A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



the thinker who was destined to carry on the work of 

 his master along the same scientific lines, though at 

 the same time mingling his scientific conceptions with 

 the mysticism of the poet. We have already had oc- 

 casion to mention that Parmenides championed the 

 idea that the earth is round; noting also that doubts 

 exist as to whether he or Pythagoras originated this 

 doctrine. No explicit answer to this question can 

 possibly be hoped for. It seems clear, however, that 

 for a long time the Italic School, to which both these 

 philosophers belonged, had a monopoly of the belief 

 in question. Parmenides, like Pythagoras, is credited 

 with having believed in the motion of the earth, 

 though the evidence furnished by the writings of the 

 philosopher himself is not as demonstrative as one 

 could wish. Unfortunately, the copyists of a later 

 age were more concerned with metaphysical specula- 

 tions than with more tangible things. But as far as 

 the fragmentary references to the ideas of Parmenides 

 may be accepted, they do not support the idea of the 

 earth's motion. Indeed, Parmenides is made to say 

 explicitly, in preserved fragments, that " the world is 

 immovable, limited, and spheroidal in form." 8 



Nevertheless, some modern interpreters have found 

 an opposite meaning in Parmenides. Thus Ritter 

 interprets him as supposing " that the earth is in the 

 centre spherical, and maintained in rotary motion by 

 its equiponderance ; around it lie certain rings, the 

 highest composed of the rare element fire, the next 

 lower a compound of light and darkness, and lowest of 

 all one wholly of night, which probably indicated to 

 his mind the surface of the earth, the centre of which 



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