“Such things of the gods are related by Homer and Hesiod
     As would be shame and abiding disgrace to mankind,—­
     Promises broken, and thefts, and the one deceiving the other.”

And again, respecting anthropomorphic representations of the deity,—­

     “But men foolishly think that gods are born like as men are,
     And have too a dress like their own, and their voice and their figure;
     But there’s but one God alone, the greatest of gods and of mortals,
     Neither in body to mankind resembling, neither in ideas.”

Such were the sublime meditations of Xenophanes.  He believed in the One, which is God; but this all-pervading, unmoved, undivided being was not a personal God, nor a moral governor, but deity pervading all space.  He could not separate God from the world, nor could he admit the existence of world which is not God.  He was a monotheist, but his monotheism was pantheism.  He saw God in all the manifestations of Nature.  This did not satisfy him nor resolve his doubts, and he therefore confessed that reason could not compass the exalted aims of philosophy.  But there was no cynicism in his doubt.  It was the soul-sickening consciousness that reason was incapable of solving the mighty questions that he burned to know.  There was no way to arrive at the truth, “for,” said he, “error is spread over all things.”  It was not disdain of knowledge, it was the combat of contradictory opinions that oppressed him.  He could not solve the questions pertaining to God.  What uninstructed reason can?  “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou know the Almighty unto perfection?” What was impossible to Job was not possible to Xenophanes.  But he had attained a recognition of the unity and perfections of God; and this conviction he would spread abroad, and tear down the superstitions which hid the face of truth.  I have great admiration for this philosopher, so sad, so earnest, so enthusiastic, wandering from city to city, indifferent to money, comfort, friends, fame, that he might kindle the knowledge of God.  This was a lofty aim indeed for philosophy in that age.  It was a higher mission than that of Homer, great as his was, though not so successful.

Parmenides of Elea, born about the year 530 B.C., followed out the system of Xenophanes, the central idea of which was the existence of God.  With Parmenides the main thought was the notion of being.  Being is uncreated and unchangeable; the fulness of all being is thought; the All is thought and intelligence.  He maintained the uncertainty of knowledge, meaning the knowledge derived through the senses.  He did not deny the certainty of reason.  He was the first who drew a distinction between knowledge obtained by the senses and that obtained through the reason; and thus he anticipated the doctrine of innate ideas.  From the uncertainty of knowledge derived through the senses, he deduced the twofold system of true and apparent knowledge.