1. Thales.

It is said that Thales the Milesian, one of the seven sages, was the first to take in hand natural philosophy.[23] He said that the beginning and end of the universe was water;[24] for that from its solidification and redissolution all things have been constructed and that all are borne about by it. And that from it also come earthquakes and the turnings about of the stars and the motions of the winds.[25] And that all things are formed and flow in accordance with the nature of the first cause of generation; but that the Divinity is that which has neither beginning nor end.[26] Thales, having devoted himself to the system of the stars and to an enquiry into them, became for the Greeks the first who was responsible for this branch of learning. And he, gazing upon the heavens and saying that he was apprehending p. 8. with care the things above, fell into a well; whereupon a certain servant maid of the name of Thratta[27] laughed at him and said: “While intent on beholding things in heaven, he does not see what is at his feet.” And he lived about the time of Crœsus.