POSEY
437
POSITIVISM
Posey, John Henderson, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was born Sept. 17, 1819, in Breckinridge County, Ky. ; emigrated with his parents in early life to Illinois, and settled in Morgan County. His first, religious impressions were at about the age of seventeen. When he attained to the years of manhood he came to Missouri, and there connected himself with the Methodist Church. He was licensed to preach July 16, 1853, and retained the local relation for some time. In 186(5 he joined the Illinois Confer- ence, and was appointed to Harry Circuit. In 1868 he was appointed to Lima Circuit. Shortly after the next year's Conference his health failed, and he died Nov. 13, 1869. He ever regarded the ministry as the most sa- cred vocation on earth. His high appreciation of its sanctity and responsibility was such at times as almost to overpower his own spirit. He was a true itinerant in heart and practice. See Minutes of the Annual Con- ferences, 1870, p. 518, 519.
Fosido'nius (Uoaicmnoc'), an envoy of the Syr- ian general Nicanor to Judas Maccabanis (2 Mace, xiv, 19).
Posidonius {Uoau^iovioc), a distinguished Greek Stoic philosopher, was a native of Apameia in Syria, but a citizen of Rhodes, where he resided the greater part of his life (Strabo, xiv, 655; Athen. vi, 252 e). The dates of his birth and death are unknown ; but he must have been bom during the latter half of the 2d centurjr before the Christian sera, as he was a disciple of Panre- tius, who probably died about B.C. 100, and whom he succeeded as the head of the Stoic school. He removed to Rome in the consulship of Marcus Marcellus (Suidas, Posidon.), B.C. 51, and probably died soon after. He lived, according to Lucian (Macrob. c. 20), to the age of eighty-four, and was one of the most celebrated phi- losophers of his day. Cicero, who had received instruc- tion from him (Cicero, Be Fato, c. 3 ; De Nat. Deo?: i, 3; Be Fin. i, 2), frequenthy speaks of him in the highest terms. Pompey also appears to have had a very high opinion of him, as we read of his visiting him at Rhodes shortly before the war against the pirates, B.C. 67 (Strabo, xi, 492), and again in B.C. 62, after the termination of the Mithridatic war (Plutarch, Pomp. c. 42; Pliny, Hist. Nat.vW, 30). He must have been a man of very extensive and varied information in almost all the de- partments of human knowledge. Strabo calls him, dvfjp twv icaSr' ?//<«£ <pi\o<Jo<pioi' iroXvpaSiararog. Besides his philosophical treatises, he wrote works on geography, history, and astronomy ; but none of them have come down to us, with the exception of their titles, and a few sentences quoted by Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, Strabo, and others. He seems to have travelled in different parts of the world for the purpose of collecting informa- tion. We learn incidentally from Strabo (xiii, 614; iii, 165 ; iv, 197) that he had been in Spain, Liguria, and Gaul. Plutarch was also indebted to Posidonius, among others, for the materials of several of his lives. This is the case in the Lives of Marcellus. Paulus /Emilius, the Gracchi, and others ; but particularly in the Life of Ma- rius, with whom Posidonius had been personally ac- quainted (Pint, Marius, c. 45). Posidonius wrote Me- teorologica. Cicero mentions {Nat. Deor. ii, 34) his ar- tificial sphere, which represented the motions of the heavens. Posidonius was a much stricter Stoic than his master Panotitis. He maintained that pain was not an evil, as we learn from an anecdote which Pompey frequently related respecting his visit to the philosopher at Rhodes (Cicero, Tusc. Disp. ii, 25). As a physical investigator he was greatly superior to the Stoics gen- erally, attaching himself in this respect rather to Aris- totle. Indeed, although attached to the Stoic system, he was far less dogmatical and obstinate than the ma- jority of that school, refusing to admit a dogma because it was one of the school if it did not commend itself to him for its intrinsic merits. His works on divination and the nature of the gods are referred to by Cicero,
who probably made use of them in his works on the same subject (Cicero, L)e Div. i, 3, 30, 64; De Nat. Deor. i. 44). Strabo says (xi, 492) that Posidonius wrote an account of the wars of Pompey, but did not pay much attention to accuracy. This account was, however, prob- ably contained in his historical work, of which Athe- najus quotes (iv, 168 d) the 49th book (comp. Athen. iv, 151 e). For further information respecting the opinions and writings of Posidonius, see Posidonii Peliquice Doc- trince ; Collegit atque illustravit Janus Bake ; A ccedit D. Wyttenbaehii Annotutio (Lugduni Bat. 1810, 8vo). See also Smith, Diet. ofGr. and Rom. Biog. andMythol. s. v. ; Fabricius, Bill. Grae. iii, 572; Vossius, De Hist. Grcec. p. 193 ; Ritter, Gesch. der Philos. vol. iii, bk. xi, c. 6, p. 700 ; Ueberweg, Hist, of Philos. vol. i. (J. II. W.) There was another Posidonius of Alexandria, who was a pupil of Zeno, and consequently was prior to Polybius. Suidas, however, by mistake, ascribes to this Posidonius a continuation of Polybius in fifty-two books, which is evidently the work of the younger Posidonius.