Page:Early Greek philosophy by John Burnet, 3rd edition, 1920.djvu/138

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This is, of course, the theory of Anaximander, and we may perhaps credit him rather than Xenophanes with the observations of fossils. Most remarkable of all, however, is the statement that this change applies to "all the worlds." It seems impossible to doubt that Theophrastos attributed a belief in "innumerable worlds" to Xenophanes. As we have seen, Aetios includes him in his list of those who held this doctrine, and Diogenes ascribes it to him also, while Hippolytos seems to take it for granted. We shall find, however, that in another connexion he said the World or God was one. If our interpretation of him is correct, there is no great difficulty here. The point is that, so far from being "a sure seat for all things ever," Gaia too is a passing appearance. That belongs to the attack on Hesiod, and if in this connexion Xenophanes spoke, with Anaximander, of "innumerable worlds," while elsewhere he said that God or the World was one, that may be connected with a still better attested contradiction which we have now to examine.

60.Aristotle tried without success to discover from the poems of Xenophanes whether he regarded the world as finite or infinite. "He made no clear pronouncement on the subject," he tells us. Theophrastos, on the other hand,