The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)
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o It is necessary before all, to restore the language of Moses, lost, as I have said, for more than twenty -four centuries; it must be restored with the aid of Greek and Latin which chain it to the illusory versions; it is necessary to go back to its original source and find its true roots: this enormous work that I have undertaken, I have accomplished.
6 Fortun. apud August., Disput., ii.; August., Contr. Faust., 1. xxi., c. uU.
« Origfene, cit^ par Beausobre, Hist', du Manich., t. ii., v., ch. 6.
d Beausobre, ibid., t. ii., p. 346.
240 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras followers of Manes, having retired to Arabia, were responsible for these borrowings, by the opinions that they circulated there. But, it must be frankly stated, this dogma, quite in its place in the Zend-Avesta, does not appear so consistent in the Koran, for, of what use is it in a cult where the predestination of men, necessitated by the Prescient and All-Powerful Divine, delivers irresistibly the greatest part of them to an eternal damnation, on account of the original stain imprinted upon mankind by the sin of the first man ? One cannot be prevented, in reflecting upon this manifest contradiction, from believing that the theosophical tradition pertaining to the free will of man, and the influencing action of Providence operating the progressive augmentation of good and the gradual diminution of evil, announced openly by Zoroaster, must have acted secretly in the mind of the theocratic legislator of Arabia. If it had not been thus, the prayers that he ordered as one of the first and most essential duties of the reUgion, would have been without object. • ,
According to the doctrine of Pjrthagoras revealed by Hierocles, two things agree in the efficacy of prayer: the voluntary movement of our soul, and aid from heaven. The first of these things is that which seeks goodness; and the other that which shows it. Prayer is a medium between our quest and the celestial gift. One seeks, one prays in vain, if one adds not prayer to research and research to prayer. Virtue is an emanation from God; it is like a reflected image of the Divinity, the resemblance of which alone constitutes the good and the beautiful. The soul which is attached to this admirable type of all perfection is aroused to prayer by its inclination to virtue, and it augments this inclination by the effusion of the goodness which it receives by means of prayer; so that it does precisely what it demands and demands what it does." Socrates was not far from the doctrine of Pythagoras in this re-
« Hierocl., Aur. Carmin., v. 49 et^o.
Examinations of the Golden Verses 241
spect; he added only, that prayer exacted much precaution and prudence, lest, without perceiving it, one demand of God great evils, in thinking to ask great blessings.
The sage [he said] knows what he ought to say or do; the fool is ignorant of it; the one implores in prayer, what can be really useful to him; the other desires often things which, being granted him, become for him the source of greatest misfortunes. The prudent man [he adds], however little he may doubt himself, ought to resign himself to Providence who knows better than he, the consequences that things must have.
This is why Socrates cited as a model of sense and reason this prayer of an ancient poet :
Grant us good whether prayed for or unsought by us; But that which we ask amiss, do thou avert."
The prayer was, as I have said, one of the principal dogmas of the religion of Zoroaster * : the Persians also had the greatest confidence therein. Like the Chaldeans, they founded all magical power upon its efficacy. They still possess today certain kinds of prayers for conjuring maladies and driving away demons. These prayers, which they name tavids, are written upon strips of paper and carried after the manner of talismans." It is quite wellknown that the modern Jews use them in the same way. In this they imitate, as in innumerable other things, the ancient Egyptians whose secret doctrine Moses has transmitted to them.'' The early Christians were inclined to theosophical ideas on this subject. Origen explains it
- Plat., In II. Alcibiad.
" Accordez-moi, grands Dieux, ce qui m'est n^cessaire, Soit que je pense ou non h, vous le demander; Et si de mes d^sirs I'objet m'^tait contraire, Daignez, grands Dieux, daignez ne pas me I'accorder." * Vendidad-SadS, 68e hd, p. 242. « Zend-Avesta, Jeshts-SadSs, p. 113. <* Hermfes, In Asclep., c. 9. 16
242 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras
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