5G4 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. 



\vise be consigned to the relation of the excellent acts and superior 

 ideas of Pythagoras. Either his fear of the blind opposition which 

 vulgar superstition would set in his path, or the example of the 

 priestly castes and mysterious initiations, or perhaps their joint in- 

 fluence, induced him to collect a number of disciples in whose fidelity 

 he could rely, a secret association, in which he introduced various 

 extraordinary practices and exercises, and to whom alone were 

 imparted his political and philosophical instructions. The end was 

 admirable, the means execrable, and such as produced in some 

 measure the same effect as did in the East the privileged castes and 

 the monopoly of knowledge. The scholars of Pythagoras were 

 obliged to submit to a course of life, and their studies tended to a 

 point which were singularly favourable to meditation, but which 

 were calculated also to nourish a high degree of pride. 



In examining such parts of the doctrine of Pythagoras as our very 

 limited information on the subject supplies us with, we find there are 

 two prevailing characters : the one relating to the essence of the 

 ideas contained in his doctrine, the other to the form under which 

 they appeared. 



The most abstract notions, the most general relations which could 

 offer themselves to the imagination, were included in the doctrines 

 of this school. The systems which arose from this order of consider- 

 ations were clad in the envelope of mystery and symbolical forms, 

 under the active influence of an enthusiastic imagination. We will 

 proceed to explain how this double tendency manifested itself. 



The most universal relation we meet with is that of quantity. It 

 presides over the dimensions of bodies and their number: it governs 

 motion, space, and time. Pythagoras and his school, having given 

 themselves up to the study of mathematics, became familiar with 

 this species of abstract thought; they perceived the necessity and 

 generality of its truths, and desired to enhance their value by the 

 application of them to matters of real existence. It was by this 

 method that the philosophers of modern times have arrived at the 

 most valuable discoveries. But they in their impatience, by endea- 

 vouring to shorten the distance which lay between them and their 

 object, failed in its attainment, and were lost in a labyrinth of wild 

 ideas by leaving the beaten track and attempting to proceed by a 

 short cut. In lieu of using mathematics as an instrument by which 

 to decompose and investigate the facts supplied by observation and 

 experience, they applied them directly to the solution of the great 

 problem of the origin of existent matter. 



Numbers, arising one from the other in a regular order, seemed 

 to bear a typical relation to the generation of beings; hence the 

 fundamental Pythagorean doctrine : " numbers are the principle of 

 all things." 



The indeterminate nature of this axiom gave scope for vague 

 and various explanations. The word " principle" was made to 

 express at once the integral element and the efficient cause. Simi- 

 larly " number" had not merely the signification which we commonly 

 attribute to that word, but was made to express every possible rela- 

 tion or combination of magnitude and quantity. The properties of 



