Anaxagoras

Born in the 70th Olympiad; died in the 88th^ aged

72 years.

ANAXAGORASy the son of HegesibuluSy was much more deeply skilled in natural philosophy than any of his predecessors. He was a native of Oazomens^ a city in Ionia, and was descended from a family as illustrious for its origin as for its wealth. He flourished in the 76th Olympiad. He was a disciple of Anaximenesy who had been a scholar of Anaximander, who was himself taught by Hiales, acknowledged by the Greeks as chief among their sages. Anaxagoras was so fascinated with the study of philosophy, that he renounced all other pursuits, either of a public or domestic nature^ in order to devote himsdf exclusively to it; and even relinquished all that he possessed, lest he should be diverted from it by solicitude for his private interests.

In vain his friends remonstrated with him that he would ruin his patrimony by his contempt of money: he was bent on the investigation of truth, and, determined to make that his sole pursuit, he left his country to prosecute its search. In consequence of this, he was reproached as having no regard for his natire country^ '* On the contrary," replied he, ** I love it/' pointing to the sky, " aboTe all things." He went to live at Athens, and transferred thither the Ionic school, which had been established at Miletus by Thales, the founder of the sect, and had remained there until that time. At the age of twenty, he began to teach philosoi^y in the dty of Athens^ and continued to do so for thirty years. One day, a wether» with a single hoxn growing out of the middle of its forehead^ w&s brought to the house of Pericles. Lampa, the augur, as soon as he saw it, pronounced that this peculiarity signified that the two factions into which Athens was then split, would umte, and concentrate their power. Anaxagoras said that it was occasioned by the brain not filling the cranium, whidi was hollow, and which terminated in a sort of point, at that part of the slcull where the horn commenced. He then opened the head of the wether in the presence of a great number of spectators, and on examination the case was found to be exactly as he had stated it. This incident gained great credit to Anaxagoras, and not less to the augor; for shortly after, the &ction of Thucydides was crushed, and the affi&irs of the State rested with Pericles alone.

Anaxagoras is supposed to have been the first among the Greeks who presented a system of philosophy tt> the world. He admitted Infinity as his first principle, and a Supreme Intelligenoe for the arrangement of matter, and the compodtion of all created things: for ^is reason it was, that he was distinguished among his contemporaries by the epithet of Mind. He did not believe that thit iDtelligence had called matter oat of nothing, but only that it had arranged it. ** In the beginning," «ud he, ** all things were mii^led together, and remained in one confused mass, nntil a Superior intelligence s^arated and disposed them as we now see them." Ovid has very beautifully expressed this sentiment in the beginning of his Metamorfhoses. Anaxagoras acknowledged no other divinity than this Intelligence by which the world was framed; and in such contempt did he hold the Mse gods which were the objects of worship to -all profane antiquity, that Lucian fieigns lum to have been destroyed by Jupiter with a thunderbolt, for the scorn which he had evinced towards him and all the other deities. He maintained that there was no void in nature; that every thing was full, and that every particle of matter,. however small it mig^t appear, was capable of infinite division: so that could an agent be found subtle enough to divide it into a sufficient number of parts, the foot of a flesh-worm might be spread over a hundred thousand millions of heavens, and still the part that should remain undivided would be inexhaustible, as it would still remsun susceptible of infinite division. He believed all bodies to be formed of small homogeneous particles: that, for example, blood was composed simply of minute particles of blood; water, of small partide^ of water; and so of other things. It was this similitade of parts lliat he called HomoifMBria*

Laertius has endeavoured to oppose his system by the following futile ^arguments:—* It was objected to Anaxagoras, that bodies muat necessarily be composed of heterogeneous particles, since the bones of animals grew without their eating bones; that thdr nerves grew, yet they never ate nerves; and that their blood increased, though they never drank any blood. Anaxagoras answered, that iu point of fact there was not a substance in the world composed entirely of homogeneous particles: that in herbs, for instance, there must be flesh, blood, bones, and nerves, since we find that animals are nourished by feeding on them; but that eadi body derives its name from the substance which pre-, dominates in its composition: that, for instance, in the bodies which we term wood or herbs, it sufficed that they should consist of a greater number of particles of wood or herbs, than of any thing else; and that they should be thicldy distributed on the surface of the respective bodies.

tie believed the sun to be only a mass of hot iron, lai^r than the whole Peloponnesus: that thie moon was an opaque and habitable body, and that it contained mountains and valleys, the same as are in the world in which we live: that comets were clusters of planets, which were brought together by accident, and separated again in the course of time: that the winds were caused by the heat of the sun rarefying the sar: that thunder was occasioned by the collision of the douds, and lightning Hby their simply coming in contact one with another: that earthquakes were produced by air being pent up in subterranean caverns; and that the overflowing of the Nile might lie readily accounted fbr, from the periodical melting of the snows of Ethiopia, which formed torrents that at last discharged themselves towards the sources of that river.

