Though Thales of Miletus is generally regarded as the first to mention that amber has the property of attracting light particles when it has been electrified by friction, his claim to this distinction actually rests on very uncertain grounds. That Thales was the first to mention this property can be inferred only indirectly from the following statement of Diogenes Laertius in his discussion of Thales: 'Αριστοτέλης δε και 'Ιππία? φασϊν αυτόν και τοι? άψυχοι? μεταδίδομαι ψνχά?, τεκμαιρόμενον εκ τη? λίθου τη? μαγνητιδος και του ήλεκτρου.190 (Aristotle and Hippias say that, judging by the behavior of the lodestone and amber, he also attributed souls to lifeless things.) What Aristotle really says about this opinion of Thales is as follows: βοικβ δε και Θαλή? έξ ων αττομνημονενονσι κινητικόν τι την ψυχήν ύπολαβΐίν, €Ϊπερ τον λίθον εφη ψυχην εχειν δτι τον σίΖηρον κινεί.191 (According to the reports made about him, Thales also seems to regard soul as a motive force, if indeed he said that the lodestone has a soul because it moves iron.) In other words, Aristotle, whom Diogenes Laertius quotes, does not even mention amber in his corresponding statement about Thales. Of course it may be inferred from these two statements that it was Hippias who said that Thales understood the attractive property of amber, but there is no way of confirming such an inference because the works of Hippias are not extant. It may even be that the allusion to amber in the statement of Diogenes Laertius is the result of a late interpolation, as has been suggested by Rossignol.182 The first clear indication that the ancients knew about the attractive property of amber is given by Plato, who very briefly alludes to it in his Timaeus,193 though he denies that it had a real power of attraction. The various statements of Theophrastus in sections 28 and 29 are certainly the earliest account of the properties of amber.
29. The stone that attracts iron is the most remarkable and conspicuous example. This also is rare and occurs in jew places. Though Theophrastus does not give a specific name to the lode-
190I, I, 24.
101 De Anima I, 2, 405A.
192 J. P. Rossignol, Les Metaux dans VAntiquite (Paris, 1863), p. 348.
1«3 80C.
