n or destruction or existence of
anything, he must find out what state of being or doing or suffering was
best for that thing, and therefore a man had only to consider the best
for himself and others, and then he would also know the worse, since the
same science comprehended both. And I rejoiced to think that I had found
in Anaxagoras a teacher of the causes of existence such as I desired,
and I imagined that he would tell me first whether the earth is flat or
round; and whichever was true, he would proceed to explain the cause and
the necessity of this being so, and then he would teach me the nature of
the best and show that this was best; and if he said that the earth was
in the centre, he would further explain that this position was the best,
and I should be satisfied with the explanation given, and not want any
other sort of cause. And I thought that I would then go on and ask him
about the sun and moon and stars, and that he would explain to me their
comparative swiftness, and their returnings and various states, active
and passive, and how all of them were for the best. For I could not
imagine that when he spoke of mind as the disposer of them, he would
give any other account of their being as they are, except that this was
best; and I thought that when he had explained to me in detail the cause
of each and the cause of all, he would go on to explain to me what was
best for each and what was good for all. These hopes I would not have
sold for a large sum of money, and I seized the books and read them as
fast as I could in my eagerness to know the better and the worse.

What expectations I had formed, and how grievously was I disappointed!
As I proceeded, I found my philosopher altogether forsaking mind or any
other principle of order, but having recourse to air, and ether, and
water, and other eccentricities. I might compare him to a person who
began by maintaining generally that mind is the cause of the actions
of Socrates, but who, when he endeavoured to explain the causes of my
several actions in detail, went on to show that I sit here because my
body is made up of bones and muscles; and the bones, as he would say,
are hard and have joints which divide them, and the muscles are elastic,
and they cover the bones, which have also a covering or environment of
flesh and skin which contains them; and as the bones are lifted at their
joints by the contraction or relaxation of the muscles, I am able
to bend my limbs, a