2B6 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



iij ail. They occur for the most part in the anthology prepared by 

 S^lobœus, in about 500 A.D, 



The world, says Philolaus, is one; it began to be at the centre 

 and developed from that upward, for which reason things opposite to 

 that middle are alike, whether below it or above it, since everything 

 began from this nucleus. He places fire at the centre, which is the 

 focus of all things and the house of Jove, and the mother and altar 

 and meeting place and measure of cpvffis, Nature or being. First then 

 there is this middle of Nature, and around it ten divine bodies dance 

 in harmony (^op£t;fzj^). The heavens, the planets, after them the 

 sun, above that the moon, above that the earth, above that the antichthon, 

 after all these fire, like that which is at the centre. All that is above 

 he calls Olympus, but all below, viz. : the sp'ace in whioh the five planets 

 with the sun and the moon are arranged, is the Cosmos. iTihe sun, he 

 says, in a mystical and obscure passage, is of a glassy nature, receiving 

 and reflecting the rays of mundane light and heat. The nature of 

 God, he tells us, is one; stable, formed, like Himself and unlike aught 

 else. There is one beginning for all, and the world cannot come to 

 an end, so that suicide is not a lawful act. The beginning was To €v, 

 that which was first brought together {ap/AOffdev) this one thing being 

 the basis, at the centre of the sphere, and is to be called the focus. 

 There are five things, fire, water, earth, air and ether, which is what 

 surrounds all else (oA/co?) and carries the sphere. [There were 

 other men who, later, professed themselves Pythagoreans, and all anti- 

 quity attributed to him great skill in geometry and the theory of num- 

 bers. " Number,'^ he is said to have believed, " is the soul of the 

 world." The proposition known to us as the 47th of the first book of 

 Euclid, is attributed to him.] 



It does not seem that by other quotations, from Cicero, Vergil ^ 

 £ind other Roman sources, or from the later Pythagoreans we can get 

 into closer touch with this great master. Enough has been given, 

 however, to support the view that the character and the chief details 

 of the Pythagorean philosophy were Asiatic, and that they had their 

 principal source in India. The plan of this paper is not argumentative, 

 it is a simple statement of facts in, as it were, parallel columns of 

 narration. It seems plain that after long travels and studies the philo- 

 sopher established himself in the region where the great Greek colonies 

 were growing, freedom from control being probably his main objecit 

 in making the selection. The " aristocratic institutions " against which 



* Vergil as a young man, inclined to the Epicurean philosophy (Eel. "VI, 

 Silenus), but in mature age was distinctly Pythagorean. ^Eneid VI., 713 

 et seq.) 



