CHAPTER III.

WHAT ARE PRINCIPLES?

Thales the Milesian doth affirm that water is the principle from
whence all things in the universe spring. This person appears to
be the first of philosophers; from him the Ionic sect took its
denomination, for there are many families and successions amongst
philosophers. After he had professed philosophy in Egypt, when he
was very old, he returned to Miletus. He pronounced, that all
things had their original from water, and into water all things
are resolved. His first ground was, that whatsoever was the
prolific seed of all animals was a principle, and that is moist;
so that it is probable that all things receive their original from
humidity. His second reason was, that all plants are nourished
and fructified by that thing which is moist, of which being
deprived they wither away. Thirdly, that that fire of which the
sun and stars are made is nourished by watery exhalations,--yea,
and the world itself; which moved Homer to sing that the
generation of it was from water:--

The ocean is
Of all things the kind genesis.
(Iliad, xiv. 246.)

Anaximander, who himself was a Milesian, assigns the principle of
all things to the Infinite, from whence all things flow, and into
the same are corrupted; hence it is that infinite worlds are
framed, and those dissolve again into that whence they have their