speculation.
His criticism of the popular ideas of the gods is therefore closely
connected with his philosophical conception of God; the two are the
positive and negative sides of the same thing. Altogether his connexion
with what I call the naive criticism of the popular religion is
unmistakable.

It is undoubtedly a remarkable fact that we meet at this early date with
such a consistent representative of this criticism. If we take Xenophanes
at his word we must describe him as an atheist, and atheism in the sixth
century B.C. is a very curious phenomenon indeed. Neither was it
acknowledged in antiquity; no one placed Xenophanes amongst _atheoi_; and
Cicero even says somewhere (according to Greek authority) that Xenophanes
was the only one of those who believed in gods who rejected divination. In
more recent times, too, serious doubt has been expressed whether
Xenophanes actually denied the existence of the gods. Reference has
amongst other things been made to the fact that he speaks in several
places about "gods" where he, according to his view, ought to say "God";
nay, he has even formulated his fundamental idea in the words: "One God,
the greatest amongst gods and men, neither in shape nor mind like unto any
mortal." To be sure, Xenophanes is not always consistent in his language;
but no weight whatever ought to be attached to this, least of all in the
case of a man who exclusively expressed himself in verse. Another theory
rests on the tradition that Xenophanes regarded his deity and the universe
as identical, consequently was a pantheist. In that case, it is said, he
may very well have considered, for instance, the heavenly bodies as
deities. Sound as this argument is in general, it does not apply to this
case. When a thinker arrives at pantheism, starting from a criticism of
polytheism which is expressly based on the antithesis between the unity
and plurality of the deity--then very valid proofs, indeed, are needed in
order to justify the assumption that he after all believed in a plurality
of gods; and such proofs are wanting in the case of Xenophanes.

Judging from the material in hand one can hardly arrive at any other
conclusion than that the standpoint of Xenophanes comes under our
definition of atheism. But we must not forget that only fragments of his
writings have been preserved, and that the more extensive of them do not
assist us greatly to the understanding of his religious standpoint. It is
possible t