PYTHAGORAS. RARE Egypt, not thine own sweet-watered Nile, Exhaust thy glories gone: thy grander boast Was learning, and her sons,-who thronged of old To draw fair knowledge from thy generous coast, Nor drew in vain, but drank the blessed draught; And deepest hath this noble Samian quaff'd Who walketh with me now in white and gold; Wear thou indeed that crown, mysterious sage, Whose soaring fancy, with deep diving thought, Hath pour'd mind-riches over every age, And charm'd a world Pythagoras hath taught. The learning of the Egyptians has almost fallen into a proverb. It has become trite to allude to Moses, or to bring forward authorities on a point so little disputed. An hour's attention well directed in the British Museum will convey to the reader a far more amusing and instructive proof of the wonderful state of early Egyptian art, than could be arrived at by a whole library of dry treatises, deprived of the potent teaching of the eye. From whatever quarter the Egyptians derived their extraordinary knowledge, and so precocious withal, it is certain that nearly all other nations have been nurtured at the breasts of their wisdom. Israel, Greece, Etruria, Edom, Susa, nay not impossibly Mexico, and our own Cyclopian Druids, derived knowledge and arts of all kinds from Egypt, that country which now, in fulfilment of phecy, has so strangely become the vilest of kingdoms. That all the great peculiarities in the teaching of Pythagoras had their root at least in the twenty-two years of instruction which he passed in the Theban temples is demonstrable, if not at once admitted: the theories of astronomy, and cosmogony, of transmigration, of mystic signs, and therefore the philosopher's favourite notion of numbers symbolizing all things algebraically,-nay, of the musical pro scale so confidently given to him, (for surely the harpers on the wall of the royal tomb at Thebes were there anterior to the sojourn of Pythagoras in Egypt,) -all the above, and more, were to be learnt of the priests at Memphis and Thebes, as we now know from their hieroglyphical chambers. Nevertheless, after so great a deduction, there can be very little doubt that Pythagoras was one of the wisest uninspired men that ever lived; "vir præstanti sapientiâ,” as Cicero calls him: the influence he held over the world was unbounded, and has not yet ceased; he is still in many respects "the philosopher," and his avròç pa is often still despotic from its truth. The subject of Pythagoras offers a most inviting opportunity for many discussions on speculative points; a whole harvest of thought starts up in the furrows of the mind, ripe for the sickle; but we have in this place little room to garner them. Otherwise, we might at length pursue the interesting enquiry how far the illustrious Samian may have been indebted for some of his religious theories to a possible interview with captive Jews at Babylon a question analogous to the connection of Isaiah, the Sibylline books, and the fourth Eclogue of Virgil. We might enter into the recondite philosophy of his doctrine of numbers: the general depth and truth of his metaphysical theories: the exact correspondence observed by Clement to exist between the ecclesiastic orders of the Hebrews, and the different ranks of the Pythagorean proselytes: the human causes of his wonderful success in reforming luxurious Crotona: the wisdom of appropriating the white robe, the crown of gold, a mysterious secresy, and the assumption of semi-divinity. We might rebuke the morality, while admiring the sagacity, of the falsehood he practised on the world, by immuring himself in a cave for many days, until pallid and emaciated, the glorious impostor returned as with messages from Hades. We might narrate the extraordinary coincidence perceptible between the musical genius of Handel and Pythagoras, in the invention of the monochord from the same cause which has bequeathed to us the "Harmonious Blacksmith." Lastly, we might descant at the length which the atrocity deserved, on the shameful fact that the envy of a malicious populace, headed by Cylon and other demagogues, starved this great philosopher to death in the temple of the Muses, solely because he numbered men of rank and property among his disciples. Of all the above thus briefly: a few more facts of moment, and little known, deserve to be repeated. Several lives of Pythagoras were written; as by Diogenes Laertius of Cilicia, by Syrian Iamblichus, and by Melek, surnamed Porphyry. That of Iamblichus, although most dealing in the marvellous, has an extraordinary interest, when we know that it was written by command of Julian the Apostate in order to rival the inspired histories of our Lord Christ: accordingly, it is full of miracles, lacking only the internal evidences of utility and fitness, and the external evidence of attestation. Vain and besotted man, to institute comparisons between Christ raising the dead, and Pythagoras appearing at Elis with a gilt thigh;-between the wonders of merciful omnipotence, and the puerile natural magic of reflecting letters of blood through a glass upon the moon! Truly, great Pythagoras, thy fame is little indebted to so judicious a biographer: let us in conclusion turn to better things. The learned and witty Platonist, Hierocles of Alexandria, has devoted a volume to comment upon the traditional sayings of Pythagoras, many of which go far to illustrate this teacher's wisdom. Let us first take from the Commentary, (p. 342, of ed. 1673,) the origin of the name. "Aristippus, quoted by Laertius, says of the word, Pythagoras, that it was given to him because he preached truth as surely as Apollo; quasi, πv@iws ayopɛúε:" similarly, in the Christian Church, John of Antioch was named from his eloquence Chrysostom, or golden-mouthed. Next, concerning the much disputed point as to the authorship of the Pythagorean verses, which have been ascribed to Epicharmus of Cos, and others, let us hear the testimony of Jerome: "Whose then are these golden sayings are they not those of Pythagoras? in which briefly are contained all his dogmas." Proclus also, or Procles, and Clement of Alexandria are of the same opinion: contrary are Chrysippus, Plutarch, Galen, and others. However disputed the |