an ordinary one, but it comes from the
south, which especially stirs up the billows, and it is driven against
a projecting crag stretching out into the sea, and surrounded by it, and
it has the sea over it constantly, and from every side the winds blow
and fall upon it. Such things as these are worked out by him in his
descriptions. From a few examples we can become acquainted with many.

Let us see if the other forms of narrative are to be found in our author
and how he took cognizance of them and clearly prepared them. We will
give a few examples and so facilitate acquaintance with the rest.

There is the theoretic style, which embraces what is called speculative
matter, which is a knowledge of the truth conceived in art. By these it
is possible to know the nature of reality, both divine and human things,
and to discriminate virtues and vices in morals and to learn how to
attain truth by logical skill. These things are the province of those
who are occupied in philosophy, which is divided into natural, ethical,
and dialectical. If we find out Homer supplying the beginnings and the
seeds of all these, is he not, beyond all others, worthy of admiration?
Because he shows matters of intelligence by dark sayings and mythical
expressions, it ought not to be considered strange. The reason is to be
found in poetic art and ancient custom. So those who desired to learn,
being led by a certain intellectual pleasure, might the easier seek and
find the truth, and that the unlearned might not despise what they are
not able to understand. For what is indicated indirectly is stimulating,
while what is said clearly is valued more moderately.

Let us begin with the beginning and creation of the whole universe,
which Thales the Milesian refers to the substance water, and let us see
whether Homer first discovered this when he said (I. xiv. 246):--

Even to the stream of old Oceanus Prime origin of all.

After him Xenophanes of Colophon, laying down that the first elements
were water and land, seems to have taken this conception from the
Homeric poems (I. vii. 99):--

To dust and water turn all ye who here inglorious sit.

For he indicates their dissolution into the original elements of the
universe. But the most likely opinion makes four elements,--fire, air,
water, earth. These Homer shows he knows, as in many places he makes
mention of them.

He knew, too, the order of their arrangement. We shall see that the land
is