i^x PREFACE. 



ever to be feparated : And, befides, it appears to have been an imi- 

 verfal opinion of all philofophers and wife men in thofe days, that 

 Pliilofophy ought not, any more than Religious Myfteries, to be pro- 

 mulgated among the vulgar. 



With this ftock of Philofophy, greater than, I believe, ever any 

 man collected, he returned to Samos, his native country, at the age 

 of fifty-fix *, after having been abroad thirty-four years ; but he 

 foon left it to go to Italy, becaufe, as fome fay, he was oppreffed 

 with public bufmcfs ; but, as others fay, which I think more pro- 

 bable, becaufe the people of Samos were not difpofed to receive his 

 Philofophy. He therefore went to Italy, fays my Author, reckon- 

 ing tbaf his native country where there were mofl lovers of 

 Science f. 



The place where he chofe to fix his refidence was Crotona, a very 

 famous city in that part of Italy, to which he is faid to have given 

 the name of Magna Gracia^ where he was received with the higheft 

 marks of honour, and lived there like a god among men ; for he 

 did not mix with the people, and was not vifible except to a few 

 of his own followers, who were initiated into the myfteries of his 

 Philofophy. He had fomething, as I have faid, in his form and 

 appearance more than human, which ftruck every one that faw him 

 with awe and reverence : And he was believed to be poffefTed with 

 powers and faculties far furpaffing common humanity ; for it was 

 faid that he predid:ed future events ; that he remembered what had 

 happened to him in former periods of his exiftence, when he ani- 

 mated other bodies, and was able to make others do fo too, after 

 they were initiated into his Sublime Philofophy, and purged from all 



paffion 



* Jamblichus, ubi fupra, Seil. 19. 

 t Ibid. Sea, 29. 



