Preface

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THE
HISTORY
O F
PHI L O S O P H Y:
CONTAINING
TheLives,Opini6ns, Adions and Dlfcourfes
O F T H E
PHILOSOPHERS
Of every SECT.
Illuftrated with the E F FICIES of divers of Them.
BY
THOMAS STANLEY. Efq;
To which is Added the Life of the Author^ never before ^uhlijhed.
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Printed for W, Battershy at Thavyh Inn-gate^ near St. Andrew^s Church in Holiourn^ Hugh Newman^ Tho, Cockerill^ Herbert Walwyn in the Poultry^ and A. and J. Churchil in Pater^Nofier^Row. MDCCl.
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- I HliTORICAL .
MEOIOAL j
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To my
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UNCLE
JOHN MARSHAM^fq
SIR,
I Send this Book to you, becaufe you firft direfted me to this Defign. The Learned Gaffendus was my Precedent ; whom neverthelefe I have not follow’d in his Partiality: For he, tho’ limited to a Single Perfon, yet giveth himfelf Liberty of Enlargement, and taketh occafion from this Subjedltomake the World acquainted with many excellent Dilquifitions of his own. Our Scope being of a greater Latitude, affords lefs Opportunity to favour any Particular ; whilft there is due to every one the Commendation of their own Deferts. This Bene¬ fit I hope to have received frorn the variety of the Subjedl; but far more are thofe I owe to your Encouragement, which if I could wifli left, I fliould upon this Occafion, that there might feem to have been expreffed fomething of Choice and Inclination in this Adion, which is now but an inconfidera- ble Eflfect of the Gratitude of.
Dear Uncle^
Tour mofl affeBionate Nephew^ and ’
Humble Servant^
i
TnbMAs Standley.
PREFACE.,
• Laert, lit. ThAlct.
f Not Leophan- tum Gorfiadem as the Inter¬ preters render • So Saidas
KaCo, Ctof
by which La¬ ertius is ex¬ plained con¬ trary to the In¬ terpreters.
PREFACE
Hlftoty {which by Expounding aUions paji teachelh to regulate the future, and furnijheth us with Wifdom at the cofl of other Mens Experience) is not unlike E aiming: Their [cope is the fa?ne-, and as in the latter H argues want of Skill to look upon the whole Draught with an indifferent eye, but to feleU and inf Ji upon fame chief particular is proper to an Artift fo he who refs 1 ff- tisjied with the general Relation of Affairs, (not fixing upon fome eminent Ablor in that Story) lojeth its greatef benefit ft nee what is mofl particular, by its nearer affinity with us, hath greatefl influence upon m.
hence it is that there are two kinds of Hifory ; one reprefents general affairs of State the other gives account of patticular perfons, whofe Lives have rendred them Eminent. Homer hath given an Effay of each-, of the firf in his Iliads, a relation of a War betwixt different Nations of the fecond in his OdyfTes, confi¬ ned to the Perfon of Ulyfles.
Now the life of Man being either pra£lick, bufiedin civil Affairs of Peace and War, or Contemplative, retir'd from pubiick Bufinffs to Speculation and Study of Wifdom, Divine or Humane, it follows that this perfonal Hifory be twofold like wife, defer ibing either the ABions of fuch Perfons as are wholly intereffedin the Affairs of State (properly compared to the Perfons of a dramatical defign, whofe fingle CharaUers and Parts ferve only to make up one joynt Plot. Such are mofl of thoje whofe Lives are related by Plutarch, and the twelve Csdkrs of Suetonius) or the Lives of fuch as have been excellent in fome kind of Learning Antipho writ of Poets-, Eudemus of Aflrologers -, Cicero and Plutarch of Orators, Suetonius of Gram¬ marians. They (oho writ of Philofophers exceeded the refl far in number , of whom to give a particular ac¬ count will be unneceffary, becaufe their Works are not extant, and therefore wefhall only name them, Aetius, Anax^lides, Antigonus, Antilthenes, Ariftocles, Ariftoxenus, Callimachus, Clitomachus, Diodes, Dioge¬ nes Laertius, Eun^ius, Heraclides, Hermippus, Helychius, Hippobotus, Son, Idomeneus, Nicander, Nicias, Panxtius, rorrius, Plutarch, Sotion and Tkeodorus.
