CHAP. XVI. ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE. 443 



and return to unity, it is not altogetlier improbable ; 

 particularly since the Greek philosophers are 

 known to have derived their notions on this, as on 

 many other subjects, from the dogmas of Egypt. 



Herodotus states that several Greeks adopted the 

 doctrine of transmigration and used it as their own, 

 whose names he refrains from mentioning ; and 

 it is generally supposed by Diodorus, Diogenes 

 Laertiiis, Porphyry, and others, that Pythagoras 

 had the merit of first introducing it into Greece,* 

 And if Cicero thinks Pherecydes of Syros, of whom 

 Pythagoras was a disciple, to be the first to assert 

 that the souls of men were immortal, the Egyptian 

 origin of the doctrine is only the more confirmed, 

 since he had also visited and studied under the 

 Egyptian priests. 



This metempsychosis, or rather metensomatosis, 

 being the passage of the soul from one animal to 

 another, was termed xoxMg avayxrjg, *' the circle 

 (or orbit) of necessity ;" and besides the ordinary 

 notion of its passing through different bodies till it 

 returned again in a human shape, some went so far 

 as to suppose that after a certain period all events 

 which had happened were destined to occur again, 

 in the identical order and manner as before. The 

 same men were said to be born again, and to fulfil 

 the same career ; and the same causes were thouglit 

 to produce the same effects, as stated by Virgil.t 



This idea of a similarity of causes and effects ap- 



* Diodor. i. 98. ; Diog. Laert. viii. 14. ; Porpli. Vit. Pyth, J 9. 



■j- " Alter erit turn Tipliys, ct altera qua' veliat Argo 

 Delectos heroas ; eriint etiani altera bella, 

 Atque iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles." 



