CIlAr. XII. PYTHAGOREAN DOCTRINES. 223 



crimes they committed, until, having nndergone 

 their distinct punishment, and thereby become 

 pure, they were again admitted to their primitive 

 situation, in the region originally designed for 

 them." 



Of the Pythagorean doctrines, which were prin- 

 cipally borrowed from Egypt, a summary account 

 is given by " Timaeus the Locrian.* The causes 

 of all things are two. Intellect, of those which are 

 produced according to reason ; and necessity, of 

 those which necessarily exist according to the 

 powers of bodies. Of these, the first is of the 

 nature of good, and is called God, the principle of 

 such things as are most excellent. Those which 

 are consequent, and concauses, rather than causes, 

 may be referred to necessity, and they consist of 

 Idea, or Form, and Matter, to which may be added 

 the sensible (world), which is, as it were, the oflT- 

 spring of these tw^o. The first of these is an 

 essence ungenerated, immoveable, and stable, of 

 the nature of Same, and the intelligible exemplar 

 of things generated, which are in a state of per- 

 petual change ; and this is called Idea or Form, 

 and is to be comprehended only by Mind. But 

 Matter is the receptacle of Form, the mother and 

 female principle of the generation of the third 

 Essence, for by receiving the likenesses upon itself, 

 and being stamped with Form, it perfects all 

 things, partaking of the nature of generation. 

 And this matter, he says, is eternal, moveable, 

 and of its own proper nature, without form or 



* Cory, p. 301, 



