CHAPTER VI.

_PARMENIDES._

Greek Philosophical Poetry.--The Emergence of Philosophy from Mythology.--The Ionian Sages.--The Pythagoreans.--Anaxagoras.--Democritus.--The Eleatics.--Heraclitus.--Xenophanes of Colophon.--His Critique of the Myths.--Assertion of Monotheism.--Fragments of his Poem on Nature.--Parmenides of Elea.--His Political Importance.--Parmenides in the Dialogues of Plato.--His Metaphysic of Being.--His Natural Philosophy.--The Logic Deduced from him by Zeno and Melissus.--Translation of the Fragments of his Poem.--The Dualism of Truth and Opinion.--Impossibility of Obtaining Absolute Knowledge Page 185