P. V. N. Myers

“ The king caused him to be sold into slavery as a prisoner of war. Being ransomed by a friend, he found his way to his native Athens, and established a school of philosophy in the Academy, a public garden close to Athens. Here amid the disciples that thronged to his lectures, he passed the greater part of his long life,—he died 348 B.C., at the age of eighty-one years,—laboring incessantly upon the great works that bear his name. Plato imitated in his writings the method of Socrates in conversation. ”

“ The Greek philosophers, as living, personal teachers, had finished their work; but their systems of thought will never cease to attract and influence the best minds of the race.
Science among the Greeks.
The contributions of the Greek observers to the physical sciences have laid us under no small obligation to them. Some of those whom we have classed as philosophers, were careful students of nature, and might be called scientists. The great philosopher Aristotle wrote some valuable works on anatomy and natural history. ”

“ A wider knowledge of the world had caused many to their faith in the myths and legends of the old mythologies. The existence of so many opposing systems of philosophy caused men to doubt the truth of any of them. ”

“ Claudius Ptolemy lived in Egypt about the middle of the second century after Christ. His great reputation is due not so much to his superior genius as to the fortunate circumstance that a vast work compiled by him, preserved and transmitted to later times almost all the knowledge of the ancients on astronomical and geographical subjects. In this way it has happened that his name has become attached to various doctrines and views respecting the universe, though these probably were not originated by him. ”

“ Anaxagoras.—Anaxagoras (499–427 B.C.) was the first Greek philosopher who made mind, instead of necessity or chance, the arranging and harmonizing force of the universe. "Reason rules the world" was his first maxim.
Anaxagoras was the teacher in philosophy of Pericles, and it is certain that that statesman was greatly influenced by the liberal views of the philosopher; for in his general conceptions of the universe, Anaxagoras was far in advance of his age. He ventured to believe that the moon was somewhat like the earth, and inhabited ”

“ The better philosophers of the time despised them, and applied to them many harsh epithets, taunting them with selling wisdom, and accusing them of boasting that they could "make the worse appear the better reason." ”

“ In the young men of his time Socrates found many devoted pupils. The youthful Alcibiades declared that "he was forced to stop his ears and flee away, that he might not sit down by the side of Socrates and grow old in listening." ”

“ Empedocles, with the evolutionists of to-day, taught that the higher forms of life arise out of the lower; Democritus conceived all things to be composed of invisible atoms, all alike in quality, but differing in form and combination. ”

“ Socrates.—Volumes would not contain what would be both instructive and interesting respecting the lives and works of the three great philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We can, however, accord to each only a few words. Of these three eminent thinkers, Socrates (469–399 B.C.) , though surpassed in grasp
SOCRATES. and power of intellect by both Plato and Aristotle, has the firmest hold upon the affections of the world.
Nature, while generous to the philosopher in the gifts of soul, was unkind to him in the matter of his person. ”

“ Many of these disciples carried the doctrines of their master to an excess that he himself would have been the first to condemn. Allowing full indulgence to every appetite and passion, their whole philosophy was expressed in the proverb, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." No pure or exalted life could be nourished in the unwholesome atmosphere of such a philosophy. Epicureanism never produced a single great character.
The Skeptics; Pyrrho.—About the beginning of the third century B.C. skepticism became widespread in Greece. It seemed as though men were losing faith in everything. ”

“ They believed—and it would be very difficult to frame a better creed—that " man's chief business here is to do his duty." They schooled themselves to bear with perfect composure any lot that destiny might appoint. ”