Part II.

ANAXAGORAS.
6^
^ Plut. plac. phil. 5. 24.
* Plut. plac, phil, 5. 25.
* Plut. plac. phil. 5. 25.
* Plut. de a- more frat.
** That ‘ there is a Death of the Soul likewile, ‘ which is feparation from the Body.
That all Animals have aflive Reafon.
‘ That Sleep is an Aflion of the Body, not of the Soul.
That in the hand of Man confifts all his
Skill.
* That ‘ the Voice is made by the Wind, ‘ hitting againft firm refifting Air , returning ‘ the counter blow to our Ears, which is the
f Ariji,
of the Air, which by it fpreadeth upwards, but ‘they are Coeleftial Bodies failing of their re- ‘ tention by the ordinary courfe of Heaven ‘ thrown down, not upon the habitable Earth, ‘ but into the Sea, which is the caufe we do not ‘ lee them j yet the affertion of Anaxagords is ‘ confirmed by Damachus.^ who writeth in his ‘ Book of Religion , that 75 days together be- ‘ fore this Stone fell, they faw a great body of ‘ Fire in the Air like a Cloud enhamed, which ‘ manner whereby alfo the reperculfion of the I ‘ tarried not in one place, but went and came, ‘ Air is formed, called Eccho. f uncertainly removing, from the driving where-
^ r . 1^-/' ‘ of iffued flafhes of Fire that fell in many pla-
‘ ces like falling Stars •, when this great Body of ‘ Fire fell in that part of the Earth , the
That t ‘ the Gall is the caufe of acute Dif- ‘ eales, which overflowing, is dilperfed into the * Lungs, Veins, and Cofts.
CHAP. III.
I Hts Vred'iWwns.
SUidof laifh, he foretold many things : of thofe, two inftanees only have been hither¬ to preferved. The firft thus related by P/;zy;, The Grecians celebrate Anaxagoras of the Clozome- and for foretelling by his Learning and Sci
in
‘ Inhabitants emboldned, came to the place to ‘ lee what it was, and found no appearance of ‘ fire, but a great Stone on the ground, nothing, ‘ in comparifon of that Body, of Fire. Herein Damachus had need of favourable hearers : But ‘ if what he faith be true, he confuteth thole ‘ Arguments who maintain it was a piece of a ‘ Rock by the force of a boiftrous Wind torn ‘ from the top ofa Mountain, and carried in the ‘ .Air fo long as this Whirl-wind continued, but
man, , . _ . _
ence in the fe cond year of the '}% Olympiad .pn what r fo foon as that was laid, the Stone fell imme^
day aSt one would jail from the Sun.^ which hapned in the day time in a part ^Thrace at the River A- ^ gospohich Stone is at this day Jhewn.^ about the big- nefs of a Bean.^ of an aduft colour.^ a Comet alj'o burning in thofe nights.
» Vit. Lyjmd: * Plutarch adds, that it was in his time not only (hewn, but Reverenced by the Peloponnef- ans. Eufebitts reckons the fall of this Stone up¬ on the fourth of the 78. Olympiad, which is two years after Account of the Prediffi-
on. Silenus, cited by Laertim, faith, it fell when Dymiltts was Archon, which if it be to be read Dyphilus (for the other name is not to be found near thefe times) will be the firft year of the 84. Olympiad. But the Marble at Arundel Houfe f graven about the 12$. Olympiad, to be prefer¬ red before any other Chronological Account) exprefly names the fall upon the 4 th year, upon the 77. Olympiad, when Theogenides was Ar¬ chon, two years before. Pliny laith it was fore¬ told. It was believed to have portended (as P/^- tarchtQ^iRos) the great Defeat given to the A- thenians by Lyfander at the River Agos 62 years after, viz. the 4th year of the p3 d. Olympiad.
f meteor. 1.7. Of the Wonder t Arijiotle gives a very flight account, affirming, ‘ it was a Stone fnatched up ‘ by the Wind, and fell in the day time, a Co¬ met hapning in thole nights, which is dilpro-
? VipLyfand. ved by ^ Plutarch, who hath this large Di- Icourfe upon it : ‘It is laid that Anaxagoras did ‘ Prognofticate that one of the Bodies included ‘ the Heavens, it Ihould be looled by fhaking, ‘ and fall to the Ground, the Stars are not in ‘ place where they were firft created, they are ‘ hea\y Bodies, of the Nature of Stone, fhining ‘ by the refleffion of the aether, being drawn up ‘ by force, and kept there by the violence of ‘ that circular motion, as at the-beginning in the ‘ the firft feparation of things, cold and heavy ‘ they were reftrained. There is another Opinion ‘ more probable which faith, thole which we ‘ call falling Stars are not fluxions of the aether ‘ extinguifht in the Air almoft as foon as lighted, ‘ inflammations or combuftions of any part
‘ diately -, unlefs this Lightning Body which ap- ‘ peared fo many days was fire indeed, which ‘ coming to difiblve, and to be put out, did be- ‘ get this violent Storm of force to tear off the ‘ Stone, and caft It down.
This it is likely ^ Charimander meant, who f senec. nat,. in his Book of Comets faith, Anaxagoras obfer- 7* 5- ved in the Heavens a great unaccuftomed light of the likenels of a huge Pillar, and that it (hi- ned for many days.
The other memorable PrediHion of Anaxago¬ ras was t of a Storm, which he fignified by go- 4 ing to the Olympick Games, when the w^eather was fair, in a fliaggy Gown, the Rain pouring down, all the Grecians (faith Mlian) faw and gloried that he knew more Divinely than accor¬ ding to Humane" Nature.
T
Cice)‘.
C H A P. IV.
His Scholars and Auditors.
Hele are remembred as his Scholars and Auditors.
Pericles Son of Xantifpus being inftrufled ‘ by Anaxagoras, could ealily reduce the exercile of his mind from lecret abftrufive things to publick popular caufes : *’ Pericles much e- ^ 'WA. fteemed him, was by him inftruQied in Natural Philofophy^ and befides other Virtues, freed from^'uperftitious fears arifing from ignorance of Phyfical Caufes 5 whereof there is this in- ftance, the head of a Ram with but one horn being brought to Pericles, was by the South- fayers Interpreted prodigious: Anaxagoras pening it, (hewed that tho Brain lifted not its natural place, but contraffed by degrees in an oval form toward that part where the horn grew. Afterwards Anaxagoras ^ neglefted and decrepit with age in a . melancholy refentment thereof lay down and . cover’d his face, lefolving to ftarve himfelf 5 which Pericles hearing, came immediately to him, bewailing, not Anaxagoras, but himfelfj who Ihould lofe fo excellent a
Coun^*
66
AHAXAGOKAS.