XXIV 



PREFACE. 



of Pythagoras confined to Italy and Sicily ; for Zamolxls, one of 

 his ilaves, being emancipated by him, went among the Thracians, 

 and having given them laws and politics, and eftablifhed among 

 them the opinion of the immortality of the Soul, and of a future 

 Life without which I hold it to be impoffible that any people can 

 be well governed, was on that account deified by them, and wor- 

 fhipped as one of their greateft gods *. 



That men fo chofen and fo educated fhonld be the beft governors 

 that I believe ever were on earth, is not to be wondered. But I 

 muft own I wonder that men could defcend from fuch fublime fpe- 

 culations to the bufinefs of government et hominum curare triumphos ; 

 and I think it could not have happened if it had not been earneftly 

 recommended to them by their mafter as a duty they owed to their 

 country and mankind. In the fame manner Plato fays, that the 

 philofophers to be educated for the government of his ftate were to 

 be compelled by the law to govern, not always indeed, for that 

 would have been cruel, but in their turn. It does not however ap- 

 pear that Pythagoras himfelf ever bore office in any ftate ; but he 

 was much better employed in educating governors for many ftates. 

 But though the Pythagoreans condefcended to govern, there was 

 one thing in the adminiftration of public afl?airs they never would 

 meddle with, and that was, the public money ; nor indeed would 

 they take concern about money at all, except when they were ap- 

 pointed by their College to be the fteward of their common funds ; 

 for none of them had any private eftate, but all was common among 

 them ; and as their diet and whole manner of life was very fimple, 

 as free from luxury as from vanity, their funds, which confifted 

 of the eftate of every one who entered into the Society, were 

 fufficient to maintain them. The love of money, therefore, 



which 



* Jamblichus in Vita Pythagora, parag. lyj. 



