X E N 



X E N 



univerfe. The heavens he reprefented as divine, and the 

 ftars as celeftial gods; and befides thefe divinities, he taught 

 that there are terreftrial demons, of a middle order between 

 the gods and men, partaking of the nature both of mind and 

 body, and, like human beings, capable of paffions, and 

 liable to diverfity of charafter. He probably conceived 

 with Plato, that the fuperior divinities were ideas, or intel- 

 ligible forms, proceeding immediately from the Supreme 

 Deity, and the inferior gods, or demons, to be derived from 

 the foul of the world, and, like that principle, compounded 

 of a firaple and a divifible fubilance, or of that which 

 always remains the fame, and that which is liable to change. 

 Diogen. Laert. Plut. de Virt. Mor. Delf. etOfir. De 

 Anim. Gent. Cicero de Nat. Deor. Brucker's Hid. Phil, 

 by Enfield, vol. i. 



XENODOCHUS, formed of Ie.,,-, firanger, and 

 J'jU-uut, / receive, art ecclefiaftical officer of the Greek 

 church, the fame with the hofpitaler, or a perfon who 

 takes care of the reception and entertainment of ftrangers. 



St. Ifidore, a prieil and folitary, furnamed Xenodochus, 

 lived in the fourth century. He was thus called, becaufe 

 entrufted with that office in the church of Alexandria. 



XENOPAROCHUS, formed of l^®-, Jlranger, and 

 VTx^iXo;, of CTa^;;^!.), I furnijh, among the Romans, an officer 

 who provided ambaffadors with all kinds of neceflaries, at the 

 public expence. 



XENOPHANES, in Biography, the founder of the 

 Eleatic feft, was born at Colophon, about the 56ih Olym- 

 piad (B.C. 556) ; and having left his country, took refuge 

 in Sicily, where he gained a fubfiftence by reciting, in the 

 court of Hiero, elegiac aad iambic verfes, which he had 

 written again ft the theogonies of Hefiod and Homer. From 

 Sicily he removed to Magna Grascia, where he became a ce- 

 lebrated preceptor in the Pythagorean fchool, without ad- 

 hering ftriftly to the doftrines of Epimenides, Thales, and 

 Pythagoras. His life was prolonged to the advanced age 

 of 100 years, that is, till the 8ift Olympiad (B.C. 456), 

 during 70 years of which he occupied the Pythagorean chair 

 of philofophy. In Enfield's Philofophy of Brucker we have 

 the following fummary of the do6trine of Xenophanes : — 

 In metaphyfics, he taught, that if ever there had been a time 

 when nothing exifted, nothing could ever have exifted. That 

 whatever is, always has been from eternity, without deriving 

 its exiftence from any prior principle ; that nature is one and 

 without limit ; that what is one is fimilar in all its parts, elfe 

 it would be many ; that the one infinite, eternal, and ho- 

 mogeneous univerfe, is immutable and incapable of change ; 

 that God is one incorporeal eternal being, and, like the uni- 

 verfe, fpherical in form ; that he is of the fame nature with the 

 univerfe, comprehending all things within himfelf ; is intel- 

 ligent, and pervades all things ; but bears no refemblance to 

 human nature either in body or mind. 



In phyfics, he taught, that there are innumerable worlds ; 

 that there is in nature no real produftion, decay, or change ; 

 that there are four elements, and that the eartii is the bafis 

 of all things ; that the ftars arife from vapours, which are 

 extinguifhed by day, and ignited by night ; that the fun 

 confifts of fiery particles collefted by humid exhalations, and 

 daily renewed ; that the courfe of the fun is reftilinear, and 

 only appears curvihnear from its great diftance ; that there 

 are as many funs as there are different climates of the earth ; 

 that the moon is an inhabited world ; that the earth, as ap- 

 pears from marine fhells, which are found at the tops of 

 mountains, and in caverns far from the fea, was once a gene- 

 ral mafs of waters ; and that it will at length return into the 

 fame ftate, and pafs through an endlefs feries of fimilar 

 revolutions. 



