove So now Diogenes Thou art Joves Son indeed and Heavens Dâ—… 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
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
with a generous and Hospitable Person THE LIFE of BIAS BIAS of Priene was the Son of Teutamus and by Satyrus preferred before all the rest of the seven Wiseman Doris will not allow him to be born at Priene but says he was a Stranger But several affirm him to have been very Rich and Phanodicus tells us That he redeem'd the Messenian Virgins being taken Captive bred 'em at home as his own Daughters and then sent 'em back to their Parents with every one a Portion in mony Soon after the Golden Tripos being found as we have already declar'd with this Inscription To the Wisest Satyrus relates how that the Messenian Virgins but others and among the rest Phanodicus that their Parents came into the Assembly and declaring what he had done pronounced him the Wisest Man. Whereupon the Tripos was sent to Bias who beholding it declar'd Apollo to be wiser than himself and so refus'd it Others report that he Consecrated it to Theban Hercules for that either he was there born or else because Priene was a Colony of the Thebans which Phanodicus also testifies It is reported when Priene his native Country was besieged by Alyattes that Bias fatted two Mules for the nonce and drave 'em into the Enemies Camp. Which Alyattes seeing began to be amaz'd to see the pamper'd Beasts so plump and smooth However before he rais'd his Siege he resolv'd to send some person under the pretence of certain Propositions to spy the condition of the City But Bias well aware of the King's design having caus'd several heaps of Sand to be cover'd with Wheat led the Messenger about to satisfie his Curiosity Which being reported to the King he presently made a Peace with the Prieneans Soon after when the King sent for Bias to come to him Bid him said he go eat Onions and that would make him weep He is reported to have been a most notable pleader of Causes but that still he us'd the force of his Eloquence on the right side Which Demodocus intimated when he said that an Orator was to imitate the Prienaean manner of Pleading And Hipponax when he gave this applause to any one That he pleaded better than Bias of Priene His death happen'd after this manner He had in his old Age pleaded a Cause for a friend of his After he had done being tired with declaming he rested his Head in the Bosom of his Sister's Son. In the mean time his Adversary having pleaded against him the Judges gave Sentence for his Client But then so soon as the Court rose he was found dead in the Bosom of his Nephew The City however made a sumptuous Funeral for him and caus'd this Anagram to be inscrib'd upon his Monument This Marble by the fam'd Priene rear'd Iona's Glory covers here interr'd To which we may add another of our own For Bias this whom in a gentle Dream Hermes convey'd to the Elysian stream Yet not till Age upon his Hair had snow'd When spent with pleading in the sultry Crowd His friend's just Cause he went aside to rest His drooping Head against his Nephew's Breast Whence in a Trance expiring his last Breath He fell asleep into the Arms of Death He wrote concerning the Affairs of Iona more especially by what means it might preserve it self in a happy and flourishing condition to the number of two Thousand Verses in Heroic Measure The choicest of his Sentences were these To be complaisant and familiar among the People where we live as being that which begat both love and respect Whereas a haughty demeanour prov'd many times the occasion of much mischief That to be stout was the gift of Nature to advise what was profitable to a Man's Country was the gift of a Prudent Mind but that Wealth was to many the benignity of Fortune He accounted him unfortunate that could not brook misfortune and said it was a disease of the Soul to love and desire impossibilities and to be unmindful of other Mens miseries Being ask'd what was difficult He answer'd Generously to brook an alteration for the worse Going a Voyage once with certain irreligious Persons who in the height of a raging Tempest loudly invok'd the Gods Peace said he lest they come to understand that you are here Being ask'd by an irreligious person what irreligion was To a second question why he made no answer He reply'd Because thou askest me that which nothing concerns thee To the question what was pleasing to Men He answer'd Hope He said it was more easie to determine differences between Enemies than Friends For that of two Friends the one would prove an Enemy but of two Enemies the other would become a Friend To the question What was most delightful for a Man to do He answer'd To be always gaining He advis'd Men so to measure their lives as they that were to live either a long or a short time and so to love as if we were to hate His Admonitions were Slowly to undertake an intended design but to persist in what a Man has once resolv'd upon Not to let the Tongue run before the Wit as being a sign of