234 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



years; Apuleius says the general rule was five. Those who were under 

 thi.s discipline of silence were called aKovoriKoi or listeners ; they 

 being allowed to hear what was being said by others, but not to ask 

 questions or to take notes in writing. When they had thus learned that 

 most difficult of all things, to listen and hold their tongue (Îx^M^^^^^)j 

 they were permitted to speak, to inquire, to write what they had heard 

 and to state what their opinions were, and they were called /.ladi/ptariKoi ; 

 that is, they were studying geometry, gnomonology (or the sciences 

 connected with dialling), music and other branches of higher knowledge 

 which the Greeks called mathematics. Having mastered these subjects 

 they were allowed to investigate the working of the world and the 

 principles of nature and were called cpvffiKoi. Grellius tells us in his 

 chatty way that one Taurus, a philosophic writer and personal friend 

 of his — they lived in the times of Antoninus Pius — lamenited the 

 difference between the followers of learning in the days of Pythagoras 

 and his own, in these words : " And surely it is not satisfactory that 

 " those who rush with unwashed feet (denoting hurry) to the teachers 

 " of philosophy should be devoid of the faeulty of reflection, of the 

 "love of ordered rythm (music), or ignorant of geometry. Yet they 

 " actually do, now-a-days, themselves lay down the law how they shall 

 " be taught ! One says, ' teach me this first.' Another cries, * I want 

 " to learn such a thing, and I do not care for such another.' A third 

 ^'' wants to begin with Plato's sympoisinm, on account of Alcibiades' 

 " disiooTirse, ajid. a fourth with his Phgedrus, on account of tlmt of 

 " Lysias. There are, by Jove, some men who ask to be taken into 

 " Plato, not to order their lives by his doctrine, but to be able to deliver 

 "a better speech; not to become more self-respecting (modestior), but 

 *' more attractive to their associates (lepidior) ! " 



The master said that all things should not be expounded to every 

 one, and he passed over in silence all discussion attempted by outsiders. 

 His followers disliked associating with others; they had many signs 

 and symbols unintelligible to all except fellow initiates. Are the secret 

 societies of the present day, with their three usual degrees, influenced 

 yet by the Eastern methods of Pythagoras? The master wTote no 

 book, the three treatises some say he composeid are wrongly ascribed 

 to him, as we must believe. He taught his family daily, by speeches 

 fcnd argument. He recalled the people from luxury to frugality, prais- 

 ing virtue and enumerating the evils of self-indulgonce and the mis- 

 fortunes of cities attributable to that plague. He addressed matrons 

 apart from their husbands, and boys apart from adults, on the prin- 

 ciples leading to a happy and reputable life. To the former he incul- 

 cated charity and a due respect to their husbands; to the latter modesty 



