Part V.

hi SacredYiQCdi^QvnnsJbady walks.
And Timon.^
Tbc fluent fweeutongiT d Sage flrfl led the way.^
Who writes as Jjnoothly as from fome green fpray
Of Hecademe, Grafboppers chirp their lay.
Hence it was firft called Ecademy, the occa- fion of his living here, was, that he was poor and had nothing but one Orchard in or adjoyning to the Academy, which was the leaft part 6t his Succeffours. This Orchard at firft yielded but three aurei nummi of yearly Rent to the Owners, afterwards the whole Revenue amount¬ ed to a thoufand or more. It was in procefs of time much enlarged by well-willers, and Stu¬ dious Perfbns, who dying, bequeathed by Will fomething to the Profeflbrs of Philofophy, their Riches to maintain the Quiet and Tranquility of a Philofophical Life. '2lato (the Academy being faid to be a fickly place, and Phificians advifing him to transfer his School to the hyce- itm) would not be perfwaded, but anfwered, I would not live on the top of Athos to linger my Life. The unwholfomenefs of the place brought him to a quartan Ague, which lafted eighteen Months, but at length by fobriety and care he mafter’d it, and recover’d his ftrength more perfect than before.
Firft, he taught Philofophy in the Academy, and after in the Gardens of Colonus. At the entrance of his School iii the Academy was writ¬ ten, Let none Ignorant of Geometry enter here.^ meant, not only of the Meafure and Proportion of Lines, but alfo of the inward Affeftions.
CHAP. VI.
' How he Injiituted a Sefl.
HAving thus fetled himfelf in the Academy, he began out of the Colleffion he had . made from others, and his own invention to in-
ftitute a Seft, called from the place where he ! Uert, taught, Academick. ^ He mixed the Heracliti- /7;zDilcourfes, with the Socratick and 'Pythagoric.^ following in Senfibles Heraclitus.^ in Intelligibles Pythagoras.^ in Politicks Socrates. Whereas Phi- %pecivit. dei lofopy.^\ PAxh. S. Aguftine, concerns either ahfion lib. 8. Qf. contemplation (thence ajjuming two names.^ Con¬ templative and AUive ) the Atlive conflfling in pr attic e of moral Attions., the Contemplative jn pe¬ netration of abjfrufe Ph 'ifical caitfcs.^ and the na¬ ture of the Divinity Socrates excelled in the A- ^iw, Pythagoras /'« the Contemplative.. But Pla- , to joyn^d them into one p erf e Cl kind.^ which he fub fivvded into three feveral parts ^ Moral.^ confijl- ing chiefly in ACtion.^ Natural.^ in Contemplation., Rational in DiJiinCtion of true and falfe., which thd* ufeful in both the other., yet belongeih more particulat'ly to Contemplation. So that /^/xTricho- tomy contradicts not the other Dichotomy, l lxert.-^ includeth all within ACtion and Contemplation. * And as of Old in a Tragedy, the Chorus Affed a- lone, then Thefpis making fome intermiflions of ■ the CW//i- introduc’d one Aflor, JEfehilus a fe- cond, Sophocles 3 third • in like manner Philofb-
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phy was at firft but of one kind, Phiflek •, then Socrates added Ethick-., thirdly, Plato inventing;
DialeCtick, made it perfect.
Of thefe three parts as they were held by Plato, and the reft of the old Academy, we can¬ not have a general better account than this of , . „
Sect. I. Ethick.
The firft, concerning well- living they fought in Hat lire, affirming that fhe ought to be obeyed: and that in nothing elfe but Nature was to be had that chief good whereto all things fhould be referred, that the ultimate being of definable things, and end of all good in the mind, body and life were acaui- red by Nature. Thofe of the Body they placed in the whole, and in the parts: health,' Strength Beauty in the whole-, in the parts,foundSenfe,and, a certain Excellence of particular parts, cut in the feet fwiftnefs,flrength in the hands, clearnefs in the voice, in the tongue plainnefs of exprejfion. Of the mind were thofe which are proper to compre-
Ihend the power of Wit, which they dividedinto Nature and JAanners. To Nature they af crib ed ciuicknefs of apprehenfion, and Memory, both pro¬ per to the Mind and Wit -, To Manners belonged Study and a hand of Wifdom formed partly by a continual Exercife, partly by Reafon, in which confified Philofophy it felf wherein that is begun and not per fetled, is called progreffiion to Virtue, what is perfected. Virtue -, perfection of Nature of all thi ngs in the Mind, the mofi excellent. Thus of Minds : The adjuncts of Life, that zvas the third, they ajferted fuch things as conduced to the practice of Virtue.
Se£l. 2. Phyfick.
Of Nature (for that was next) they fo ireal-- ed Oi to divide it into two things : One the effici¬ ent, the other gyving it felf to this, that, thereof might be made fomething. hi that they conceived to be a power, in this a certain matter to be effect¬ ed : in both, matter could not cohere, unlefs con¬ tained by fome power, nor the power without fome matter, for there is nothing which is not enj dreed to be fomewhere : That which confifls of both,they called Body and ^ality : Of ^talities, fome are primary, others arifing from thefe: the primary are uniform and fimple thofe which artfe from thefe are various, and as it were multiform. Air.^
Eire, Water, and Earth are primary, of thefe a rife forms of living creatures,and of thofe, things which are made of the Earth. Thefe principles are cal¬ led Elements, of which Air and Eire have a facul¬ ty to move and effect the other parts. Water and Earth to fuffer. To all thefe there is fubjeCled a certain matter without form, defiitute of quality, out of which all things are expreffed and formed :
It is capable of admitting all -, and of changing all manner of ways, in the whole, and in every part :
This rejolves nothing to nothing, but into its oinn parts, zvhich are divifible into infiffite-, there being in Nature no leaf which cannot be divided. Thofe which are moved,are all moved by intervals, which intervals likewife may be divided infinitely, and that power which we call quality, being moved and agitated every way, they conceive the whole matter to be througly changed, and by that m^ns thofe things, which they call qualitative^
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F L A. T 0.