THE, was the oldest of the ancient schools of philosophy. It originated in Asia Minor, under Thales of Miletus, about 600 B.C. Its most famous leaders after Thales were Anaximander of Miletus, Pherecydes of Syra, Anaximenes of Miletus, Heraclitus of Ephesus, Anaxagoras and Hermotimus of Clazomenae, and Diogenes of Apollonia. From Asia Minor the spirit of the Ionic philosophy passed into Greece, at first with Anaxagoras, and afterwards with Archelaus, the master of Socrates. Thus Athens, taught from Ionia, became in turn the headquarters of philosophy, and the parent of the most celebrated Greek schools. The interval between Thales and Archelaus embraced a period of about 150 years. The philosophers of the Ionic school directed their attention principally to physics and morals. A few only of their principles and beliefs can now be ascertained from the fragments which have come down to us. In mental philosophy Pherecydes broached the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; Heraclitus speculated on the nature of the difference between the sleeping and waking state of an intellectual being, and on the individual sense, as distinct from general reason, the latter being the seat of all truth, the former of all error. Anaxagoras first drew the line of distinction between spirit and matter, and drew attention to the regulative faculty in man.
In physiology the great question which the Ionic philoso-
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1 Unless we take as a proof of it, that sometimes a legislator who returns home, after giving obnoxious votes, is pelted with lemon by his displeased constituents. 2 Parliamentary Papers: Ionian Islands. Despatch of Sir H. Ward, 13th December 1850. 3 See the Ionian Islands, by an Ionian, 1851, London, Ridgway; and the various works cited in it. 4 It had been one-fifth of the entire revenue, but after various abatements was fixed at L25,000. 5 Parliamentary Papers: Despatch of Earl Grey to Sir H. Ward, 13th August 1849. Ionian Islands under British Protection, p. 129, 130. 6 The late Sir Charles J. Napier. See his work on The Colonies, 1833, London, Boone. 7 See official table in Jervis's History of Corfu, Appendix II.