THEIR MYSTICISM. 307 



decidedly a mystical character. The mere mathe- 

 matical relations of numbers, as odd and even, 

 perfect and imperfect, abundant and defective, 

 were, by a willing submission to an enthusiastic 

 bias, connected with the notions of good and beauty, 

 which were suggested by the terms expressing 

 their relations ; and principles resulting from such 

 a connexion were woven into a wide and complex 

 system. It is not necessary to dwell long on this 

 subject ; the mere titles of the works which treated 

 of it show its nature. Archytas 10 is said to have 

 written a treatise on the number ten : Telauge, 

 the daughter of Pythagoras, wrote on the number 

 four. This number, indeed, which was known by 

 the name of the Tetractys, was very celebrated 

 in the school of Pythagoras. It is mentioned in 

 the " Golden Verses," which are ascribed to him : 

 the pupil is conjured to be virtuous, 



Ncu /ua TOV dfjLeTepa ^f^ct TrapaoovTa TerpaKTvv 

 Ylayav devvaov (pvcrews 



By him who stampt The Four upon the mind, 

 The Four, the fount of nature's endless stream. 



In Plato's works, we have evidence of a similar 

 belief in religious relations of Number; and in 

 the New Platonists, this doctrine was established 

 as a system. Proclus, of whom we have been 

 speaking, founds his philosophy, in a great mea- 

 sure, on the relation of Unity and Multiple ; from 

 this, he is led to represent the causality of the 



10 Mont. ii. 123. 



X2 





