ine the nature and cause of the universe. But this was
followed by a scepticism as to the sense perception, a scepticism which
could only be overcome by a larger observation of facts. Simple as it
appears, this process was an essential transition from the theology of
the Greeks to the perfected philosophy built upon reason. The attitude
of the mind was of great value, and the attention directed to external
nature was sure to turn again to man, and the supernatural. While
there is a mixture of the physical, metaphysical, and mystical, the
final lesson to be learned is the recognition of reality of nature as
external to mind.

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_The Eleatic Philosophers_.--About 500 B.C., and nearly contemporary
with the Pythagoreans, flourished the Eleatic philosophers, among whom
Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno, and Melissus were the principal leaders.
They speculated about the nature of the mind, or soul, and departed
from the speculations respecting the origin of the earth. The nature
of the infinite and the philosophy of being suggested by the Ionian
philosophers were themes that occupied the attention of this new
school. Parmenides believed in the knowledge of an absolute being, and
affirmed the unity of thought and being. He won the distinction of
being the first logical philosopher among the Greeks, and was called
the father of idealism.

Zeno is said to have been the most remarkable of this school. He held
that if there was a distinction between _being_ and _not being_, only
_being_ existed. This led him to the final assumption that the laws of
nature are unchangeable and God remains permanent. His method of
reasoning was to reduce the opposite to absurdity.

Upon the whole, the Eleatic philosophy is one relating to knowledge and
being, which considered thought primarily as dependent upon being. It
holds closely to monism, that is, that nature and mind are of the same
substance; yet there is a slight distinction, for there is really a
dualism expressed in knowledge and being. Many other philosophers
followed, who discoursed upon nature, mind, and being, but they arrived
at no definite conclusions. The central idea in the early philosophy
up to this time was to account for the existence and substance of
nature. It gave little consideration to man in himself, and said
little of the supernatural. Everything was speculative in nature,
hypothetical in proposition, and deductive in argument. The Greek
mind, depa