Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>As far as concerns the literature of the Greeks, whose\r\nlanguage holds a more illustrious place than any of the languages\r\nof the other nations, history mentions two schools of\r\nphilosophers, the one called the Italic school, originating in\r\nthat part of Italy which was formerly called Magna Græcia;<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_307\">[Pg 307]</a></span>\r\nthe other called the Ionic school, having its origin in those\r\nregions which are still called by the name of Greece. The\r\nItalic school had for its founder Pythagoras of Samos, to whom\r\nalso the term \"philosophy\" is said to owe its origin. For\r\nwhereas formerly those who seemed to excel others by the\r\nlaudable manner in which they regulated their lives were\r\ncalled sages, Pythagoras, on being asked what he professed,\r\nreplied that he was a philosopher, that is, a student or lover\r\nof wisdom; for it seemed to him to be the height of arrogance\r\nto profess oneself a sage.<a id=\"FNanchor_292_292\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_292_292\">[292]</a> The founder of the Ionic school,\r\nagain, was Thales of Miletus, one of those seven who were\r\nstyled the \"seven sages,\" of whom six were distinguished by\r\nthe kind of life they lived, and by certain maxims which they\r\ngave forth for the proper conduct of life. Thales was distinguished\r\nas an investigator into the nature of things; and, in\r\norder that he might have successors in his school, he committed\r\nhis dissertations to writing. That, however, which\r\nespecially rendered him eminent was his ability, by means of\r\nastronomical calculations, even to predict eclipses of the sun\r\nand moon. He thought, however, that water was the first\r\nprinciple of things, and that of it all the elements of the\r\nworld, the world itself, and all things which are generated in\r\nit, ultimately consist. Over all this work, however, which,\r\nwhen we consider the world, appears so admirable, he set\r\nnothing of the nature of divine mind. To him succeeded\r\nAnaximander, his pupil, who held a different opinion concerning\r\nthe nature of things; for he did not hold that all things\r\nspring from one principle, as Thales did, who held that principle\r\nto be water, but thought that each thing springs from its\r\nown proper principle. These principles of things he believed\r\nto be infinite in number, and thought that they generated\r\ninnumerable worlds, and all the things which arise in them.\r\nHe thought, also, that these worlds are subject to a perpetual\r\nprocess of alternate dissolution and regeneration, each one\r\ncontinuing for a longer or shorter period of time, according\r\nto the nature of the case; nor did he, any more than Thales,\r\nattribute anything to a divine mind in the production of all\r\nthis activity of things. Anaximander left as his successor his<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_308\">[Pg 308]</a></span>\r\ndisciple Anaximenes, who attributed all the causes of things\r\nto an infinite air. He neither denied nor ignored the existence\r\nof gods, but, so far from believing that the air was made by\r\nthem, he held, on the contrary, that they sprang from the air.\r\nAnaxagoras, however, who was his pupil, perceived that a\r\ndivine mind was the productive cause of all things which we\r\nsee, and said that all the various kinds of things, according\r\nto their several modes and species, were produced out of an\r\ninfinite matter consisting of homogeneous particles, but by the\r\nefficiency of a divine mind. Diogenes, also, another pupil of\r\nAnaximenes, said that a certain air was the original substance\r\nof things out of which all things were produced, but that it\r\nwas possessed of a divine reason, without which nothing could\r\nbe produced from it. Anaxagoras was succeeded by his disciple\r\nArchelaus, who also thought that all things consisted of\r\nhomogeneous particles, of which each particular thing was\r\nmade, but that those particles were pervaded by a divine\r\nmind, which perpetually energized all the eternal bodies,\r\nnamely, those particles, so that they are alternately united\r\nand separated. Socrates, the master of Plato, is said to have\r\nbeen the disciple of Archelaus; and on Plato's account it is\r\nthat I have given this brief historical sketch of the whole\r\nhistory of these schools.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK EIGHTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-562"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"bd73f2f04dff0c865703c50d4154cd8f1684db47ee467d9cf1236b10692f3df7","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_292_292","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_292_292","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_292_292\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_292_292\"><span class=\"label\">[292]</span></a> \"Sapiens,\" that is, a wise man, one who had attained to wisdom.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_292_292","text_sha256":"102d316ab76c827005b8cacdcd20fe8e7ca7e38abd1ba70040a071eecac4d225","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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