PREFACE. XXV 



•which our Scripture tells us is the root of all evil, and, Ariftotle 

 fays, produces more crimes, than all our other paiFions put together, 

 was unknown among them. 



It may be further obferved of them, that the lawgivers and go- 

 vernors who came out of this School were humane and gentle in 

 their difpofition ; for they did not infift, as Heraclitus the Ephefian 

 did, before he would give laws to his countrymen, that all thofe 

 above the age of puberty fhould hang themfelves, but, on the con- 

 trary, treated the people they governed with the greateft kindnefs 

 and condefcenfion, endeavouring, as much as poffible, to make them 

 wife and good men, without fuch a defperate remedy as that pro- 

 pofed by Heraclitus *, or even that which Plato thought neceflary 

 for the good government of his ftate, the driving out of his city all 

 above the age of ten, and educating properly the youth that re- 

 mained. 



Neither of thefe expedients could be put In pradlice by fuch a 

 handful of men as Pythagoras and his followers, who could only 

 govern with the confent and approbation of the people. But the 

 confequences Ihowed, that men cannot be well governed, at lead 

 for any confiderable time, if they are not well educated ; and that it 

 is as neceflary that the people fhould be fit to be governed, as that 

 the rulers fhould be fit to govern : For though thofe flates of Italy 

 and Sicily were as happy as I believe any people ever were, while 

 they were governed by thofe philofophcrs, yet, as it was natural, 

 they grew impatient of that government, not having been bred up 

 and educated under it : Fadions, therefore, and feditions, arofe in 

 the different cities, which ended in the dcftru^iion of the feveral Col- 



VoL, III. -c leges 



* Jamblichus in Vita Pythagora^ parag. 173. 