The doftrine of Xenophanes concerning nature is fo ob- 

 fcurely expreffed by thofe who have tranfmitted an imperfeft 

 account of it, that it has been mifunderftood and mifrepre- 

 fented. Some have confounded it with the atheiftical fyf. 

 tem of Spinoza ; by others it has been accommodated to 

 the ancient doftrine of emanation ; and others have main- 

 tained its fimilarity to the Pythagorean and Stoical notions 

 of the foul of the world. The truth feems to have been, 

 according to Brucker's ftatement, that he held the univerfe 

 to be one in nature and fubftance ; diftinguifhing in his con- 

 ception between the matter of which all things confift, and 

 that latent divine force, which he confidered net as a diftinft 

 fubftance, but an attribute, and yet neceffarily inherent in the 

 univerfe, and the caufe of all its perfection. This vi-w of his 

 notion is confiftent with the language he ufed, and with the 

 account of his doftrine, preferved by Sextus Empiricus, that 

 Godisof the fame nature with the univerfe; ^h•/<S>•.^1avu'Pv^, to?; 

 xa^i. When he aflerted that there is no motion in nature, it is 

 probable that he underftood the term motion metaphyfically, 

 meaning merely that there is no fuch thing in nature as paffing 

 from nonentity to entity, orthe reverfe. Accordingly, the an- 

 cients more generally applied the term motion to a change 

 of nature than to change of place. Brucker is of opinion 

 that the notion afcribed to Xenophanes concerning the na- 

 ture and origin of the celeftial bodies, as meteors daily re- 

 newed, muft have been founded on a mifconception and mif- 

 reprefentation of his opinion on tlie fubjeft. See Eleatic 

 Philofophy. 



XENOPHILES, an able Greek mufician, who pro- 

 feffed the philofophy of Pythagoras, and who hved at 

 Athens, where he arrived at the great age of 105. It is 

 Lucian who gives this account of his extraordinary longevity 

 from Ariftoxenus. 



XENOPHON, the fon of Gryllus, an Athenian, was 

 diftinguiftied as a philofopher, commander, and hifto- 

 rian. His engaging appearance whilft he was a youth in- 

 duced Socrates to admit him into the number of his difci- 

 ples. Under his tuition he made rapid progrefs in that kind 

 of wifdom for which his mafter was fo eminent, and which 

 qualified him for all the offices of public and private life. 

 Having accompanied Socrates in the Peloponnefian war, and 

 manifefted his valour in defence of his country, he after- 

 wards entered into the army of Cyrus as a volunteer ; but 

 his enterprife againft his brother proving unfortunate, Xeno- 

 phon, after the death of Cyrus, adviled his fellow-foldiers 

 to attempt a retreat into their own country rather than to 

 furrender themfelves to the viftor. His advice was regarded, 

 and he was chofen as their commander. In the exercife of 

 this duty he acquired by his prudence and firmnefs a high 

 degree of honour ; and the memorable adventure is re- 

 lated by himfelf in his " Retreat of the Ten Thoufand." 

 Having joined Agefilaus, king of Sparta, after his return 

 into Greece, and fought with him againft the Thebans in 

 the celebrated battle of Chceronea, he difpleafed the Athe- 

 nians by this alliance ; and he was publicly accufed for 

 his former engagement in the fervice of Cyrus, and con- 

 demned to exile. Thus ignominioufly treated, the Spartans 

 took him under their proteftion, and provided for him a com- 

 fortable retreat at Scilluns, in Elis. In this afylum he 

 enjoyed the pleafures of domeftic life with his wife and two 

 children for feveral years, and availed himfelf of the leifure 

 that was thus afforded him by writing thofe hiftorical works 

 which have rendered his name immortal. On occafion of a 

 war between the Spartans and Eleans, he was obliged to 

 abandon this agreeable retreat, and to join his fon, who was 

 fettled at Lepreus. From hence he afterwards removed with 

 his whole faniily to Corinth, where, in the fecond year of the 

 C i 105th 



