Heraclitus

Flourished in the 69th Olympiad.

. Hbkaclitus of Epheflus, son of Blyson, flourished in the 69th Olympiad. He was generally called the Darii Philosopher, because he expressed himself only in enigmas.

Laertius says of him, that he was a man full of himself, and despising afanost all the world besides; insomuch, that he said of Homer and Archilochus, that they wanted a good dresshig. He could not forgbe the Ephesians for haring banished his friend Hermochms. He declared every where that aU the men deserved death, and all the children banishment, in order to expiate their crime in so shamefully expatriating one of thehr best citizens and most valuable members of the whole republic.

Heraclitns had no teacher; mental application alone was the source whence he drew his superiority. Whatever was done by men excited only his contempt. He was so sensibly grieved at the blindness and want of forei^ht they evinced, that he wept over them continually: hence Juvenal opposes him to Demoeritus, who, on the contrary, was perpetually lauji^ing. He says, that any one might easily censure the vices and follies of the age, if U could be done by peals of laughter; bi;ft that it astonished him to imagine what fountsdn could supply the floods of tears that continually flowed from the eyes of Heraclitus. lliis crying philosopher had not always, however, entertiuned such gloomy sentiments. When young, he declared that he knew nothing; as he advanced in years, he afirmed that he knew every thing. All mankind displeased him: he avoided their society ) and would play with the little children of the city, in front of ^e temple of Diana, with little bones of ivory, and otlter innocent games.

TfaeEphesiaos used to come round him at nuch times, and stare at him in astonishment. ^* Unhappy wretches l" be would then exdaim; << why are you so amfized at seeing me play ynih tiieee little children? am I not better employed in doing so vnth them, tliaa I shoukl be in aiding you in your faulty administration of the affairs of the re« public?" The Ephesians begged him, once»to frame a code of laws for them; but be refused, saying^ that they were too far gone in oormptioii of manners, for him to devise any means by which a reformation could be effected. He said that men ought to fight with as mudi ardour for the preservation of th^ laws as of tlieir walls: that we ought to lose less time in appeasing resentmoit, than even in extinguishing a conflagration; for that the consequences of one were infinitely more dangerous than of the other: that a oonAagratioa moat at all events terminate with the destnictsoa of the place where it broke out; but that from resentment

HttBACLITVt. 12a night spring bloody wars, by which a whole people might be annihilated. One day a tumtdt arose in the dty of Ephesus. Several persons begged Heraclitns to point out the best method of preventing similar seditions. He monnted an elevated platform, asked for a cnp, filled it with cold water, put a few wild herbs in it, swallowed its contents, and then descended, Jind went away witliout speaking a single word. By this exhibition he gave the people to understand that they would no more be troubled by seditions, if they would banish luxury and delicacies from their republic, and be contented with moderate things.

HeracBtus composed a book ^* On Nature," which he deposited in the temple of Diana. He purposely involved the style in great obscurity, in order to hide the sense of it from all but the ingenious, fearing that, should it afford amusement to the vulgar, it would soon become so common as to bring him into contempt. The lK>ok was mudi tiiougfat of, because, says LAertius, nobody could understand it. JIarius, king of Pei-sia, hearing of its reputation, wrote to the author, inviting him to take up his residence in Persia, in order to explain it to liim, offering him at the same time a munificent recompense, and apartments in his own palace; but Heraditos refiised to go. Hiis philosopher, scaoicely ever spoke; and when any one asked him the reason of his silence, he would reply vrith an air of vexation, " It is that you may -speak." He despised the Athenians, though they had a high respect for hun; and preferred living at Ephesus, Where he was universally despised. He could not.

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hMk at a luimaii teing without weefUDg for hiunaa: weakness, and for grief that be could not maDage tluiigs as be wished. The hatred he ooiu^iyed for mankind at last induced him to abandon it en~ lirely; he therefore retired to desert mountains, where he could see no one^ and feeding solely on herbs and pulse, he spent his life in tears and lamentations.

Heraditns imagined fire to be the primary i»inr dple ol all things; that, coadensed, it became air ^ tint condensed air became Vater; that at last water, in the same way, became earth; and that, by retrograding in the same degree, earth was rarefied into water, water into air, and air into fire— the original element of all things^ He held, also, that the universe is complete; that there is but one world; that this world is composed of fire, and that by fire it is destined finaBy to be annihilated. That the murerse is full oi spirits and genii. That the gods have not the attribute of prescience, and that every thing that happois is to be referred t» Necessity. That the sun is no larger than it appeaia to the naked eye; that there are asort of boats in the. air, die concave parts of which are turned towaids Hie carA, and into them the exhalations of the eardi asoeBd: and that these little boats, thus filled with inflammable vapour, present to ns the shining appearance of innumeraUe iiiminaries, which we caU stars. That the eclipses of the sun and moon took place accordingly as these little boats turned their concave sides towards the part opposed on the earth; and that the different phases of the moon were to be accounted for by the gradual turnings of-the bark in which 8he moved. With respect to the nature of the soul, he thought all time spent in investigating it could only be classed under the bead of amusement— so impossible it was to discover any thing veiled in snch deep mystery.

The very abstemious habits of Heraditus brought on that hopeless disease— the dropsy. He returned to Ephesus for medical advice. He went to the physicians, and^ as he always spoke in enigmas, he stated bis case by asking them if they could turn rainy weather into dry. Hie physicians could not penetrate his meaning, and he went from them into a neat-stall, and buried himself in a dung-heap, in order to evaporate, by its beat, the water which was the origin of his disease. Some relate that he sank to such a depth in it iliat he was unable to extricate himself, and met his death by suiTocation; odiers, that he was found there by dogs, and devoured. He was sixty-five years of age when his end took place.