Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/221

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
166
GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

cure for it but the study of nature, which, instead of the frightful extravagances of superstition, implants in us a sober piety, supported by a rational hope.”—'Life of Pericles,' c. 4, 5, 6. At length some of the doctrines of Anaxagoras gave offence to the fickle populace. He was accused of impiety towards the gods. Pericles defended him in vain. He was banished to Lampsacus in Asia Minor, where he died, in the year 428 B.C., at the age of 72. In this place he was so highly esteemed that the inhabitants raised altars to his memory, and his popularity was kept in remembrance by the circumstance that the schoolboys of Lampsacus were allowed at his own request a holiday on the anniversary of his death.

3. The philosophy of Anaxagoras centres in the two following points: first, his doctrine of what are called ὁμοιομερῆ, a term of considerable obscurity, and which, so far as I can find, has never been elucidated satisfactorily; and, secondly, his doctrine of νοῦς or intelligence as the universal in all things, and as the designing and directing principle of the universe. In discussing the system of Anaxagoras, I shall confine myself to these two points.

4. Anaxagoras's doctrine of ὁμοιομερῆ or ὁμοιομέρεια is discussed by Lucretius, in the first book of his poem, De Natura Rerum, line 830, where he says—

" Nunc et Anaxagoræ scrutemur ὁμοιομέρειαν."