Part I.

Stob. fem.147 Stob. /er/w.141 Stob. Sem.^i
a De civlt.
Dei.
b Laert.
' c Lib. 6. ■TAv'Jce, j fitAAv Of ao- J9
^ noAt/0/@-
f^iVOl 3^ fjLiT
THALES.
He was a great Enemy to Tyrants^ and ac¬ counted all Monarchy little better, as appears by Vlutarch.^ who makes him fpeak thus : As- ‘ for raking one for the other, \olz. A Monarch ‘ for a Tyrant) I am of the lame mind with the ‘ young man, who throwing a Stone at a Dog, hit ‘ his Step-mother j it is no matter, laid he, for ‘ even fo, it lights iiotamils, truly always elfee- ‘ med So/on very wife, 'for refufing to be King of ‘ his own Country .* and Pittaons.^ if he had not ‘ taken upon him a Monarchy, would never have ^ laid,how hard it is to be a good man : and Peri- ‘ ander hdn^ feized(as it were with an hereditary ‘ difeafe, derived from his Father) by the lame ‘ Tyranny, did very well to endeavour as much * as he could to difengagehimfelf from ir,by fre- ‘ quenting the converlation of the beft Men, in- viting Sages, and Philolbphers, and being in ‘ vited by them, not approving the dangerous ‘ Counfel of Thrajibu/us my Country -man, who ‘ perlwaded him to take off the heads of the ‘ chiefeft. For a Tyrant, who choofeth rather to ‘ command Slaves than Free men, is like a Hus- ‘ band-man, who preferreth the gathering of Lo- ‘ cults, and catching of Fowl, before reaping of ‘ good Corn. Thefe Sovereign Authorities have only this good, in recompenle of many Evils, a ‘ kind of Honour and Glory, if Men be fo happy,
‘ that in ruling good Men,they themfelves prove ‘ better •, as for luch, who in their office aim at ‘ nothing but fecurity, without relpeft of Ho- ‘ nour and Honefty, they are fitter to be fet over ‘ Beafts than Men.
In the fame Sympofion, he gives this Account of Monarchy, Democracy, and Oeconomicks. That Prince is happy who lives till he is olf and dies a natural Death. That Common-wealth is beft order ded., where the Citizens are neither too rich., nor too poor. That Houfe is beft., wherein the Ma- fter may live mojl at eqfe.
C H A P. XL Of his Writings.
SO me affirm (laith Laertius) that he left no» thing behind him in writing. Others, that he Writ
Of J^atural Philofopy : St. a Augujiin., laith, that Thales., to propagate his Doffrine to ^ucceffi- on .,fe arched into the Secrets of Nature., and com^ -mining his Opinion to Monuments and Letters, grew Yamous.
Of Nautick AJirology(vciewAov[td. by b by Sim¬ plicius) which is by fome afcribed to Phocus a Samian. I
. ...Q/' the Tropic ks and EquinoHials ; which two Treatifes Laertius laith, hecompofed, as judging the reji eafie to be underjiood. Thele leem to be thole Aftrological Writings which L give, who writ concerning the Poets, affirmeth to have extended to two hundred Verfes.
Of Meteors : A Treatife in Verle, mentioned by Suidas.
Tl^Uifioryof hisownTimes : if we may give credit m c fohannes Antiochenus, who faith, Thefe things Thales, Caftor, and Polybius moji wife Authors committed to writing, and after them Herodotus the Hijiorian : but perhaps this may be no more probable, than that Polybius and Call or Ihould precede Herodotus
ALofiVA, of which thofe that are cited by Laertius . we have inferred among his Moral Sentences- for luch they were, tending to the inftruclion of the common People, a kind of lode V erle Coming near Prole, whence Demojlhencs makes two kinds of Poets, TBf tU[AT^HS ^ Taf (as Cafaubon obferves) thofe that write in metre, and, (if we may fo term it ; thofe that write in blank Verfe. Whatlbever Laertius iri the Lives of the feven Wife Men produceth in this kind, feemeth not to be taken out of any Poet, but to have been written by the Wife Men themlelves.
Epiftles, of which two only are extant, ors- ferved by. ^ ^ 1
Thales to Pherecydes
IHeaf that you firft of the lonians, are about
to publijh a Difcourfe to the Greeks concern-^ . • - mg Religion, and ^ fuftly you conceive that your work ought rather to be laid in a publickLi-ihu toamtkr brary than tranf mined to uncertain Perfons : if effetl. therefore it may any way pleafure you, I will wil¬ lingly confer with you about that which you have written, and if you defire, will vifit you at iSyrus^ for neither my felfnor 5olon the kxE^mmfhould deferve the titles of WAq men, if we, whoSaiPcf to Creet to inform our f elves of matters there, and into ^gypt, to confer with Priejis and AJlro- nomers,Jhould not likewife make ajourney to you:
Solon alfo, if you think fit, will come. Tou who afi'eH home,feldom pafs into Ionia, nor care to en¬ joy the fociety of Jirangers-, we, whowrite no¬ thing, fpend our time in travelling throueh Greece andMvL
Thales to Solon.
IF you leave Athens, you may, in my Opinion, fettle your felf (with thofe you lake along with you) at for here is nothing to trou¬
ble you. If you diflike that we Milelians are Go¬ verned by a Tyrant( for you are averfc to all AIo- narchs, even Eleblive ) yet may you pleafe your felf in the fociety and converfation of me yonr Eriend. Bias likewife hath fent to invite you to Priene ; if to abide at Priene pleafe. you bet ter, we will alfo come and dwell there with you.
CHAP, XU.
His Aitditors and Scholars.
TH E firft eminent Perfon of thole who heard Thales and profeffed his Philofophy, was Anaximander Son of Praxides a Alilefian, who flourilhed in the time of Poly crates Tyrant ol Samos.
Next is Anaximenes a Milefian allb. Son of Eurijiratus, (who according to Eufebius) flou¬ rilhed in the fecondyear of the 5
He was Scholar to Anaximander and Parmeni¬ des but that he heard Thales alfo, he acknow- ledgeth in an a Epiftle to Pythagoras. ^
We may ( as in that Epiftle Anaximenes avix. doth ) amongft the Difciples of TJoales reckon Pythagoras the Samian, inftitutor of the Italick Seff, who being from his youth particularly
addiHed
14
THALES.