Part XI.

44S
THE
HISTORY of PHILOSPOHY.
Ci^e Patty
Containing the ELEA.TiCK SeU.
i
■ rt
x
f
\
XENOPHANES.
CHAP. I
His Life.
The Eleatick Se ^ Ela a City of Magna Gracia^ founded in the time of Cyrus by a Colony of fhocam 5 of
whom, being befieged by Harpagus, fome made their efcape by night, and came into this part of Italy y where they built a City which they named
Elea^
f
446 HERACL.ITVS. Part X-
CHAP. 11.
Hfs Opinions^
Elea^ Helta, or Bjela , either from Elea the a Dionyf. River of that place, or, as ( a) fome conceive, Haltc. jfj aiiuHon to the Marines round about it.
Of this City were Varmenidesj Zem, and Leu- ciffus ; who being eminent Perfons of one Se6f, from them the Se
But its firit Infiitutor was Xenophanes. •The b Strain. Eleatick SiSl', faith (h) Clemens, liiof begun by Xenophanes the Colophonian, ivho ( as Timaeus ajjirms ) lived in the time of Hieron King o/Sicily, and of Epicharmus the Voet ; But Apollodorus, that ■ he was born in the fourth Olympiad, and his life extended to the times of Darius and Cyrus. Par¬ menides 7vas Dijcifle to Xeriophanes ; Zeno to him\ then Leucippus; then Democritus. The Auditors of Democritus were Protagoras the Ab- derite, Metrodorus Chian, and'Diog&riQsthe Smyrnasan, whofe Difciple was Anaxarchus. c Latrt. (c) Xenophanes (as was faid ) a Colo¬ phonian, Son of DexiuSy or ( Appollodorus ) hirjiy
Zenophanes, not wholly free from pride ^
The f U'ions of old Homer did deride.
Being banijhed his Country^ be lived at Zencle and Catana in Sicijy. Some affirm, he had no Mafler ; others, that he heard Botho the Athenian ; others Archelaus, \^7vhicb is leaf probable, for~\ he was ( as Sotion relates) contemporary with Anaxi¬ mander. He wrote in verje Elegies and lambicks againf Hefiod and Homer, reprehending what they deliver d concerning the Gods, He aljo wrote the budding 0/^ Colophon, and the bringing of the Colo¬ ny intolEXttL in Italy, which confjied of two thou- d Lib. Jandverjes. But f d) Strabo, who affirms he writ the Silli in verfe, feems to have aferibed to him what was indeed written by Timon the Sceptick, his miftake perhaps arifing from hence, that e Lasrt. in (e) the fecond and third books of that Poem TiKont. were written by way of Dialogue, wherein T;- mon queftions Xenophanes about every thing, who gives anfvvers to all.
Zenophanes fung his own works. It is farther faid, that he afj'erted doblrines contrary to Thales
Pythagoras, a^id jomewhat againf Epimeni- des. He flour ijls’ d in the 60th Olympiad. De¬ metrius Phalereus, Pan teti us tiSe Stoick relate,
that like Anaxagoras he buried his Sons, with his own hands. He lived to a great age, for he faith of himfelf.
Sixty feven years in Greece I now have told;
And when I came was twenty five years old.
Lucian therefore reckons amif, affirming he liv'd ninety one years ; for this account of fixty feven, and iDedienat. twenty five amounts to ninety two. (^f) Cenfo^inus cap. IS- faith, he lived above a hundred years. g Laert. (^) Empedocles faying to him, that he could not find a wife man\ That may very well be, faith he, for you are not capable to know a wife man.
He was redeemed by Parmenifeus Pythagoreans, as Phavorinus relates.
There was another Xenophanes o/Lesbus, an lambick-Boct.
r» *
■- 4 .yi.
i. ' ' ■
XEnophanes, {h) as Socion affirms, held all h Laert.
things to be incornpreherfible , and (i) reprov- ^ tiif. ed the arrogance of tho(e perfons, who not capable of knoimng any thing, durfi fay, they knew ; Neverthe- le(s he did maintain many dogmatical ajjertions affirming,
(k) Not all at firft the Gods to men reveal’d, k 5/5^-]
But by long fearch they find out things conceal’d.
Whence it is, that Ttmon the Sceptick calls him •vm>Tv matical felf-conceit.
He held, that God is one, and incorporeal, eternal, (1) in fubflance and figure round, no way j Lgirt. reftmbltng man ; that he is all fight, and all hearing, but breathes not ; that he is all things, the mind and wifdom, not generate, but eternal, impaffible, immu¬ table, and rational,
(w) Greateftof Godsand men,oneGod wefind, m chm.
Like mortals not in body, not in mind.
$
Moreover, (^n ) he reproved and confuted the n Laert. fahuloTts narrations of MomtV send Viel\odi concerning the Gods ; and (0 ) the deferiptions which the Gre- o Clem, cians made of them, as that they are of human form, Alex, • and fiibjebi to humane affeblions ; every one fancying them after their own hkemfi, the dithiopians black and flat-nos' d, Thracians ruddy and grey-ey'd^
and fo for their minds or difpofitions, the Barbarians believed them fierce and cruel, the Grecians more ^
mild, yet obnoxious to paffions.
k
Men think the Gods like them begotten were, f
And that like them their form, fhape, garments are.^ ^
fp) That this (God, ’or) One, is all things ;pcic. Acad. the Univerfe confifts of this eternal One. C Whatfoevfer is, is eternal ; for it is impoffible *1 Ariffit. 4 that fomething fhould be made of nothing. The ^
World is eternal without beginning or end, [as being tngenerate, for] (r) he firft afferted, that f whatfoever is generated, is corruptible.
( f) That there are infinite Worlds, and thofe f Laert. immutable.
(f^ That there are four Elements. t Laert.
(«) That the Starsare madeof certain Clouds « Plat.plat, fet on fire, which are extinguilhed every day, and kindled again at night : for the rifing and letting of the Stars is nothing elfe, but their enkindling and extinguifhing. ( x) As for thofe lights which xPkt.piac, appear about fiiips, ( commonly termed Cador ^8. and Po^«.-c) thefeare little Clouds fet on fire, and Alining by reafon of fome motion; and that all Comets, Falling-rtars, and the like, are Clouds kindled by motion.
( y) That the Sun confifts of a colledlion of ypht.plac. little fires made by a humid exhalation, or that 2- 20- J : it is a ( z,) fiery Cloud, (a) That the Eclipfe ^ siob.phyf. | of the Sun iscaufed by extindfion, and that there rifeth-a new Sun in the Eaft. .-He further avers, 2. 24. that the Sun hath been Edipfed for a whole Month together,
■ (0 That