ANAXAGORAS, an ancient and very eminent phi losopher of Greece, belonging to the original Ionic school founded by Thales. He was a jaative of Clazo mene, in Ionia, and born in the first ear of the 70th Olympiad, about 500 years before Christ. So great was his love of philosophy, that although of a respectable rank and considerable fortune in his native city, yet he relinquished both, in order, that, in the language of Cicero, he might "dedicate himself entirely to the di vine pleasures of learning and inquiry :" and he devoted himself to the pursuits of science with such assiduity and success, that he obtained from his contemporaries, the honourable appellation of intellect or -mind. Relin quishing his worldly possessions to be enjoyed by his friends, he repaired to Athens, celebrated even at that early period as the great emporium of eloquence and literature, and applied assiduously to the study of Ho mer, whom he admired as the first of preceptors, not only in the art of writing, but in morality. From Athens he removed to Miletus, to enjoy the instructions of the Ionic philosopher Anaximenes; but returned to Athens at the age of twenty, where, according to Laertius, he remained thirty years, occupied in studying and teach ing philosophy. Among his pupils were reckoned some of the most eminent characters of the Athenian repub lic, such as the great Pericles, and Euripides the trage dian, to whom some have added, but rather inconsis tently with chronological dates, Socrates and Themis tocl es.
His great celebrity, and the authority which he pro bably enjoyed in the commonwealth, by means of his influence with Pericles, excited the jealousy and perse cution of certain restless spirits. He was accused of impiety, and of endeavouring to subvert the established religion of the state. Cleo, one of his persecutors, sup ported this accusation, by shewing that Anaxagoras had taught that the sun was an inanimate fiery substance, or burning mass of stone, and not the divine Apollo, to whom the people were bound to pay worship. He was also accused of having laughed at the priests, for pre dicting a public calamity from the unusual appearance of a ram with a single horn ; and of having even killed and dissected this portentous animal, in order to prove that the singularity was a necessary consequence of its original structure. By the imputation of such crimes
the popular rage was excited against Anaxagoras. He was thrown into prison, and condemned to death ; and the great influence of Pericles was able to obtain no other favour for him than a change of his sentence into the milder punishment of fine and banishment. 'When he was told of his being condemned to die, he replied with the calmness of a true philosopher, "Nature long ago pronounced the same sentence against me:" and when a friend had intimated to him the milder punish-.
ment that had been substituted, and was expressing re gret on account of his departure from Athens, Anaxa goras replied, with a mixture of fortitude and pride, " It is not I who have lost the Athenians, but the Athe nians who have lost me." After his banishment, this philosopher passed the re mainder of his time at Lampsacus, occupied in the in struction of youth, and greatly respected and esteemed by the inhabitants of that city. The infirmities of na ture terminated his life in the year 428 before Christ. Being asked by his friends, a little before his death, whether they should carry his bones to his native city, he answered, "It is unnecessary ; the path to the re gions below is every where alike open." The magis trates of Lampsacus, having, at the same period, sent a message requesting to be informed in what manner they might honour his memory after his decease, he pleasantly replied, " By ordaining that the day of my death be annually kept as a holiday in all the schools of Lampsacus." His request was complied with; and the festival, which was called Anaxagoria, continued in Lampsacus to the time of Laertius. The inhabitants of that city farther expressed their veneration for his memory, by honouring him with a tomb and epitaph, and by erecting two altars in his name, one dedicated to Truth, and the other to Mind.