madness To love Prudence To discourse of the Gods as they are Not to praise an unworthy person for the sake of his wealth To receive perswading not constraining Whatever good we do to ascribe it to the Gods To take wisdom for our provision in our Journey from Youth to Old Age as being the most certain and durable of all other Possessions Hipponax also makes mention of Bias and the morose Heraclitus gives him the highest Applause in these words Bias the Son of Teutamus was born at Priene much more esteem'd than all the rest And the Prienaeans consecrated a Temple to him by the name of Tentameion THE LIFE of CLEOBULUS CLeobulus the Lindian was the Son of Evagoras but as Doris relates a Carian And some there are who derive his descent from Hercules but that he excell'd the Hero in strength and beauty That he learn'd his Philosophy in Egypt and that he had a Daughter Cleobuline who compos'd several Enigmaes in Hexameter Verse Of whom also Cratinus makes mention in a Poem of the same name writing in the Plural Number Farther it is reported That he repair'd the Temple of Minerva at Athens built by Danaus He also compos'd several Songs and obscure Problems to the number of three thousand Verses And some affirm that he made the following Epigram upon Midas I am that Brazen Virgin fixed here To Midas Tomb that never hence must stir Who till the liquid waters cease to flow And the tall Trees in Woods forbear to grow Till Phoebus once forget his course to run And the pale Moon for sake her Mate the Sun Till springs of Rivers stopt their Streams no more Into the dry'd up Sea shall headlong pour Must here remain by a perpetual Doom To tell that Midas lies beneath this Tomb. This they confirm by the Testimony of Simonides where he cries out What Man
in his wits can be so impertinent as to applaud Cleobulus the Lindian for equalling a Statue in diuturnity to the course of Rivers Vernal Flowers the Beams of the Sun the Light of the Moon and Waves of the Sea For all these things says he are inferiour to the Gods but for a Stone how easily is it broken by mortal hands So that at last he calls Cleobulus in plain Terms a meer mad Man. Whence it is apparent that it was none of Homer's who as they say was many years before Midas There is likewise extant in Pamphila's Commentaries an Enigma of his in these words One Father has twelve Sons and each of these Has thirty various colour'd Sons apiece For some are white and some in black disguise Immortal too and yet not one but dies By which is meant the year His chiefest and most celebrated Sentences were these That ignorance and multitude of words predominates in the greatest part of Mankind whereas Opportunity and Season would suffice That vertue and honour ought to be our chiefest study and that we ought to avoid Vanity and Ingratitude That we ought to give our Daughters that Education that when they come to be married they should be Virgins in Age but Women in Prudence That we ought to be kind to our Friends to make 'em more our Friends and to our Enemies to gain their Friendship That we ought to beware being upbraided by our Friends and ensnared by our Enemies That when a Man goes abroad he should consider what he has to do and when he returns home what he has done That it was the duty of all Men to be more desirous to hear than speak and to be lovers of Instruction rather than Illiterate To restrain the Tongue from Slander and Back-biting fly injustice and advise the Public to the best advantage To refrain voluptuous Pleasure act nothing violently give Children good Education and reconcile Enmity Neither to flatter nor contend with a Woman in the presence of Strangers the one being a sign of Folly the other of Madness To marry among Equals for he that marries a Wife superiour to himself must be a slave to her Relations Not to be puft up with prosperity nor to despair in want and generously to brook the Changes of Fortune He dy'd an old Man in the Seventieth year of his Age and had this Epitaph engrav'd upon his Monument Wise Cleobulus was no sooner gone But Sea-girt Lindus did his loss bemoan There is also extant the following short Epistle of his to Solon Cleobulus to Solon MAny are thy Friends and all Mens doors are open to receive thee However I believe that Lindus being under a Democratical Government can never be inconvenient for Solon where he may live out of fear of Pisistratus beside that being a Sea Town he may be certain of the visits of his Friends from all part THE LIFE of PERIANDER PEriander the Corinthian was the Son of Cypselus of the Race of the Heraclidae He marry'd Lysida whom he himself call'd by the name of Melissa the Daughter of Procleus Tyrant of Epidaurum and Eristhenea the Daughter of Aristocrates and Sister of Aristodemus Which Procleus as Heraclides Ponticus witnesses in his Book of Government extended his Dominion almost over all Arcadia By her he had two Sons Cypselus and Lycophron of which the younger became a Wise Man the elder grew a meer Natural After some time in the height of his Passion