9
After this second reading, there was silence for a time, and then Thales asked Neiloxenus if Amasis had approved the answers. When Neiloxenus replied that Amasis had accepted some, but was much dissatisfied with others, Thales said, As a matter of fact there is not a thing in them that cannot be impugned, but they all contain gross errors and evidences of ignorance. For instance, in the very first one, how can time be the oldest thing if a part of it is past, a part present, and a part future? Plutarch, Moralia, 1081 C-1082 D, argues at some length about the Stoic conception of time. For the time which is to come would clearly be younger than events and persons that now are. And to hold that truth is wisdom seems to me no different from declaring that light is the eye. If he thought the light beautiful, as it really is, how did he come to overlook the sun itself? Among the others the answer about gods and evil spirits evinces boldness and daring, but the one about Fortune contains much bad logic; for Fortune would not be so fickle about abiding with one if it were the mightiest and strongest thing in existence. Nor is death, in fact, the most common thing; for it does not affect the living.Probably an adaptation of one of Epicurus’s leading principles ο θάνατος οὐδὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς, death is nothing to us, who are alive. Cf. Diogenes Laertius, x. 129, and Plutarch, Moralia, 37 A. But, to avoid giving the impression of merely passing judgement upon the statements of others, let us compare answers of our own with his. And I offer myself as the first, if Neiloxenus so desires, to be questioned on each topic; and taking the questions in the order given,Either Thales or a copyist has transposed (c) and (d).a I will repeat them, together with my answersMost of these sentiments are attributed to Thales in works of other authors, as wel as in other places in the Moralia. It may suffice here to refer, for example, to Diogenes Laertius, i. 35. The two numbered (f) and (g) are rather suggestive of the Stoic school of philosophy.:
