A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



Xenophanes expressed his views have come down to 

 us, and these fragments include a tolerably definite 

 avowal of his faith. " God is one supreme among gods 

 and men, and not like mortals in body or in mind," 

 says Xenophanes. Again he asserts that " mortals sup- 

 pose that the gods are born (as they themselves are), 

 that they wear man's clothing and have human voice 

 and body; but," he continues, "if cattle or lions had 

 hands so as to paint with their hands and produce 

 works of art as men do, they would paint their gods 

 and give them bodies in form like their own horses 

 like horses, cattle like cattle." Elsewhere he says, with 

 great acumen: "There has not been a man, nor will 

 there be, who knows distinctly what I say about the 

 gods or in regard to all things. For even if one chance 

 for the most part to say what is true, still he would 

 not know; but every one thinks that he knows." 6 



In the same spirit Xenophanes speaks of the battles 

 of Titans, of giants, and of centaurs as "fictions of 

 former ages." All this tells of the questioning spirit 

 which distinguishes the scientific investigator. Pre- 

 cisely whither this spirit led him we do not know, but 

 the writers of a later time have preserved a tradition 

 regarding a belief of Xenophanes that perhaps en- 

 titles him to be considered the father of geology. Thus 

 Hippolytus records that Xenophanes studied the fos- 

 sils to be found in quarries, and drew from their ob- 

 servation remarkable conclusions. His words are as 

 follows: "Xenophanes believes that once the earth 

 was mingled with the sea, but in the course of time it 

 became freed from moisture; and his proofs are such 

 as these: that shells are found in the midst of the 



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