The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)
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« Not long since, a man rather well organized mentally, but very slightly enlightened by the true science, brought out a book entitled Ruverabhoni, in which, heaping up all the ancient and modem sophisms pronounced against the social organization founded upon the estabUshment of the family, he aspired to change the instinct of nature, in this respect, and to found true happiness upon the dSbris of all the ties of blood, of all the affections of the soul, and of all the duties of consanguinity.
Examinations of the Golden Verses 141
beg the reader to observe. Moses, instructed in the same school as Pythagoras, after having annotinced the Unity of God in the famous Decalogue which contains the summary of his law, and having commanded its adoration to his people, announces for the first virtue, filial piety": "Honour," he said, "thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be multiplied in this country of Adam, that Jh6ah, thy Gods, has given thee."*
The theocratic legislator of the Hebrews in making this commandment places recompense by the side of precept: he declares formally that the exercise of filial piety draws with it a long existence. Now, it must be remarked that Moses being content with enclosing in his doctrine the sole purgative part, doubtless judging his people not in a condition to support the unitive part, spoke to them nowhere of the immortality which is its consequence; contenting himself with promising the joys of temporal blessings, among which he carefully placed in the first rank a long life. Experience has proved, relative to people in general,
" As I give the same meaning as did Moses and not that of the Septuagint copied by the Vulgate, I transcribe here the original text, so that those who understand Hebrew may see that I have not deviated from it.
Exodus, ch. 20, V. 12.
* This country of Adam, in Hebrew naixn (ha-adamah), adameenne. This word, which has been vulgarly translated by the Earth, signifies it only by metaphor. Its proper sense, which is very difficult to grasp, depends always on that which is attached to the name of Adam, whence it is derived. Jhdah, in Hebrew nin', pronoimced very improperly Jehovah, on account of a defective punctuation of the Masoretes, is the proper name of God. This name was formed by Moses in a maimer as ingenious as sublime, by means of the contraction of the three tenses of the verb nin (hdeh), to be. It signifies exactly will be-being-been; that which is, was, and shall be. One renders it well enough by Eternal. It is Eternity, or the Time-without-Limit of Zoroaster. This name is qmte generally followed, as it is here, with the words ThSk (^loht-cha), thy Gods, in order to express that the Unity contained in Jh6ah, comprehends the infinity of the gods, and takes the place of it with the people of Israel.
142 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras that Moses spoke with a profound understanding of the causes which prolong the duration of empires. Filial piety is the national virtue of the Chinese, the sacred foundation upon which reposes the social edifice of the greatest and the most ancient people of the world." This virtue has been to China, for more than four thousand years, what love of country was to Sparta or to Rome. Sparta and Rome have fallen notwithstanding the sort of fanaticism with which their children were animated, and the Chinese Empire which existed two thousand years before their foundation, still exists two thousand years after their downfall. If China has been able to preserve herself in the midst of the flux and reflux of a thousand revolutions, to save herself from her own wrecks, to triumph over her own defects, and to subjugate even her conquerors, she owes it to this virtue which, raising itself from the humblest citizen to the Son of heaven seated upon the imperial throne, animates all the hearts with a sacred fire, of which Nature herself provides the nourishment and eternalizes the duration. The Emperor is the father of the state; two hundred million men, who regard themselves as his children, compose his immense family; what human effort could overthrow this colossus?'
5. Choose for thy friend, the friend of virtue; Yield to his gentle counsels, profit by his life. And for a trifling grievance never leave him;
After the duties which have their source directly in Nature, Pythagoras commends to his disciples those which proceed from the social state ; friendship follows immediately filial piety, paternal and fraternal love ; but this philosopher makes a distinction full of meaning: he ordains to honour one's relations ; he sdys to choose one's friends. This is why :
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