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be regarded, however, as a myth, but a real person, though 
many fables were narrated respecting him. He was born, 
probably, about the year b.c. 570, and travelled over the 
greater part of the known world in search of philosophy.* 
Bitter believes that through his descent from the Tyrrhenian 
Pelasgians Pythagoras derived, by tradition, a peculiar and 
secret cultus. Certainly the religious element was the pre- 
dominant one in his character. His disciples were submitted, 
like those of the Druids, to severe processes of initiation, in 
which their powers of maintaining silence were especially 
tested. Their whole discipline is represented as tending to 
produce a lofty serenity and self-possession. They had some 
secret conventional symbols, by which members of the fra- 
ternity could recognise each other, even if they had never 
met before. Pythagoras is said to have been the first to apply 
to himself the term ^iXoaocpog, and it is believed that he 
wished that his disciples should exhibit a reflection of the order 
and harmony of the universe. t Their pride and exclusiveness, 
however, and their opposition to the democracy of the day, 
led to their destruction by fire, together, perhaps, with their 
master. So, to the discredit of human nature, this grand 
experiment for its amelioration came to an end. I will 
proceed to enumerate some further particulars in which the 
Pythagorean and the Druidical systems agree. 
“ Number was the dominant and self-produced bond of the 
eternal continuance of things.” J One is the absolute number 
and the origin of all numbers, and consequently of all things. 
This original unity is also called God. Harmony of relation 
is the regulating principle of the universe. The harmony of 
the spheres was a pretty and poetical conceit of the Pytha- 
gorean mind. 
If Pythagoras assigned living reality and power to num- 
* “ The Egyptians are said to have taught him geometry, the Phoenicians 
arithmetic, the Chaldeans astronomy, the Magians the formulae of religion 
and practical maxims for the conduct of life. The doctrine of the trans- 
migration of souls was derived by him, in all probability, from the East, and 
Zenophanes mentions the story of his interceding on behalf of a dog that 
was being beaten, professing to recognise in its cries the voice of a departed 
friend.” 1 This is quite in accordance with the Bardic doctrine that a wicked 
man, when he dies, and his soul enters the meanest worm in existence, 
becomes better, and ascends in the migration of Abred. 2 From this has 
arisen the saying “ Trample not on thy better ,” addressed to one who tramples 
on a worm voluntarily and without a cause, 
t Cic. Tusc. v. 3. J “ Philolaus ” in Smith’s Diet. 
2 Barddas , p. 244. 
1 Smith’s Diet. 