Of almofl all thefe ( ivhich is much to be deplored) there remain not any foolfleps -, the only Author in this kind for the more ancient Philofophers is Diogenes Laertius, for the later Eunapius. And to make the Mif- fortune the greater, that which Laertius gives m is fo far fhort of what he might have done, that there is much more to be found of the fame Perfons difperfed among other Authors, which I have here colleBed and dige- fled, with what diligence 1 could.
Nor is it unfeafonable at this time to examine the Tenents of old Philofophers, when fo- great variety of Opinions daily fpring up • fome of which are but raked out of the Ruines off Antiquity, which ought to be reflo- redto their firfl Owners j others being of late invention will receive aidition,%ohen advanced to fuch height we look down to the bottom from which Philofophy took her firfl rife, and fee how great a progrefs Jhe hath made, whofe beginnings are almofl inf crut able.
Although fome Grecians have challenged to thur Nation the Original of Philofophy, yet the more Learned of them have acknowledged it derived from the Eaft. To omit the dark Traditions of the Athenians concern¬ ing Mulkus, of the Thebans concerning Linus, and of the Thracians about Orpheus, it is manifefl that the Original of the Greek Philofophy is to be derived from Thales, whoTravelling into the Eaft, firll brought Na- turalLearning, Geometiy, and Aflrology thence into Greece, for which rcafon the Attribute of Wife was con¬ ferred upon him, and at the fame time upon fix others for their Eminence in Morality and Politicks. Thus Learning in the ancientefl times was fy the Greeks called Sophia (Wifdom) and the Profefor thereof, who raifed his Soul to an eminent degree of knowledge, Sophos (wile ;) Pythagoras firfl named it Philofophy (^love of Wifdom) andhimjelf a Philofopher, affirming, that no^Man is Wife, but only God.
^ As concerning thofe who were honoured with this Attribute c/'Wile, Damon the Cyrene^n undervalues them all, efpecially the feven. Anaximenes faith. They were all addiBed to Poetry -, Dicacarchus, that they were neither wife Men, nor Philofophers, but upright Men and Law givers: Archetimiis the Syracufian wrote concerning their meeting with Cypfelus ( Lather to Periander) whereat he faith himfelf wasprefent. Ephorus affirms they all met with Creefus, Thales only excepted. Some fay they met alfo at the Panionian Feafl, and at Corinth, Periander at Delphi.
There is fome controverfie concerning their Sentences, of which fome are aferibed to feveral perfons, as that^
Lacedemonian Chilon this profefs’d.
Nothing too much -, a Mean, in all is befl.
There is no lefs diffent concerning their number. Leandrius for Cleobulus and Myfon, inferts Leophantus Son of t Gorliades)r Lebedian, or Ephefian, ^WEpimenides Cretan. Plato ( in his Protagoras) fubflitutes Myfony^r Periander ; Ephorus, Anacharfisy^rMylbn. Some add^yxhz^oxzs. tyicx^tohus alledgeih four, ac¬ knowledg'd by ^//, Thales, Bias, Pittacus Solon .• then names fix more, out of which are to be feleBed three, Ariftodemus, Pamphilus, Chilon the Lacedaemonian, Cleobulus, Anacharfis, Periander j add ^ Aculilaus Son of Caba or Scabra an Argive. Hermippus in his Treat if e of the feven wife men, faith, they were in all fe- venteen, of which feven were varioufly named, which were, Solon, Thales, Pittacus, Bias, Chilon, Cleobulus, Periander, Anacharfis, Aculilaus, Epimenides, Leophantus, Pherecydes, Ariftodemus, Pythagoras,' Lafus 0/ Hermionea,5(7»^Charmantides, or (according to KxMoyiQms) ^Simbrinus, Anaxagoras. Hippobotus in his ■ Commentary of Philofophers, reckons Linus, Orpheus, Solon, Periander, Anacharfis, Cleobulus , Myfon, Tha¬ les, Bias, Pittacus, Epicharmus, Pythagoras.
