Eleatʹic Philosophy

Founded by Xenophʹanes of Elʹea 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 Elʹea, 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.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.