ral science, his views are very crude and antiquated, as we see from
the following verses:

"From clouds the snow and hail descend,
And thunderbolts the lightnings send;
The waves run high when gales do blow,
Without the wind they're still enow."

Indeed, of all the sages of that time, Thales alone seems to have known
more of physics than was necessary to supply man's every-day needs; all
the others having gained their reputation for political wisdom.

IV. These wise men are said to have met at Delphi, and again at Corinth,
where they were entertained by the despot Periander. Their reputation
was greatly increased by the tripod which was sent to all of them and
refused by all with a gracious rivalry. The story goes that some men of
Cos were casting a net, and some strangers from Miletus bought the haul
of them before it reached the surface.

The net brought up a golden tripod, the same which, it is said, Helen
threw into the sea at that spot, in accordance with some ancient oracle,
when she was sailing away from Troy. A dispute arose at first between
the strangers and the fishermen; afterwards it was taken up by their
respective cities, who even came to blows about it. Finally they
consulted the oracle at Delphi, which ordered it to be given to the
wisest. Now it was first sent to Miletus, to Thales, as the men of Cos
willingly gave it to that one man, although they had fought with all the
Milesians together about it. Thales said that Bias was wiser than
himself, and sent it to him; and by him it was again sent to another
man, as being wiser yet. So it went on, being sent from one to another
until it came to Thales a second time, and at last was sent from Miletus
to Thebes and consecrated to Apollo Ismenius. As Theophrastus tells the
story, the tripod was first sent to Bias at Priene, and secondly to
Thales at Miletus, and so on through all of the wise men until it again
reached Bias, and was finally offered at Delphi. This is the more common
version of the story, although some say that it was not a tripod but a
bowl sent by Croesus, others that it was a drinking-cup left behind by
one Bathykles.

V. Anacharsis is said to have met Solon, and afterwards Thales in
private, and to have conversed with them. The story goes that Anacharsis
came to Athens, went to Solon's door, and knocked, saying that he was a
stranger and had come to enter into friendship with him. When Solon
answered that friendships w