L2iZvi\oi%rcckons them thus, Thales, Solon, Chilon, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobulus, Periander j whereunto he adds Anacharfis, Myfon, Epimenides, Pherecydes. Thefe, faith he, were called the Wife Men, to whom fome annex Pififtratus the Tyrant.
Among Romans alfo three had the fir-name of Si^kns, M. Cato, C, Ladius, and L. Acilius.
THE
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Containing thofe on whom the Attribute of WISE was conferred.
THALES.
Chap. Page
jJ bounty and Barents
I 'The time of his Birth ^ 't.
M His Travels^ 3
4. hozb he lived at Miletus. ibid
5. The Attribute of Wile conferred on hinty ib.
6. Of his Thilofophy. ^
Se£l. I. That Water % the Principle of all TlpingSy , • ib.
2. of God. 6
^.OfDamonSy ; ib.
4. Of the Souly ‘ 7
Of the Worldy ib;
7. Of his Geometry^ 8
Se£l. 1. Propojitions invented by hinty ib.
2. Of his taking the heighth of the Pyramids y 9 %,Ofhis Aflronomyy ib.
^£1. 1. Of the Coeleflial Spheresy ' ib.
2. Of the Suny Moon and StarSy 10
3. OfEclipfes^ ib,
4. Of the Jeary i j
5. His Aftrological Prediffions, ib.
9. His Mnrfll Sentencesy . ib.
10. His Judgment in Civil Affairsy 12
11. Of his Writings y 13
I Auditors and Scholarsy ib.
i^lOf fiis'Deathy ^ 14
SOLON.
1 . Solon’x ParentSy Country y and Children y 15
2. How by his means the Athenians took Salamis, Cyrrha, and the Thracian Cherfonefus, 1 6
3. how he compofed Differences and Seditions at
Homey , ^ 17
4. What Alterations he made during his Govern¬ ment y and fir ff. of the SifaHhia 1 9
5. Hovo he divided the Teople into Claffes andere-
bled Courts of JudicaturOy ib.
6. His Laz&Sy 20
7. Of the Axesy and Cyrbesy Sendtorsy Oathsy and
other Inf ituticns of Solon, 24
8. How he entertained Anac Wfis j his Travels
to iEgypt, Cyprus, Miletus, Delphi, Corinth, and Creet, 25
9- The Attribute Wile conferred on him : His moral Sentences^ 2d
10. How he oppof ed PiRfhatus and reprehended
Thclpis, •27
1 1. How he travelled to Lydia and Cilicia, 28
12. His Deathy jo
1 3. His WritingSy lb.
Chap.
C “
Page
C H I L O N.
1. Chilon’s L;/^, . ^33
2. His. moral SentenceSy Precepts, andVerfeSy^
3 . His Death and Writings, 35
PITT AC US.
r. Pittacus’j Li/^, • .3d
2. His moral Sentences, Precepts, andVerfesy 37
3 . His Death, Brother, Wife, Son, Writings, 38
BIAS. ^
1. Bias’j Life, 39
2. His moral Sentences, Precepts, andVerfeSy 40
His Death and Writings,^ ' 41
C LcE 0 B U L U.S.
1. Cleobulusj Life, Death, and Writings, 42
2 . His moral Sentences, Precept s, and Verfes, 4 3
PERIANDER.
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1. The Country, Ancefors, and Parents of Peri*
aiider, ' ‘44
2. The time of his Birth, his Reign, and the change
of his Difpoftion, • 45
Of his being placed in the number of the /even Sages, His Sentences and Writings, - ••45
4. The Story of Arion, 47
5. Of his Wife, ib.
6. Of his Children, ■■ ' 48'
y. His Death, 51
S 0 S I A D E S.
His CoUeUion of the Precepts of the /even So- phifsy ib.
Aufonii Ludus Septem Sapientum, 5 3
A N A C H A R S I S.