[Footnote 2: Aristophanes, Nubes, 368, [Greek: A)lla\ ti/s u(/ei?] Herodot. vii. 129.] [Side-note: Belief in such agency continued among the general public, even after the various sects of philosophy had arisen.] Hesiod represents the point of view ancient and popular (to use Aristotle's expression[3]) among the Greeks, from whence all their philosophical speculation took its departure; and which continued throughout their history, to underlie all the philosophical speculations, as the faith of the ordinary public who neither frequented the schools nor conversed with philosophers. While Aristophanes, speaking in the name of this popular faith, denounces and derides Sokrates as a searcher, alike foolish and irreligious, after astronomical and physical causes--Sokrates himself not only denies the truth of the allegation, but adopts as his own the sentiment which dictated it; proclaiming Anaxagoras and others to be culpable for prying into mysteries which the Gods intentionally kept hidden.[4] The repugnance felt by a numerous public, against scientific explanation--as eliminating the divine agents and substituting in their place irrational causes,[5]--was a permanent fact of which philosophers were always obliged to take account, and which modified the tone of their speculations without being powerful enough to repress them. [Footnote 3: Aristotel. Metaphys. A. 8, p. 989, a. 10. [Greek: Phêsi\ de/ kai\ Ê(si/odos tê\n gê=n prô/tên gene/sthai tô=n sôma/tôn; ou(/tôs a)rchai/an kai\ dêmotikê\n sumbe/bêken ei)=nai tê\n u(po/lêpsin.] Again in the beginning of the second book of the Meteorologica, Aristotle contrasts the ancient and primitive theology with the "human wisdom" which grew up subsequently: [Greek: Oi( a)rchai=oi kai\ diatri/bontes peri\ ta\s theologi/as--oi( sophô/teroi tê\n a)nthrôpi/nên sophi/an] (Meteor, ii. i. p. 353, a.)] [Footnote 4: Xenophon, Memor. iv. 7, 5; i. 1, 11-15. Plato, Apolog. p. 26 E.] [Footnote 5: Plutarch, Nikias, c. 23. [Greek: Ou) ga\r ê)neichonto tou\s phusikou\s kai\ meteôrole/schas to/te kaloume/nous, ô(s ei)s ai)ti/as a)lo/gous kai\ duna/meis a)pronoê/tous kai\ katênagkasme/na pa/thê diatri/bontas to\ thei=on.]] [Side-note: Thales, the first Greek who propounded the hypothesis of physical agency in place of personal. Water, the primordial substance, or [Greek: a)rchê/].]