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  laws, and given an articulate shape to the thoughts that wander through eternity.

 

25. Zeno, like Parmenides, was a native of Elea. If we may believe Plato, he was twenty-five years younger than Parmenides. Both of them are said to have taken an active part in the administration of the affairs of their native city. Zeno was a resolute opponent of tyranny, and is reported by some authorities to have died a martyr in the defence of liberty.

26. Zeno is styled by Aristotle the father and founder of dialectic; and if the evolution of the issues contained in the philosophy of Parmenides entitle a man to this appellation, he deserves it well. Zeno was the author of those subtle and paradoxical puzzles respecting motion, the solution of which has for the most part baffled logicians even down to the present day. These puzzles, which ought not to be regarded as quibbles (although this is the light in which they are usually looked at), are full of deep significance as illustrative of the laws and progress of thinking. They show how thought is absolutely at variance with itself, and thus, by bringing the opposition fairly to the surface, they prepare the way for its ultimate conciliation under the presidency of a higher principle. Some of the paradoxes are expressed in the words, "Achilles can never overtake 