Hitherto our studies have been
impersonal. Among Egyptians and Babylonians alike we have had to deal
with classes of scientific records, but we have scarcely come across a
single name. Now, however, we shall begin to find records of the work of
individual investigators. In general, from now on, we shall be able to
trace each great idea, if not to its originator, at least to some one
man of genius who was prominent in bringing it before the world. The
first of these vitalizers of thought, who stands out at the beginnings
of Greek history, is this same Thales, of Miletus. His is not a very
sharply defined personality as we look back upon it, and we can by no
means be certain that all the discoveries which are ascribed to him are
specifically his. Of his individuality as a man we know very little. It
is not even quite certain as to where he was born; Miletus is usually
accepted as his birthplace, but one tradition makes him by birth a
Phenician. It is not at all in question, however, that by blood he
was at least in part an Ionian Greek. It will be recalled that in
the seventh century B.C., when Thales was born--and for a long
time thereafter--the eastern shores of the aegean Sea were quite as
prominently the centre of Greek influence as was the peninsula of Greece
itself. Not merely Thales, but his followers and disciples, Anaximander
and Anaximenes, were born there. So also was Herodotas, the Father of
History, not to extend the list. There is nothing anomalous, then, in
the fact that Thales, the father of Greek thought, was born and passed
his life on soil that was not geographically a part of Greece; but
the fact has an important significance of another kind. Thanks to his
environment, Thales was necessarily brought more or less in contact with
Oriental ideas. There was close commercial contact between the land of
his nativity and the great Babylonian capital off to the east, as also
with Egypt. Doubtless this association was of influence in shaping
the development of Thales's mind. Indeed, it was an accepted tradition
throughout classical times that the Milesian philosopher had travelled
in Egypt, and had there gained at least the rudiments of his knowledge
of geometry. In the fullest sense, then, Thales may be regarded as
representing a link in the chain of thought connecting the learning
of the old Orient with the nascent scholarship of the new Occident.
Occupying this position, it is fitting that the personality of