DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY 
7 
noticeable in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, and com 
paring the well-known experiment of the ring at the bottom 
of a jug, where the ring, just out of sight when the jug is 
empty, is brought into view when water is poured in. We do 
not know who the ‘ more ancient ’ mathematicians were who 
were first exercised by the ‘ paradoxical ’ case; but it seems 
not impossible that it was the observation of this phenomenon, 
and the difficulty of explaining it otherwise, which made 
Anaxagoras and others adhere to the theory that there are 
other bodies besides the earth which sometimes, by their 
interposition, cause lunar eclipses. The story is also a good 
illustration of the fact that, with the Greeks, pure theory 
went hand in hand with observation. Observation gave data 
upon which it was possible to found a theory ; but the theory 
had to be modified from time to time to suit observed new 
facts; they had continually in mind the necessity of ‘ saving 
the phenomena ’ (to use the stereotyped phrase of Greek 
astronomy). Experiment played the same part in Greek 
medicine and biology. 
Among the different Greek stocks the lonians who settled 
on the coast of Asia Minor were the most favourably situated 
in respect both of natural gifts and of environment for initiat 
ing philosophy and theoretical science. When the colonizing 
spirit first arises in a nation and fresh fields for activity and 
development are sought, it is naturally the younger, more 
enterprising and more courageous spirits who volunteer to 
leave their homes and try their fortune in new countries; 
similarly, on the intellectual side, the colonists will be at 
least the equals of those who stay at home, and, being the 
least wedded to traditional and antiquated ideas, they will be 
the most capable of striking out new lines. So it was with 
the Greeks who founded settlements in Asia Minor. The 
geographical position of these settlements, connected with the 
mother country by intervening islands, forming stepping- 
stones as it were from the one to the other, kept them in 
continual touch with the mother country; and at the same 
time their geographical horizon was enormously extended by 
the development of commerce over the whole of the Mediter 
ranean. The most adventurous seafarers among the Greeks 
of Asia Minor, the Phocaeans, plied their trade successfully