534 PYTHAGOREAN WRITINGS, 



all thefe fragments to be interpolated ; but I likewife 

 know, that thofe on the other fide of the queftion will 

 gain nothing by it, and that it will reduce them to a 

 very forlorn fituaticn. 



They gain nothing by it ; for if thefe writings be 

 even fuppofltitious, they yet betray a pretty general be- 

 lief of the men of antiquity. He mult, however, have 

 been a very bare-faced impoftor indeed, who would 

 have attached to the Pythagoreans inventions which 

 were held by ail the world to belong inconteftably to 

 Plato. They reduce themfelves to a very hazardous 

 fituation ; for it certainly requires a no fmall degree 

 of boldnefs to affert, that either more than one impof- 

 tor, or an impoftor had formed 'feveral writings, merely 

 in order to make it doubtful that Plato was the inven- 

 tor of what was univerfally afcribed to him. 



Timseus, continues our critic, confeffes in the laft 

 chapter, that no genuine Pythagorean, gently treating 

 ufeful prejudices, would have divulged it. People, 

 fays he, who will not fufFer themfelves to be guided 

 by rational repre fen tat ions, muft be held in reftraint 

 by ufeful lyes ; as fome diftempers muft be cured by 

 poifon, when they will not yield to more wholefome 

 remedies. If Homer collects all the terrors of Olym- 

 pus and all the horrible tortures of Orcus, fuch ficlions 

 have always their ufe for certain kinds of people. In 

 cafe of need we may even have recourfe to outlandifh. 

 fables and tranfmigrations. — This no true Pytha- 

 gorean would ever have faid, fince it muft imme- 

 diately have occurred to him, that no more effectual 

 means could be devifed for depriving venerable preju- 

 dices 



