tendency as "physical," and a certain other as "metaphysical," that the purely general character of these descriptions has been overlooked. Thales was a natural philosopher, an astronomer, and, if we may trust the "general belief of the Greeks" to which Herodotus alludes in his account of the crossing of the river Halys by Crœsus, a great mechanical engineer as well.[1] But he was something more than this. He was distinguished for great political insight, and was acknowledged to be the greatest of the group of practical philosophers who were known as the Seven Sages.[2] To this group are assigned those famous dicta which, whether inscribed by priests on the walls of temples, or embodied by philosophers in their ethical systems, conveyed a profound moral significance to every member of a Hellenic community. Although no special one of these sayings is ascribed to Thales by name, it would surely be absurd to suppose him deficient in those very qualities which brought fame to the men at whose head he was universally placed. A man who was confessedly a trusted counsellor in Politics would assuredly, in those days, have had something to say on that branch of Politics which was destined eventually to be separated from its parent
- ↑ Herod. i. 75. Cf. the amusing story told by Plutarch (De Sollertia Animalium , 971 B, C), in which a mule laden with salt lightens its load in crossing a river by soaking its packages well under the water. Thales enters the ranks against the clever mule, and comes off easy winner by giving him a load of sponges and wool.
- ↑ Herod. i. 170. Cf. Plutarch: Cum Principibus Viris Philosopho esse disserendum, 779 A.
