he Cynic, a famous philosopher, was the son of a banker of Sinope in Pontus. Being banished with his father for coining false money, he retired to Athens, where he studied philosophy under Antisthenes. He added new degrees of austerity to the feet of the Cynics, and never did any philosopher carry so far a contempt for the conveniences of life. He was one of those extraordinary men who run every thing to extremity, without excepting even reason itself; and who confirm the saying, that "there is no great genius without a tincture of madness." He lodged in a tub; and had no other moveables besides his staff, wallet and wooden bowl, which last he threw away on seeing a boy drink out of the hollow of his hand. He used to call himself a vagabond, who had neither house nor country; was obliged to beg, was ill clothed, and lived from hand to mouth: and yet, says Ælian, he took as much pride in these things as Alexander could in the conquest of the world. He was not indeed a jot more humble than those who are clothed in rich apparel, and fare sumptuously every day. He looked down on all the world with scorn; he magnificently censured all mankind, and thought himself unquestionably superior to all other philosophers. Alexander one day paid him a visit, and made him an offer of riches or anything else; but all that the philosopher requested of him was, to stand from betwixt the sun and him. As if he had said, "Do not deprive me of the benefits of nature, and I leave to you those of fortune." The conqueror was so affected with the vigour and elevation of his soul, as to declare, that "if he was not Alexander, he would choose to be Diogenes:" that is, if he was not in possession of all that was pompous and splendid in life, he would, like Diogenes, heroically despise it. Diogenes had great presence of mind, as appears from his smart sayings and quick repartees; and Plato seems to have hit off his true character when he called him a Socrates run mad. He spent a great part of his life at Corinth, and the reason of his living there was as follows: as he was going over to the island of Ægina, he was taken by pirates, who carried him into Crete, and there exposed him to sale. He answered the crier who asked him what he could do, that "he knew how to command men;" and perceiving a Corinthian who was going by, he showed him to the crier, and said "Sell me to that gentleman, for he wants a master." Xeniares, for that was the Corinthian's name, bought Diogenes, and carried him with him to Corinth. He appointed him tutor to his children, and intrusted him also with the management of his house. Diogenes's friends being desirous to redeem him, "You are fools (said he); the lions are not the slaves of those who feed them, but they are the servants of the lions." He therefore Diogenes therefore plainly told Xeniares, that he ought to obey him, as people obey their governors and physicians. Some say, that Diogenes spent the remainder of his life in Xeniares's family; but Dion Chrysostom affirms that he passed the winter at Athens, and the summer at Corinth. He died at Corinth when he was about 90 years old: but authors are not agreed either as to the time or manner of his death. The following account, Jerome says, is the true one. As he was going to the Olympic games, a fever seized him in the way; upon which he lay down under a tree, and refused the assistance of those who accompanied him, and who offered him either a horse or a chariot. "Go you to the games (says he), and leave me to contend with my illness. If I conquer, I will follow you; if I am conquered, I shall go to the shades below." He despatched himself that very night; saying, that "he did not properly die, as get rid of his fever." He had for his disciples Onesicritus, Phocion, Stilpo of Megara, and several other great men. His works are lost.

Diogenes Laertius, so called from Laertes in Cilicia where he was born, an ancient Greek author, who wrote ten books of the Lives of the Philosophers, still extant. In what age he flourished, is not easy to determine. The oldest writers who mention him are Sopater Alexandrinus, who lived in the time of Constantine the Great, and Hesychius Milefius, who lived under Justinian. Diogenes often speaks in terms of approbation of Plutarch and Phavorinus; and therefore, as Plutarch lived under Trajan, and Phavorinus under Hadrian, it is certain that he could not flourish before the reigns of those emperors. Menage has fixed him to the time of Severus; that is, about the year of Christ 200. From certain expressions in him some have fancied him to have been a Christian; but, as Menage observes, the immoderate praises he bestows upon Epicurus will not suffer us to believe this, but incline us rather to suppose that he was an Epicurean. He divided his Lives into books, and inscribed them to a learned lady of the Platonic school, as he himself intimates in his life of Plato. Montaigne was so fond of this author, that instead of one Laertius he wishes we had a dozen; and Vossius says, that his work is as precious as gold. Without doubt we are greatly obliged to him for what we know of the ancient philosophers: and if he had been as exact in the writing part as he was judicious in the choice of his subject, we had been more obliged to him still. Bishop Burnet, in the preface to his Life of Sir Matthew Hale, speaks of him in the following proper manner: "There is no book the ancients have left us (says he), which might have informed us more than Diogenes Laertius's Lives of the Philosophers, if he had had the art of writing equal to that great subject which he undertook: for if he had given the world such an account of them as Gellius has done of Peirene, how great a flock of knowledge might we have had, which by his unskilfulness is in a great measure lost! since we must now depend only on him, because we have no other and better author who has written on that argument." There have been several editions of his Lives of the Philosophers; but the best is that printed in two volumes 4to, at Amsterdam, 1693. This contains the advantages of all the former, besides some peculiar to itself: the Greek text and the Latin version corrected and amended by Meibomius; the entire notes of Henry Stephens, both the Catabanch and of Menage; 24 copperplates of philosophers elegantly engraved; to which is added The history of the Female Philosophers, written by Menage, and dedicated to Madame Dacier. Besides this, Laertius wrote a book of Epigrams upon illustrious Men, called Pammetrus, from its various kinds of metre; but this is not extant.