Eleatic Philosophy

Founded by Xenophanes of Elea about B.C. 530. The Ionic school believed there was but one element; the Eleatics said there were four or six, as heat and cold, moisture and dryness, odd and even, from the antagonisms of which visible objects sprang: Thus, Fire is heat acting on dryness, Air is heat acting on moisture; Water is cold acting on moisture; and Earth is cold acting on dryness.

(See below.)

The New Eleatic School

was founded by Leucippos of Elea, a disciple of Zeno. He wholly discarded the phantasmagoric theory, and confined his attention to the physical properties of the visible world. He was the father of the Atomic System, in which the agency of chance was again revived.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Elecampane and Amrida

Eleanor Crosses