The motion of the stars he attributed to the air; and on the retreat and return of the stars between the tropics being objected to thb, he replied, that even that was caused by the pressure of the air, which propelled and repdled the stars as if by a spring, when they arrived at a certain point. He imagined the earth to be a plane; Uiat, as it was the weightiest of all the elements, it occupied the lowest place in the universe; and that the waters which flow on its surface, being rarefied by the heat of the sun^are converted into vapours, and rise into the middle regions of the air, whence they descend in rain.

The white track whidi appears in the sky, in the form of a ciide, in a clear night, and which we call the Milky Way, was supposed by many of the andents to be the path through which the hiferior deities went to attend the counsels of the mighty Jupiter; others, again, imagined it to be the place where the souls of heroes hovered about, after the destruction of thdr bodies. On this subject the notions of Anazagoras were not more enlightmed than tiiose of other philosophers. He supposed it to be only the reflection of the sun, which appeavi thus, because there is no luminous body between the Milky Way and the earth, to eclipse this reflected light. He held that animals were originally produced by heat and moisture, and that the several Apecies were afterwards continued by procreation. It happened one day, that a stone fell from the sky: AnaxagorM immediately oonduded from thU drcumatanoe that the sky was formed of stones; that the rapid movements of the celestial vault held it in a state of solidity; and that if this motion should be checked for a single moment, the whole fabric of the world would give way in an instant. He once foretold that a stone would fall from the sun, and his prediction was verified—a stone fell near the river iEgos. Anazagoras supposed that what was at that tune dry land, might, one day become sea; and that sea might, in the same manner, become dry land. He carried this opinion so far, that being asked if he believed that the sea would ever overflow the mountains of Lampsacus, " Yes," he replied, *< if time itself do not falL"

He placed the supreme good in the investiga^n of the mysteries of nature; insomuch, that when he was asked what he conceived to be tiie object of his coming into the world, he replied, '' To contemplate the heavens, the sun, the moon, and all the other wonders of nature." Being asked ifriiat description of men he considered to be the hap* piest: << None of those^" he replied, '' who are generally regarded as such; happhiess is only to be found in those situations wMch are commonly deemed most miserable."

Hearing a man one day lamenting that he must die m a foreign land; *< Of what consequence is it?" said he ) ' is there any land that does not afford a passage to another world?" A message being brought to him with an account of his son's death, he heard the tidings without any emotion. < I knew very well," said he, '' that I had only be-

N gotten a mortal!" aod he went immediately to see about the funeral himself.

Anaxagoras did not long enjoy his reputation at Athens: he was impeached by the citizens, and publicly denounced before the magistrates.

Various grounds have been assigned for his accusation. The opinion most generally received is, that he was accused of impiety, for having dared to assert that the snn, which was adored as a god, was nothing more than a body of heated iron. Others say that, in addition to the crime of impiety, be was accused of treason. When he heard that the Athenians had condemned him to death, he received the intelligence with the utmost calmness. << In no very long time," said he, '' nature will pronounce the same sentence against themselves."

Pericles, who had been one of his disciples, took bis part on this occasion so zealously, that he procured a mitigation of his sentence. It was commuted for a fine of five talents, and banishment.

Anaxagoras supported hia disgrace with equanimity. He availed himself of fats banishment to travel into Egypt and other countries, in order to converse with the most ingenious philosophers, and make himself acquainted with foreign manners. After satisfying his curiosity, he ^returned to his native place, Clazomense; where he found all his affairs in disorder, and his pn4>erty gone to waste. *' Had my fortunes remained prosperous," said he, 'Mt Lb I that would have been ruined." Anaxagoras had taken particular puns in the instruction of Pericles, and had been of great assistance to him in the administration of public affairs. Pericles was uot, howerer, so grateful to his master as he ought to have been; aud it has even been said, that at the last he treated him with neglect.

Seeing himself old, indigent, and forsaken. Anaxagoras wrapped himself up in his cloak, and resolved to abandon himself to death by hunger. Pericles heard of it, and was extremely afflicted: he went with all speed in quest of him, and implored him to change his resolution; lamenting the misfortune of the State in losing so great a man, and his own in being deprived of so faithful an adviser. Anaxagoras uncovered his face, and throwing on him the last looks of his dying eyes, '< Oh! Pericles," he exclaimed, *' those who require a lamp ought to be careful to supply it with oil."

It is related by Laertius, that Anaxagoras expired at Lampsacus; and that, when he was at the point of death, the principal persons in the city asked him if there was, any thing he wished to order or request. He desired &at the anniversary of his death might be granted as a holiday, every year, to the children of the city, in order that they might commemorate it by theU' innocent sports; and the custom was accordingly observed for a long time afterwards. Anaxagoras was seventy-two years of age at the time of his death, which took place in the 88th Olympiad.