258 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



the human nnderftanding. There exifted, at that time, Philof- 

 Ibphers, who maintained that water, fire, air, atoms, were the? 

 principles of things. Pythagoras infilled, in oppofition to thi» 

 doctrine, that the principles of things were the adaptations and 

 the proportions of which the harmonies were compofed, and 

 that goodnefs and intelligence conftituted the nature of GOD. 



He was the firft who gave to the Univerre the epithet of 

 Koff/M,©', ?nundus^ becaufe of it's order. He maintained that it 

 was governed by a Providence ; a fentiment perfeftly conforni-- 

 able to the tenor of our Sacred Books, and to experience. He 

 invented the five Zones, and the obliquity of the Zodiac. He 

 taught that the Torrid Zone was habitable. He afcribed earth- 

 quakes to the water. In faft, their focufes, as well as thofe of 

 volcanos, as we have already indicated, are always in the vicinity 

 of the Sea, or of fome great lake. He believed that each of the 

 Stars was a World, containing an Earth, an Air, and a Heaven ;• 

 and even in his time, this had been an anciently received opi- 

 nion ; for it is to be found in the verfes of Orpheus. Finally, 

 he difcovered the fquare of the hypothenufe, which has ferveJ 

 as a bafis to an infinite number of geometrical theorems and 

 folutions. 



Ph'dolaus, of Crotana, one of his difciples, maintained, that 

 the Sun received the fire difFufed over the Univerfe, and rever- 

 berated it, which affords a better explanation of his nature than 

 the perpetual emanations of light and heat which we afcribe to 

 him, without reparation, and without exhauftion. He held 

 that Comets were Stars, which re-appeared after a certain in- 

 volution. JEcetes, another Pythagorean, maintained the exift- 

 ence of two Continents, that which we inhabit, and one oppo- 

 lite to it ; an idea applicable only to America. 



Thefe Philofophers believed, that the foul of Man was a har- 

 mony compofed of two parts ; the one reafonable, the other 



irrational. 



O 



