PYTHAGOREAN WRITINGS. 547 



our author himfelf. Philo fays expreflly : fome have 

 faid, that, not Ariftotle, but Pythagoras, was the in- 

 ventor of the hypothecs concerning the eternity of the 

 world. This reproach then was made to Ariftotle by- 

 more than one, and it was made before Philo ; there- 

 fore, alio, before the alexandrine impoftures. This 

 manifeft contradiction our author keeps from his 

 reader's light, by faying : Philo exprefTes himfelf pro- 

 blematically. A man muft be greatly difpofed to the 

 problematical indeed, to find uncertainty in Philo's plain 

 and limple words, fome fay ; and he mull: have a very 

 problematical knowledge of the language, who Ihould 

 tranflate ev*o* xeyoucn, by fome believe. 



But even if the eternity of the world mould here 

 prove nothing: yet the author fo often mentioned, 

 deduces from the nature and frame of the doctrine of; 

 Ocellus another argument again ft the authenticity of the 

 piece. He goes on thus : 3. Of the peculiar pytha- 

 goric opinions we find not one in all Ocellus. Not the 

 leaft mention of numbers, without which a genuine 

 difciple of Pythagoras in this doctrine concerning the 

 origin of the world, could not proceed one ftep ; no- 

 . thing of fymbols, of the origin of the human foul ; 

 nothing of the myltic, myfterious language, that in a 

 manner characterized them. On the contrary, not 

 only the doctrines, but even the expreflions, agree 

 with thofe that we find in the treatife of Ariftotle vepi 

 yewco-Ew? xa» (pQopa,;. Eternity of the world, transforma- 

 tion of the elements, the vmfiiua-m, JWf*sis, goiyjia,, and 

 the like, are in both precifely the fame. How could 

 Ocellus, who is faid to have lived fhortly after Pytha- 

 goras, fo far conceal the fyftem and the technical 



n n % terms 



