EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY 



again he probably considered to be fire." f But this, 

 like too many interpretations of ancient thought, 

 appears to read into the fragments ideas which the 

 words themselves do not warrant. There seems no 

 reason to doubt, however, that Parmenides actually 

 held the doctrine of the earth's sphericity. Another 

 glimpse of his astronomical doctrines is furnished us 

 by a fragment which tells us that he conceived the 

 morning and the evening stars to be the same, a doc- 

 trine which, as we have seen, was ascribed also to 

 Pythagoras. Indeed, we may repeat that it is quite 

 impossible to distinguish between the astronomical 

 doctrines of these two philosophers. 



The poem of Parmenides in which the cosmogonic 

 speculations occur treats also of the origin of man. 

 The author seems to have had a clear conception that 

 intelligence depends on bodily organism, and that the 

 more elaborately developed the organism the higher 

 the intelligence. But in the interpretation of this 

 thought we are hampered by the characteristic vague- 

 ness of expression, which may best be evidenced by 

 putting before the reader two English translations of 

 the same stanza. Here is Ritter's rendering, as made 

 into English by his translator, Morrison: 



"For exactly as each has the state of his limbs many- jointed, 

 So invariably stands it with men in their mind and their 



reason ; 



For the system of limbs is that which thinketh in mankind 

 Alike in all and in each: for thought is the fulness." 10 



The same stanza is given thus by George Henry Lewes : 



" Such as to each man is the nature of his many-jointed limbs, 

 Such also is the intelligence of each man; for it is 



