ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOUL*'* 



himfelf has related, that he was formerly Euphorbu*, 

 and demonftrated the facl: by the recognition of a rufty 

 fhield of the times of the liege of Troy. In the whole 

 Pythagorean' fyftem (if a tiffue, fpun out of obfeure and 

 crude fpeculations, in an unnatural combination with 

 arithmetical, geometrical, and metaphyseal ideas can 

 ever be called a fyftem) there is not even the fmalleft 

 circumftance that can furnifh a hint concerning the 

 firft rife of this idea in the mind of its author. For, 

 from the propolition, fouls live after death, to the pro- 

 pofition, they travel about from one body to another, 

 it mitft be owned there is ftill a very great diftance j 

 and from the propolition, fouls will be punilhed or re- 

 warded after death, to this, they naffer the punifhment 

 by the pairing of them from one animal body into 

 another, is likewife an immeafurable jump. Will it 

 be faid, that Pythagoras could not conceive of the 

 continuation of the agency of the foul without any or- 

 gans, and therefore cloathed her with the bodies of 

 animals, to help himfelf out of the perplexity ? But 

 this implies only, that it not unfrequently happens 

 with fyftematical philofophers, that, for avoiding one 

 abfurdity, they entangle themfelves in a greater ; yet, 

 fn oppolition to ail hiftorical evidence, fome are dif- 

 pofed to rate too highly the wifdom of this man. 

 What a fpirit without organs is, and a limple fpirit is 

 without organs, the antients had neither more nor 

 fewer ideas than our prefent philofophers; that is, 

 none at all : they therefore wrote and faid nothing of 

 it, as they had not yet learnt the grand art of accu- 

 rately arranging words without ideas according to the 

 fcricteft rules of logic ; and becaufe no Hobbes had yet 

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