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. For if
the gods taste of nectar and ambrosia for their pleasure, these are in
no wise the causes of their existence; and if they taste them to
maintain their existence, how can gods who need food be eternal?-But
into the subtleties of the mythologists it is not worth our while to
inquire seriously; those, however, who use the language of proof we
must cross-examine and ask why, after all, things which consist of the
same elements are, some of them, eternal in nature, while others
perish. Since these philosophers mention no cause, and it is
unreasonable that things should be as they say, evidently the
principles or causes of things cannot be the same. Even the man whom
one might suppose to speak most consistently-Empedocles, even he has
made the same mistake; for he maintains that strife is a principle
that causes destruction, but even strife would seem no less to produce
everything, except the One; for all things excepting God proceed
from strife. At least he says:-
From which all that was and is and will be hereafter-
Trees, and men and women, took their growth,
And beasts and birds and water-nourished fish,
And long-aged gods.
The implication is evident even apart from these words; for if
strife had not been present in things, all things would have been one,
according to him; for when they have come together, 'then strife stood
outermost
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