XXVI 



r R E F A C E. 



le'^-es of the Pythagoreans, who were all either maflacred or driven 



out of the country. 



This, as I have elfewhcre obferved *, was one of the greateft ca- 

 lamities that ever befel Philofophy ; but it is to it that we owe all 

 the writings of the Pythagorean School, and, in my opinion, all the 

 good philofophy that yet remains in the world : For it was not till 

 they were difpcrfed, and eafed of the cares of government, that thofe 

 . philofophers took to writing, and in that v/ay publiilied what was 

 kept as a profound fecret among themfelves while their Colleges fub- 

 fifted. This they did, fiys Porphyry f, fearing the anger of the 

 gods if Philofophy, the greateft gift to men, fhould be utterly loft 

 by their negled to commit it to Vv'riting : And to this difperfion we 

 owe alfo the greateft man, in my opinion, that Greece produced, 

 I mean Epaminondas, who was educated by Lyfis, one of Pythago- 

 ras's fcholars, who having efcaped out of a houfe in Crotona, in 

 which he, with many other Pythagoreans, was affembled, and v/hich 

 was fet on fire by the people of that town, came to Greece and 

 fettled in Thebes, where Epaminondas was his fcholar and fon, as he 

 called himfelf J. 



I have been the more particular in this account that I have given 



of Pythagoras and his Philofophy, as I am perfuaded, that all the 



Philofophy which yet remains in the world is derived from his 



School, and is nothing more than fcattered remains, or planks, as 



it were, that have been colleded and faved out of the fhipwreck of 



that Philofophy in Italy, as will appear more evidently from what 



follows. 



There 



* Vol. III. of the Origin of Language, p. 439. Vol. II. p. 262. Intro- 



dudion to Vol. I. of Metaphyfics, p. 6. 

 t In Vita Pythagora-, parag. 58. 

 X Jamblichus De Vita Pythagora^ parag. 249, 250. 



