Chapter II.—Summary of the Opinions of
Philosophers.
Having, therefore, embraced (a consideration of)
the tenets of all the wise men among the Greeks in four books, and the
doctrines propounded by the heresiarchs in five, we shall now exhibit
the doctrine concerning the truth in one, having first presented in a
summary the suppositions entertained
severally
by all. For
the dogmatists of the Greeks, dividing philosophy into three parts, in
this manner devised from time to time their speculative
systems;
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some denominating
their
system
Natural, and others Moral, but others Dialectical
Philosophy
. And
the ancient thinkers who called their
science
Natural Philosophy, were those
mentioned in book
i
. And the account which they furnished was after this
mode: Some of them
derived
all things from one, whereas
others from more things
than one
. And of those
who
derived all things
from one, some
derived them
from what was
devoid of quality, whereas others from what was endued with
quality. And among those
who derived all things
from
quality, some
derived them
from fire, and some from air, and
some from water, and some from earth. And among those
who
derived the universe
from more things
than one
, some
derived it
from numerable, but others from infinite
quantities. And among those
who derived all things
from
numerable quantities, some
derived them
from two, and others
from four, and others from five, and others from six. And among
those
who derived the universe
from infinite quantities, some
derived entities
from things similar to those generated, whereas
others from things dissimilar. And among these some
derived
entities
from things incapable of, whereas others from things
capable of, passion. From a body devoid of quality and endued
with unity, the
Stoics, then, accounted for the
generation of the universe. For, according to them, matter devoid
of quality, and in all its parts susceptible of change, constitutes an
originating principle of the universe. For, when an alteration of
this ensues, there is generated fire, air, water, earth. The
followers, however, of Hippasus, and Anaximander, and Thales the
Milesian, are disposed
to think
that all things have been
generated from one (an entity), endued with quality. Hippasus of
Metapontum and Heraclitus the Ephesian declared the origin
of things
to be
from fire, whereas Anaximander from air, but Thales from
water, and Xenophanes from earth. “For from earth,”
says he, “are all things, and all things terminate in the
earth.”
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Hippolytus in what follows is indebted to Sextus
Empiricus.—
Adv. Phys
., x.
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See Karst.,
Fragm
., viii. 45.