account for it without much success. Aristotle says, that the Ionic philosophers had failed completely in their attempts to explain change or motion. Nor were the systems of other philosophers more successful. Indeed, we have seen that Zeno, so far from explaining, was compelled to deny it, and declare it to be an impossibility. The difficulty was occasioned by these philosophers having regarded motion as derivative and secondary. Heraclitus made it original and primary. They began with Being, or the fixed. He began with Becoming, or the unfixed. This was with him the first, the principle, the universal, the truth for all. This was, at any rate, a new position in philosophy. We shall return to its consideration when we have made a few remarks on the personal history of Heraclitus.
4. This philosopher was born at Ephesus, one of the chief Ionian cities on the coast of Asia Minor; and if the dates usually given be correct, he rather preceded Parmenides and Zeno. And on this account he is frequently classed along with the other Ionic philosophers, and placed immediately after Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, and one or two others of that school. Another reason assigned for classing him with the Ionic school is, that he is usually regarded as having fixed on a physical element as his principle. Just as Thales represented water, and Anaximenes air, as the origin of all things, so Heraclitus is reported to have derived all things from fire.
