Collier's New Encyclopedia

A complete general encyclopedia of 1921 — the world as it was understood just after the Great War, from Aachen to Zwingli, across twelve volumes and six thousand pages.

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Thales

the earliest of the Greek philosophers, called the father of philosophy; born in Miletus 640 B. C. He was Miletus 640 в. c. He was the founder of the Ionic school, one of the chief sources of Grecian philosophy.

He visited Egypt for instruction in the sciences professed by the priesthood. Besides abstract philosophy, he studied geometry and astronomy, and tradition credits him with predicting a solar predicting a eclipse. His ancient biographers menancient biographers mention among his services to astronomy a calculation of the length of the year, and of the interval between solstices and equinoxes. He left nothing in writing. He died about 550.

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