THALES, philosopher of Greece, and one of her seven sages; was a philosopher of the physical school, and the father of philosophy in general, as the first to seek and find within Nature an explanation of Nature; "the principle of all things is water," he says; "all comes from water, and to water all returns"; flourished about the close of the 7th century B.C. THALIA, one of the THREE GRACES (q. v.), as also of the NINE MUSES (q. v.).