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| Chapter III. Ridicule of the Philosophers.
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Chapter III.—Ridicule of the Philosophers.
I cannot approve of Heraclitus, who, being self-taught
and arrogant, said, “I have explored myself.” Nor can I praise
him for hiding his poem424
in the temple of Artemis, in order that it might be published
afterwards as a mystery; and those who take an interest in such
things say that Euripides the tragic poet came there and read it,
and, gradually learning it by heart, carefully handed down to
posterity this darkness425
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He was called δ
σκοτεινός for his
obscurity. | of Heraclitus. Death, however, demonstrated the
stupidity of this man; for, being attacked by dropsy, as he had studied
the art of medicine as well as philosophy, he plastered himself with
cow-dung, which, as it hardened, contracted the flesh of his whole body,
so that he was pulled in pieces, and thus died. Then, one cannot listen
to Zeno, who declares that at the conflagration the same man will rise
again to perform the same actions as before; for instance, Anytus and
Miletus to accuse, Busiris to murder his guests, and Hercules to repeat
his labours; and in this doctrine of the conflagration he introduces
more wicked than just persons—one Socrates and a Hercules,
and a few more of the same class, but not many, for the bad will be
found far more numerous than the good. And according to him the Deity
will manifestly be the author of evil, dwelling in sewers and worms,
and in the perpetrators of impiety. The eruptions of fire in Sicily,
moreover, confute the empty boasting of Empedocles, in that, though he
was no god, he falsely almost gave himself out for one. I laugh, too,
at the old wife’s talk of Pherecydes, and the doctrine inherited
from him by Pythagoras, and that of Plato, an imitation of his, though
some think otherwise. And who would give his approval to the cynogamy of
Crates, and not rather, repudiating the wild and tumid speech of those who
resemble him, turn to the investigation of what truly deserves attention?
Wherefore be not led away by the solemn assemblies of philosophers who
are no philosophers, who dogmatize one against the other, though each
one vents but the crude fancies of the moment. They have, moreover,
many collisions among themselves; each one hates the other; they indulge
in conflicting opinions, and their arrogance makes them eager for the
highest places. It would better become them, moreover, not to pay court
to kings unbidden, nor to flatter men at the head of affairs, but to
wait till the great ones come to them.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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