CHAPTER VII.

_EMPEDOCLES._

The Grandeur of his Fame.--His Versatility of Genius.--His Mysticism.--His Supposed Miracles.--Legends about his Death.--His Political Action.--His Poems.--Estimation in which the Ancients held them.--Their Prophetic Fervor.--Belief in Metempsychosis.--Purifying Rites.--Contempt for the Knowledge of the Senses.--Physical Theories.--The Poem on Nature.--The Four Elements.--The Sphærus.--Love and Discord.--The Eclecticism of Empedocles Page 207