ty_ than
multiplicity in his philosophy of nature. He regards the testimony of
reason as of more authority than the testimony of sense; "and he holds
badly enough the balance between the unity of the Pythagoreans and the
variety which Heraclitus and the Ionians had alone considered."[445]

We are not, however, to suppose that Xenophanes denied entirely the
existence of _plurality_. "The great Rhapsodist of Truth" was guided by
the spontaneous intuitions of his mind (which seemed to partake of the
character of an inspiration), to a clearer vision of the truth than were
his successors of the same school by their discursive reasonings. "The
One" of Xenophanes was clearly distinguished from the outward universe
(ta polla) on the one hand, and from the "_non-ens_" on the other. It
was his disciple, Parmenides, who imagined the logical necessity of
identifying plurality with the "_non-ens_" and thus denying all
immediate cognition of the phenomenal world. The compactness and logical
coherence of the system of Parmenides seems to have had a peculiar charm
for the Grecian mind, and to have diverted the eyes of antiquity from
the views of the more earnest and devout Xenophanes, whose opinions were
too often confounded with those of his successors of the Eleatic school.
"Accordingly we find that Xenophanes has obtained credit for much that
is, exclusively, the property of Parmenides and Zeno, in particular for
denying plurality, and for identifying God with the universe."[446]

[Footnote 445: Cousin, "History of Philosophy," vol. i. p. 440.]

[Footnote 446: See note by editor, W.H. Thompson, M.A., on pages 331,
332 of Butler's "Lectures," vol. i. His authorities are "Fragments of
Xenophanes" and the treatise "De Melisso, Xenophane, et Gorgia," by
Aristotle.]

In theology, Xenophanes was unquestionably a _Theist_. He had a profound
and earnest conviction of the existence of a God, and he ridiculed with
sarcastic force, the anthropomorphic absurdities of the popular
religion. This one God, he taught, was self-existent, eternal, and
infinite; supreme in power, in goodness, and intelligence.[447] These
characteristics are ascribed to the Deity in the sublime words with
which he opens his philosophic poem--

"There is one God, of all beings, divine and human, the greatest:
Neither in body alike unto mortals, neither in mind."

He has no parts, no organs, as men have, being

"All sight, all ear, all intelligence;