P Y T 



P Y T 



playing all kiiuls of tricks in the purer regions of fpace, ap- 

 proaches by ilegrocs to our grofs atmofpherc ; gets a tailc 

 for matter and (olidity, and at length acquires a warm and 

 comfortable b'dy to cover her nakednefs. Here (he picks 

 up nerves and Arteries ; there membranes ; here Ipirit or 

 breath ; and ail in a molt extraordinary manner ; efpecially 

 the arteries and nerves : for what Ihould they be made ot, 

 but the circles and lines of the fpheres, in which the foul gets 

 entangled in hi r palTage, like a fly in a fpider's web. Thus, 

 continues he, the body becomes fimilar in its texture to in- 

 ftruments of the wind and ilringed kind. The nerves and 

 arteries are firings, and at the fame time they are pipes filled 

 with wind. " What wonder, then," fays Ariltides Quin- 

 tilianus, " if the foul, being thus intimately connetled with a 

 body fimilar in conftrudtion to thofe inilruments, Ihould 

 fympathize with their motions." 



Mafter Thomas Mace, author of a moft deleftable book, 

 called " Mulick's Monument," would have been an excellent 

 Pythagorean ; for he maintains that the myftery of the Tri- 

 nity is perfpicuoufly made plain by the conneftion of the 

 three harmonical concords, i, 3, 5 ; that mufic and divini- 

 ty are nearly allied ; and that the contemplation of concord 

 and difcord, of the nature of the oftave and unifon, will fo 

 ftrengthen a man's faith, " that he (hall never after degenerate 

 into thsX grofs ftib-beajiical fin of atheifm." P. 268. 



Pythagoras is faid, by the writers of his life, to have re- 

 garded mufic as foniething celellial and divine, and lo have 

 had fuch an opinion of its power over the human afFeftions, 

 that, according to the Egyptian fyftem, he ordered his difci- 

 ples to be waked every morning, and lulled to fleep every 

 night, by fweet founds. He likewife confidered it as greatly 

 conducive to health, and made ufe of it in diforders of the 

 body, as well as in thofe of the mind. His biogi-aphers 

 and fecretaries even pretend to tell us what kind of mufic 

 he applied upon thefe occafions. Grave and folemn, we 

 may be certain ; and vocal, fay they, was preferred to in- 

 ftrumental, and the lyre to the flute, not only for its de- 

 cency and gravity, but becaufe infl;ruftion could be conveyed 

 to the mind, by means of articulation in finging, at the 

 fame time as the ear was delighted by fweet founds. This 

 was faid to have been the opinion of Minerva. In very high 

 antiq;iity mankind gave human wifdom to their gods, and 

 afterwards took it from them, to befl:ow it on mortals. 



In perufing the lift of illuftrious men, who have fprung 

 from the fchool of Pythagoras, it appears that the love and 

 cultivation of mufic was fo much a part of their difcipline, 

 that almoft every one of them left a treatife behind him upon 

 the fubjeft. 



Pythagoras's Table. See Table. 



PYTHAGOREA, in Botany, received that appellation 

 from Loureiro, in memory of the famous Pythagoras, who 

 is faid to have written a book on the quahties of plants. — 

 Loureir. Cochinch. 243. Clafs and order, Odandria Tetra- 

 gynia. Nat. Ord 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth inferior, bell-lhaped, of feven 

 or eight linear, hairy, coloured leaves. Cor. fuperior, bell- 

 fhaped, of feven or eight lanceolate, concave, hairy petals, 

 the length of the calyx. Stam. Filaments eight, awKhaped, 

 longer than the corolla ; anthers roundifh, two-lobed. 

 Pi^. Germen between the calyx and corolla, nearly ovate, 

 hairy ; ftyles four, awl-fliaped, reflexed, fhorter than the 

 ftamens ; lligmas acute. Peric. Capfule ovate, of four 

 cells. Seeds numerous, roundifli. 



Efl". Ch. Calyxof feven or eight leaves, inferior. Corolla 

 of feven or eight petals, fuperior, Capfule of four cells, 

 with many feeds. 



