EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY 



conception is paralleled by that of another physician, 

 Alcmaeon, of Proton, who contended that man's ideas 

 of the gods amounted to mere suppositions at the very 

 most. A rationalistic or sceptical tendency has been 

 the accompaniment of medical training in all ages. 



The words in which Empedocles expresses his con- 

 ception of deity have been preserved and are well 

 worth quoting: "It is not impossible," he says, "to 

 draw near (to god) even with the eyes or to take hold 

 of him with our hands, which in truth is the best 

 highway of persuasion in the mind of man ; for he has 

 no human head fitted to a body, nor do two shoots 

 branch out from the trunk, nor has he feet, nor swift 

 legs, nor hairy parts, but he is sacred and ineffable 

 mind alone, darting through the whole world with 

 swift thoughts." 12 



How far Empedocles carried his denial of anthropo- 

 morphism is illustrated by a reference of Aristotle, 

 who asserts "that Empedocles regards god as most 

 lacking in the power of perception; for he alone does 

 not know one of the elements, Strife (hence) , of perish- 

 able things." It is difficult to avoid the feeling that 

 Empedocles here approaches the modern philosophical 

 conception that God, however postulated as immutable, 

 must also be postulated as unconscious, since intelli- 

 gence, as we know it, is dependent upon the transmu- 

 tations of matter. But to urge this thought would be 

 to yield to that philosophizing tendency which has 

 been the bane of interpretation as applied to the an- 

 cient thinkers. 



Considering for a moment the more tangible accom- 

 plishments of Empedocles, we find it alleged that one 



