and Writings of Homer.
7
other Plants, from the happiest Exposition and most friendly Soil[1].
The pursuing a Thought thro' its remotest Consequences, is so familiar to your Lordship, that I need hardly mention the later History of this Tract. It has never failed to shew its Virtue, when Accidents from abroad did not stand in the way. In the early Times of Liberty, the first, and greatest Number of Philosophers[2], Historians[3],
B 4
and
- ↑ Ingenia Hominum ubique Iocorum situs format. Q. Curtius, Lib. 8. The Proof of this Assertion is attempted in form in a Treatise of Galen's; That the Manners of Mankind depend upon the Constitution of their Bodies.
- ↑ Thales of Miletus, contemporary with Cyrus : Anaximander, Anaximenes, his Scholars, of the fame Place. Pythagoras of Samos. Heraclitus of Ephesus; and Hermagoras, who was banished that City for his too great Sobriety. Chrysippus was of Solis, Zeno of Cyprus, Anaxagoras of Clazomene. Xenophanes, the Naturalist, was of Colophon. Cleanthes, the Stoick, of Assus, where Aristotle stay'd for many Years. Metrodorus, the great Friend of Epicurus, was of Lampsacus; where this Philosopher too dwelt so long that he may almost pass for a Native. Theophrastus, and his Companion Phanias, were of Eressus, and his Successor Neleus, the Heirof Aristotle's Library, was of Scepsis. These, and Xenocrates the Platonick, Arcefilas the Academick, Protarchus the Epicurean,and Eudoxus the Mathematician, Plato's Friend (all great Names in Philosophy) drew their first Breath on the same Coast: As did likewise Hippocrates, Simus, Erasistratus, Asclepiades, Apollonius, the greatest Masters of Medicine. It is also observable, that of the seven early Sages, called the wise Men of Greece, four belonged to this Climate: Pittacus of Mitylene, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus the Lindian, and the abovementioned Milesian Thales.
- ↑ Hecatæus and Pherecydes, the two oldest Historians the Greeks had, was the one of Miletus, and the other of the little Island Syros. Hellanicus was of Lesbus, Theopompus of Chios: The old Scylax was of Caryanda. Ephorus, the great Historian, was of Cumæ; Ctesias, Physician to Artaxerxes King of Persia, and a great Writer of Wonders, was of Gnidus: To whom if you join the inimitable Herodotus, you will have the Names of the chief Historians among the Greeks, excepting the two Athenians, Thucydides and Xenophon.