he threw his Wise under the Stairs being then big with Child and spurn'd her to death incensed thereto by his Harlots which afterwards nevertheles he flung into the fire and burnt And then renounc'd his Son Lycophron and sent him into Corcyra for weeping at his Mother's Funeral However when he grew in years he sent for him again to invest him in the Tyranny while he liv'd Which the Corcyreans understanding resolved to prevent his design and so slew the young Prince At which Periander enrag'd sent their Children to Alyattes to be Eunuchiz'd But when the Ship arriv'd at Samos the Children upon their supplications to Juno were sav'd by the Samians Which when the Tyrant understood he dy'd for very anguish of mind being at that time fourscore years of Age. Sosicrates affirms That he dy'd before Croesus one and forty years before the forty ninth Olympiad Heredetus also reports That he was entertain'd by Thrasybulus Tyrant of the Milesians In like manner Aristippus in his first Book of Antiquities relates thus much farther concerning him How that his Mother Cratea being desperately in love with him privately enjoy'd him nothing scrupulous of the Crime But that when the Incest came to be discover'd he grew uneasie to all his Subjects out of meer madness that his insane Amours were brought to light Ephorus moreover tells us another Story That he made a Vow if he won his Chariot Race at the Olympic Games to offer up a Golden Statue to the Deity But when he had won the Victory he wanted money and therefore understanding that the Women would be all in their Pomp upon such a solemn approaching Festival he sent and despoil'd 'em of all their Rings and Jewels and by that means supply'd himself for the performance of his Vow Some there are who report That designing to conceal the Place of his Burial he made use of this Invention He commanded two young Men shewing 'em a certain Road to set forth in the night and to kill and bury him they met first after them he sent four more with command to kill and bury them and after those he sent a greater number with the same Orders by which means meeting the first he was slain himself However the Corinthians would not suffer his supposed Tomb to go without an Anagram in memory of so great a Person in these words For Wealth and Wisdom Periander fam'd Now Corinth holds the place where once he reign'd Close to the Shore he lies and that same Earth Conceals him now that gave him once his Birth To which we may add another of our own Ne'er grieve because thou art not Rich or Wise But what the Gods bestow let that suffice For here we see great Periander gone With all his Wealth and all his high Renown Extinct and in the Grave laid low for all His Art and Wit could not prevent his Fall. It was one of his Admonitions to do nothing for Money 's sake and to Princes that designed to reign securely to guard themselves with the good Will of their Subjects not with Arms. Being asked why he persisted to govern singly He answered Because 't was equally dangerous to resign whether willingly or by Compulsion Some of his Apothegms were these That Peace was a good thing Precipitancy dangerous That Democracy was better than Tyranny That Pleasure was Corruptible and Transitory but Honour Immortal In Prosperity said he be moderate in Adversity Prudent Be the same to thy Friends as well in their Misfortunes as in all their Splendour Be
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
carrying certain Children to a Show the Wind blew off his single Garment and discover'd him quite naked upon which the People giving a loud Shout he was order'd to be new clad as Demetrius the Magnesian relates For which Antigonus admiring him and becoming his Hearer ask'd him Wherefore he drew Water To whom I do not only draw Water said he Do I not dig Do I not endure the bitter hardship of cold Weather and all for the Love of Philosophy For Zeno put him to it and made him bring him a Half-peny a time out of his Labour and one time among the rest fetching out one of his small Pieces and shewing it among his intimate Friends Well said he this Cleanthes is able to maintain another Cleanthes if he would and yet they who have enough of their own cannot be content but they must be begging of others though not half such diligent Philosophers For which Reason Cleanthes was call'd another Hercules for he was a most indefatigable Student but very slow and dull but he surmounted his want of Parts by Labour and Industry which occasion'd Timon to give him a very ill Character What Bell-weather is that that struts along And fain would seem to head the gazing Throng Fondly conceited of his Eloquence Yet a meer Blockhead without Wit or Sence And therefore when he was jeer'd and laugh'd at by his Fellow-Disciples who call'd him Ass and Dolt he took all patiently saying no more but that he was able to bear all Zeno ' s Burthens Another time being upbraided for being timorous Therefore it is said he that I so seldom mistake And preferring his own miserable Life before the Plenty of