probable; but that this soul was conceived by him as an intelligent principle, or that he inculcated the natural theology which Plutarch and Cicero give him credit for, is disproved by the assertion of Aristotle, who says expressly that Anaxagoras, a philosopher considerably subsequent to Thales, was the first who held that intelligence was the principle of the universe. Thales, therefore, cannot be held to have propounded a scheme of natural theology.
9. The philosophy of Thales reduces itself to the following five points: first, he contemplates the universe from a physical point of view; secondly, he seeks for a principle of unity, he inquires after the common element, the primary and permanent essence of all things; thirdly, he finds this in something sensible and material, namely, in water or moisture; fourthly, he accounts for the various appearances of nature, for the different objects which the universe presents to us, by means of a thickening or a thinning of the original element, water—water is the substance, the essential, and these are merely its phenomena; fifthly, he ascribes to the universe a power of motion and of life by which the various changes that take place, and the various objects it contains, are produced. These five heads embrace, I think, the whole philosophy of Thales, in so far as it is known to us.
10. The results of this system, when regarded as
