Deliramenta Philosophorum [pp. 289-298]

Vag,aries of Learned Men.
hence it is called by preeminence Pythagorean,
and is beautifully alluded to by Virgil
Principio ccelim, ac terras, camrnposque liquentes
Lucentemque globumn Lund, Titani.tqute astra
Spiritus intus alit; totamque infusa per artus
MIens agitat molem, et magno se copore miscet.
His ideas with regard to the creation of the world l
and the materials from which God formed the hu-
man mind were the same as those of Plato, who
seems to have followed closely the footsteps of tile f
Samian. Among other curious things, he taught r
the visionary doctrines, that all things resulted fromt
matter in a strictly geometrical and arithmetical t
harmony; that the then four commonly received ele-
ments of matter,-fire, air, earth and water-were
composed of atomic plane figures of triangular
forms, and that these constitute the pyramid of fire
and the cube of the earth. He conceived also that
the numbers from one to ten, in some way or
other, contained all things. He was the first to
apply the term Kosmos, order, to the world, from 1
its beauty and order; for, as he supposed, it was
made according to the musical divisions of the ]
monochord.
There were two of the ancient philosophers who
avoided almost entirely the visionary ideas of
others and dealt preeminently in facts-Aristotle
and Socrates. The first of these was the rival of
Plato, and the schools of these two philosophers
continued for ages to divide learned men. His illustrious rival, however, esteemed him so highly
for his profundity, that he habitually referred to him
as " the philosopher of truth," and Cicero gave
him the title of "a man of eloquence, universal
knowledge, readiness and acuteness of invention
and fecundity of thought." The latter was oracled
at Delphos as the wisest man of the human race.
This was a just tribute. By him the value of
knowledge was estimated only by its utility. His
views of the soul's immortality were emphatically
his own. No individual, unaided by revelation,
either before or after his time, presented such clear
thoughts of the ennobling doctrine of the imperishable nature of the mind or looked upon the fiuture with more composure and hope. "I die,"
said he, "I die, but it is only to go and converse
with sages and heroes of antiquity." But even
Socrates was not free from follies. He believed
firmly in omens, dreams and witchcraft, and declared that he himself was accompanied by a guardian demon; and when the last act arrived in the
tragedy which terminated his mortal career, we
see him yielding to a superstition from which he
seemned before to have freed himself, by commanding Crito, his attendant, to sacrifice for him a cock
to.Esculapius.
Zeno may next claim our attention. He was
the founder of the Stoic sect, and inculcated many
doctrines which call for the highest encomiums;
others again must be ranked among the unnatural
roductions of highly gifted mind, and the excess
o which they were carried by many of his followers render them objects of ridicule and amusement.
He was himself a fatalist. I-e regarded all occurrences as inevitable and certain, and as beyond
he control of humanity, in any way whatever.
For this reason hlie inculcated the doctrine that
man should never deprecate a calamity, or implore
Deity to avert impending judgments; but only seek
fortitude and philosophy to bear them without sorrow or complaint. Some of his followers carried
this so far, as, in the midst of the most excruciating physical suffering, to declare, that they experienced no evil, that pain was merely ideal, and in
elevated minds did not exist. To be moved by
pity for our own or antother's woes, was folly! To
weep with those that weep, to drop a tear over the
last hour of the young, the beautiful, the loved,
was childishness; in fact, to feel was puerile; to
maintain a supreme control over the passions and
the sympathies of our nature, was the highest ascent man could reach. Zeno, as represented by
his followers, was the bean ideal of human nature
in its supreme perfection. Seated above his fellowmen, wrapt in devout self-complacency, regarding
with unmingled satisfaction the workings of his
own mighty mind, he viewed alike with a rigid
and imperturbable countenance the triumphs of
his countrymen and the desolations of pestilence
and famine. There was no difference in the pulsations of his heart, whether he listened to the
bursts of joy or the groans and death-shrieks of a
battle-field; whether hlie heard the sigh of the
widow and the orphan, or listened to the loud laugh
and brutal taunt of the oppressor of the bereaved
and fatherless. To him, there was neither pain nor
pleasure, distress nor delight, neither love nor hate!
Truly this is the dream of one who is not of the
race of men, or it is one of the wildest vagaries of
an unhallowed mind.
With other philosophers, Zeno cherished the doctrine that the earth was the body of the Deity, but
he made it appear still more ridiculous, by declaring, that by this union of the universal spirit with
the world, a g,i-eat anid pefect aimal was formed.
Among the disciples and companions of Thales,
one of the most ancient philosophers of whom we
read, was Anaximander. He was a man of great
reflection and research; he was the inventor of the
gnomon, and set up the first sun-dial we know of,
and also was the first constructor of maps. But,
like many others who loved to wander, he started
aside from the path of truth to that of conjecture,
and found there wonders enough to excite the mirth
of any but philosophers. To him the earth was a
cylinder; the sun a mass of fire in the form of a
wheel, twenty-eight times greater than the earth;
men were formed out of a mixture of earth and
water, and afterwards heated into life by the beams
of the sun; the stars were formed of fire and air,
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