I. V, cochincbinenjit, — Native of Cochinchina, where it is 



called Xuong ca tin nlio la. A fmall tree, with numerous 

 brandies. Leaves nearly feiTile, ovato-lancealate, ferrated, 

 fmooth ; their longitudinal ribs red at the cxtrtinity. Cluf- 

 .crs axillary, long, nearly fimple, with fliort partial ftalks. 

 Flowers white. 



Such is Loureiro's account, but we have no knowledge of 

 the plant he defcribes, nor can we offer any conjci^ure re- 

 Ipefting its natural affinity. We have no faith in the ex- 

 iltence of a germen luperior to the calyx and inferior to the 

 corolla, the only inttance of the kind winch Linnaeus ever 

 imagined, in Sannuiforba, proving not well founded. 



PYTHAGOREAN, or PyTUAGOuic Syflem, among 

 the ylncients, was the fame with the Copernican fyilem 

 among the moderns. See System. 



It was thus called, as having \)een maintained and culti- 

 vated by Pythagoras, and his followers ; not that it was in- 

 vented by him, for it was much older. 



PYTHAGOREANS, a feft of ancient philofophers, 

 who adhered to thedodlrine of Pythagoras. 



Pythagoras, the founder of this feft, was of Samos, the 

 fen of a lapidary, and a pupil of Pherecydes, and flouriflicd 

 (faysBayle) about five hundred years before Chriit, in the 1 

 time of Tarquin, the laft king of Rome, and not in Numa's ; 

 time, as many authors have fuppofed. See Cicero Tufcul. 

 Queft. lib. iv. cap. I. _ 



The time of his birth, however, has been much difputed. 

 Dr. Bentley, in his " Diflertation on the Epiitles of Phala- 

 ris," relying chiefly on the authority of Eratofthenes, refers 

 the birth of Pythagoras to the 4th year of the 43d olym- 

 piad, B.C. 608. Lloyd, in his " Didertation concerning the 

 Chronology of Pythagoras," afcribcs his birth to the 3d year 

 of the 48th olympiad, B.C. 586. Dodwell places it in 

 the 4th year of the 52d olympiad, B.C. 569, refling in 

 this date chiefly on the authority of Porphyr)' and Jamblt- 

 chus. Upon the whole, the opinion of Lloyd feems to be 

 the molt probable, which is, that he was born about the year 

 B.C. 586, and that he died about the 3d year of the 68th 

 olympiad, B.C. 506 ; fo that it feems pretty certain, that 

 he was not born earlier than the 4th year of the 43d olym- 

 piad, B.C. 605, nor later than the 4th year of the 52d, 

 B.C. 569. If we admit only the credible particulars of his 

 childhood and early education, and pay no attention to the 

 tales of Jamblichus and others, who even aflerted that he 

 was the fon of God, we fhall find that he was firfl inftrudled 

 in his own country by Crefphilus, and afterwards by Phe- 

 recydes, intheifland of Scyrus, and that after having paid 

 his lall tribute of refpeCl to his preceptor, he returned to 

 Samos, and purfued his ftudies under the diredlion of his 

 firil mafter. Jambhchus, and other later biographers, men. 

 tion his journey into Ionia, and his interviews with Thales 

 and Anaximander, but of this journey we have no authentic 

 record, nor is any effeil of it difcernible in his doftrine, which 

 is eflentially diflFerent from that of the Ionic fchool. His 

 firft journey from the Grecian iflands was probably into 

 Egypt, which was celebrated in his time for that kind of 

 wifdom which beli fuited his genius and temper. In his 

 way thither, Jambhchus aderts that he vifited Phoenicia, and 

 converfed with the prophets and philofophers that were the 

 fuccell'ors of Mociius the Phyfiologift ; which Mochus, 

 Selden, and fome others, will have to be Mofes. 



Nor is it thought at all improbable that Pythagoras might 

 wifli to acquaint himfelf with the Phoenician philofophy, of 

 which he muft, without doubt, have received a general re- 

 port from his father, and from other merchants who 

 traded to this coaft. But that he derived his knowledge of 

 numbers from the Phoenicians is not at all probable, becaufe 

 their acquaintance with numbers extended no further than 



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