Xenophon too, the Athenian, utters these similar sentiments in the following words: “He who shakes all things, and is Himself immoveable, is manifestly one great and powerful. But what He is in form, appears not. No more does the sun, who wishes to shine in all directions, deem it right to permit any one to look on himself. But if one gaze on him audaciously, he loses his eyesight.” “What flesh can see with eyes the Heavenly, True, Immortal God, whose dwelling is the poles? Not even before the bright beams of the sun Are men, as being mortal, fit to stand,”-- the Sibyl had said before. Rightly, then, Xenophanes of Colophon, teaching that God is one and incorporeal, adds: “One God there is, ’midst gods and men supreme; In form, in mind, unlike to mortal men.” And again: “But men have the idea that gods are born, And wear their clothes, and have both voice and shape.” And again: “But had the oxen or the lions hands, Or could with hands depict a work like men, Were beasts to draw the semblance of the gods, The horses would them like to horses sketch, To oxen, oxen, and their bodies make Of such a shape as to themselves belongs.” Let us hear, then, the lyric poet Bacchylides speaking of the divine: “Who to diseases dire[858] never succumb, And blameless are; in nought resembling men.” And also Cleanthes, the Stoic, who writes thus in a poem on the Deity:[859] “If you ask what is the nature of the good, listen-- That which is regular, just, holy, pious, Self-governing, useful, fair, fitting, Grave, independent, always beneficial, That feels no fear or grief, profitable, painless, Helpful, pleasant, safe, friendly, Held in esteem, agreeing with itself, honourable, Humble, careful, meek, zealous, Perennial, blameless, ever-during.” And the same, tacitly vilifying the idolatry of the multitude, adds: “Base is every one who looks to opinion, With the view of deriving any good from it.” We are not, then, to think of God according to the opinion of the multitude. “For I do not think that secretly, Imitating the guise of a scoundrel, He would go to thy bed as a man,” says Amphion to Antiope. And Sophocles plainly writes: “His mother Zeus espoused, Not in the likeness of gold, nor covered With swan’s plumage, as the Pluronian girl He impregnated; but an out and out man.” He further proceeds, and adds: “And quick the adulterer stood on the bridal steps.” Then he details still more plainly the licentiousness of the fabled Zeus: “But he nor food nor cleansing water touched, But heart-stung went to bed, and that whole night Wantoned.” But let these be resigned to the follies of the theatre. Heraclitus plainly says: “But of the word which is eternal men are not able to understand, both before they have heard it, and on first hearing it.” And the lyrist Melanippides says in song: