Yet it
is clear that he considered himself as belonging to the class of the
poor, rather than that of the rich, from the following verses:
"The base are rich, the good are poor; and yet
Our virtue for their gold we would not change;
For that at least is ours for evermore,
While wealth we see from hand to hand doth range."
His poetry was originally written merely for his own amusement in his
leisure hours; but afterwards he introduced into it philosophic
sentiments, and interwove political events with his poems, not in order
to record them historically, but in some cases to explain his own
conduct, and in others to instruct, encourage, or rebuke the Athenians.
Some say that he endeavoured to throw his laws into an epic form, and
tell us that the poem began--
"To Jove I pray, great Saturn's son divine,
To grant his favour to these laws of mine."
Of ethical philosophy, he, like most of the sages of antiquity, was most
interested in that branch which deals with political obligations. As to
natural 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.
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