p y T 



I'ythago- divine impress, his countrymen were more willing to 

 adopt. He is said also to have visited Crete, to con- 

 verse? with the priests of Cybele ; and, in this sacred 

 island, he was initiated by Kpimenidt-s into .-II the mys- 

 teries of Greece. In a visit to Sparta, l.lii ;m<l 1'hlius, he 

 acquired additional information respecting the customs 

 and learning of Greece. With these new stores of wis- 

 dom, and invested with a sort of divine character, 

 which, in those days, it was easy to assume, he re- 

 paired to his native island, to make a new attempt to 

 establish u school of philosophy. In a public semi- 

 circular building he delivered his moral precepts to 

 the multitude, while, in a secret cave into which he 

 retired with his chosen followers, he expounded the 

 more abstruse parts of his philosophy. 'I' he learning 

 and talents of Pythagoras speedily excited general at- 

 tention ; but the reputation of human wisdom does not 

 seem to have satisfied his ambition. He concealed his 

 doctrines under the veil of mystery, and wished to in- 

 culcate the belief that their origin was divine. Early 

 in the fifty-ninth olympiad, the oppressive government 

 of Syloson, the tyrant of Samos, is said to have driven 

 Pythagoras from his native land ; but we have no 

 doubt that this sagacious monarch had detected the im- 

 postures of the philosopher, and refused to countenance 

 the pretensions of a man who affected to hold commu- 

 nion with the gods, and who, if he had succeeded, 

 would have erected a spiritual sovereignty in Samos. 



Among the colonies of Magna Grecia, to which he 

 retired, he tried new methods of commanding respect 

 and attention. He even pretended to possess the power 

 of working miracles ; and such was his success at Cro- 

 tona, the first city of Italy, where he arrived, that he is 



283 



P Y T 



said to have made its luxurious and licentious citizens 

 sober and frugal, and to have established a society of 

 rsons, who united their individual properties for 

 tin benefit of the whole. The success of his doctrines 

 at Crotona followed him through the other cities of 

 Magna Grecia. His followers paid him almost divine 

 honours; but the higher powers, irritated by his propen- 

 sity for political change, or, what is more likely, disgust- 

 ed with his pretensions to more than mortal wisdom, 

 openly opposed his schemes, and compelled him to re- 

 tire to Metapontum. Even here his enemies pursued 

 him, and such was their hostility, that he took refuge 

 in the temple of the muses, and, unable to exert his mi- 

 raculous powers for his own preservation, he perished 

 with hunger, about 506 B. C. and about the 80th year 

 of his age. 



In our articles ASTRONOMY, GEOMETRY, Music, &c. 

 we have fully explained the discoveries which history 

 has ascribed to Pythagoras ; and if these were the pro- 

 ductions of his genius, we must award to him that 

 praise which they so justly merit. But if history has 

 been equally faithful in handing down to us his impos- 

 tures and his falsehoods, we must make no slight 

 abatement in our estimate of his moral qualities ; and 

 while the name of the philosopher is hung up in the 

 temple of science, we must place the man among that 

 great and growing class of Charlatans that have so long 

 infested the republic of letters. 



Those who wish to make themselves acquainted with 

 the doctrines of the Pythagorean school, are referred to 

 Brucker's History of Philosophy, translated by Enfield, 

 vol. i. book 2. 



PYTHIAN GAMES. SeeApOLix), Vol. I. p. 2 48, &c. 



Q 



QUADRANT. 



Quadrant. 



Descrip- 

 tion of 

 Graham's 

 mural 

 quadrant 

 in the 

 Royal Ob- 

 serratory 

 at Green- 

 wich. 



J. HE word QUADRANT, from qitadram, the fourth 

 part of a circle or 90, is the name given to an instru- 

 ment for measuring angles not exceeding 90, though 

 it may be fitted up so as to measure greater angles. 



In our article ASTRONOMY, (Vol. II. p. 723, Chap. 

 I. Sect. 1, 2, 3,) we have explained the principle of 

 the astronomical quadrant, and have also described 

 Bird's pillar quadrant, Mr. Tronghton's astronomical 

 quadrant, and the method of adjusting and using the 

 astronomical quadrant. 



We shall now, therefore, proceed to describe various 

 other quadrants for astronomical and nautical purposes. 



1. Description of Graham's Mural Quadrant in the Royal 

 Observatory at Greenwich. 



This instrument, which has become so celebrated in 

 the history of astronomy, was made by Mr. George 

 Graham, and was presented to the observatory of 

 Greenwich by George I. for the use of Dr. Halley, who 

 made an immense number of observations with it on 

 the moon. 



With the exception of the circular limb, the quadrant 

 is chiefly composed of straight iron bars, joined toge- 

 ther, as in Plate CCCCLXXVI. Fig. 1. The breadth 

 of every bar is two inches and nine-tenths, and its 

 thickness If tenth. The lines in Fig. I. represent the 



disposition of all the flat bars, or those in the plane of Quadrant, 

 the quadrant, and those in Fig. 2. the perpendicular v-*^-v-^ 

 bars, or those at right angles to the former, and placed I'LATE 

 behind the flatones. The whole fabricis farther strength- CCCCLXXVI. 

 ened by a great number of short iron plates, or pieces Fl 8- 1 - 

 of the same iron bars bent to a right angle, and placed 

 behind the quadrant in the angles made by the flat and 

 perpendicular bars, and rivetted to them both. Their 

 n umber, and the places w here they are rivetted, are shown 

 in Fig. 2. by the small parallelograms adjoining to the pj g> j. 

 lines, and in order to make more room for the rivets, 

 the edge of each perpendicular bar does not divide the 

 breadth of the flat bar in the needle, but in the ratio of 

 two to one ; and the little plates are rivetted on the 

 broader side. The black thickening of the lines at 

 their crossing in Fig. 2. represents small iron plates 

 bent at right angles, and rivetted in the angles made 

 by the intersections of the perpendicular bars. At the 

 circumference of the quadrant there is also a perpendicu- 

 lar bar bent circular, and fastened all along the middle 

 of the breadth of the limb or flat arch of the quadrant, by 

 a sufficient number of the above-mentioned little plates. 

 The limb of the quadrant consists of two similar 

 quadrantal arches, one of iron, and the other of brass, 

 laid over it. The breadth of each is three inches four- 

 tenths, and the common part of their breadths, where 

 they lie doubled over one another, and are rivetted to- 



