Note (return) — Chapter IX
Reading edition
In theology, Xenophanes was unquestionably a Theist. He had a profound and earnest conviction of the existence of a God, and he ridiculed with sarcastic force, the anthropomorphic absurdities of the popular religion. This one God, he taught, was self-existent, eternal, and infinite; supreme in power, in goodness, and intelligence. 447 These characteristics are ascribed to the Deity in the sublime words with which he opens his philosophic poem--