the wealthy he said no more then this They toil at Tennis and I dig hard for my Living Sometimes as he was digging he would be chiding himself which Aristo over-hearing Who 's that said he thou art scolding withal An old Fellow reply'd the other smiling that has grey Hairs but no Wit. When it was told him that Arcesilans neglected to do as became him Forbear said he and do not blame the Man for though he talk against Duty yet he upholds it in Deeds To one that ask'd him what Instructions he should most frequently give his Son He repeated that Verse in Euripides Softly there softly gently tread To a certain Lacedaemonian that asserted Labour to be a Felicity falling into a loud Laughter he cry'd out Sure some great Man from high Extraction sprung Discoursing to a Young Man he ask'd him Whether he understood him or no Who answering Yes Why then said he do not I understand that thou dost understand When Sositheus put the following Sarcasm upon him in the Public Theatre Whom dull Cleanthes Follies drive like Oxen. He never alter'd his Countenance nor his Gesture which when the whole Pit took notice of they applauded Cleanthes and laugh'd at Sositheus as one that had spent his Jest in vain Whereupon the other begging his Pardon for the Injury he had done him he made Answer That 't would be ill done in him to take notice of a slight Injury when Hercules and Bacchus were so frequently injur'd by the Poets He compar'd the Peripatetics to Harps which though they yielded ne'er so pleasing a Sound yet never heard themselves It is reported That as he was openly maintaining the Opinion of Zeno that the Disposition and Inclinations might be discover'd by the Shape and Form of the Party certain abusive Young Men brought him an old Catamite that had been long worn out and ask'd him what he thought of his Inclinations Which he perceiving after a short Pause bid the Fellow be gone but as he was going he fell a sneezing whereupon he cry'd out Hold I smell him now he 's a Rascal To one that upbraided him with his Old Age Truly said he I am willing to depart but then again when I consider my self to be perfectly in Health and that I am still able to write and read methinks I am as willing to stay yet a little longer It is reported that he wrote down upon Potsherds and Blade-bones of Oxen the Sayings of Zeno for want of Money to buy Paper and by this means he grew so famous that though Zeno had several other Scholars Men of great Parts and Learning yet he was only thought worthy to succeed him in his School He left several most excellent Pieces behind him as his Treatises of Time of Zeno's Physiology in two Volumes Expositions of Heraclitus Four Books of the Senses of Art against Democritus against Aristarchus against Erillus of Natural Inclination two Volumes Antiquities of the Gods of the Gyants of Marriage of a Poet of Offices three Books of Council of Favour of Exhortation of the Virtues of the Art of Love of Honour of Glory of Ingenuity of Gorgippus of Malevolence of the Mind of Liberty of Politicks of Counsel of Law of Judicature of Education of the End of Things Noble of Actions and Business of Regal Dominion Symposiacs of Friendship That the Virtue of Men and Women is the same of Sophistry in Wise Men of Proverbs two Books of Pleasure of Property of Ambiguity of Logic of the Moods and Predicaments The manner of his Death was thus It happen'd that his Gums swell'd and began to putrifie whereupon the Physicians order'd him to abstain from Meat for two Days which recover'd him so well again that the Physicians allow'd him to eat what he pleas'd But he was so far from making Use of that Liberty that on the other side he was resolv'd to eat nothing at all saying He was at the End of his Journey 't was to no purpose and so starv'd himself to Death after he had liv'd to Zeno's Years of which he had been Nineteen his Scholar The manner of whose Exit occasions the following Epigram of our own Cleanthes I applaud but Death much more That would not force him to the Stygian Shoar For he was old and weak nay more then so Death knew th' Old Man knew his own time to go Death therefore let him stay till he believing H' had liv'd too long himself gave over living The LIFE of SPHAERVS SPHAERVS the Bosphorian was a Hearer of Cleanthes after Zeno's Decease who after he had made a considerable Progress in his Studies went to Alexandria where he made his Addresses to Ptolomy Philopater At what time a Dispute arising upon the Question Whether a wise man ever made any doubt of any Thing and Sphaerus maintaining That no wise man could be deceiv'd the King desirous to convince him caus'd certain Pomegranates made of Wax to be set before him with which when Sphaerus was deluded taking one upon his Trencher to eat it the King cry'd out That he had been led by the Nose with an idle and false Imagination To whom Sphaerus made this ready Repartee That he knew they were no Pomegranates however 't was probable they might be Pomegranates Being accus'd by Mnesistratus for that he deny'd Ptolomy to