And one of his arguments in favour of humidity, as rendered to us by Plutarch and Stobaeus, is pretty nearly as follows: -- "Because fire, even in the sun and the stars, is nourished by vapours proceeding from humidity,--and therefore the whole world consists of the same." Of the world, he supposed the whole to be animated by, and full of, the Divinity--its Creator--that in it was no vacuum--that matter was fluid and variable.

[192] He maintained the stars and sun to be earthly, and the moon of the same nature as the sun, but illumined by it.

Somewhat more valuable would appear to have been his geometrical science, could we with accuracy attribute to Thales many problems claimed also, and more probably, by Pythagoras and later reasoners.

He is asserted to have measured the pyramids by their shadows.

He cultivated astronomy and astrology; and Laertius declares him to have been the first Greek that foretold eclipses.