The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)

i The name given to the sect of the Pharisees signifies, in general, that which is enlightened, illvunined, glorified, illustrious. It is derived from the root 1l« (aor), the light, governed by the article HD (/>Ae), which expresses the emphasis; thence "imb (phtBr), an aureola, a tiara, and QVniB {pharethmim), men illustrious, sublime. The name given to the sect of the Sadducees is derived from the word iv (shad) which, expressing all diâusion, i6o The Golden Verses of Pythagoras former, attached to the tradition and allegorizing the text of the Sepher," admitted the free will*; the others, on the contrary, rejecting it and following the literal meaning, established an irresistible destiny to which all was subjected. The most orthodox Hebrews, and those even who passed as seers or prophets of the nation, had no difficulty in attributing to God the cause of Evil/ They were obviously authorized by the history of the downfall of the first man, and by the dogma of original sin, which they took according to the meaning attached to it by the vulgar. It also happened, after the establishment of Christianity and of Islamism, that this dogma, received by both cults in all its extent and in all its literal obscurity, has necessarily drawn with it predestination, which is, in other words, only the fatality of the ancients. Mohammed, more enthusiast than learned, and stronger in imagination than in reasoning, has not hesitated a moment, admitting it as an inevitable result of the Unity of God, which he announced after Moses.** It is true that a few Christian doctors, when they have all propagation, is applied to productive nature in general, and in particular to a mammal, its symbol among the Egjrptians; it signifies properly the Physicists, or the Naturalists.

" The original name of the Book of Moses is IBD {sepher) ; the name of the Bible, that we attribute to it, is derived from the Greek Bi/SXos, adopted by the so-called translators of the Septuagint.

* Joseph., Antig., 1. xii., c. 22; 1. xiii., c. 9 et 23; 1. xvii., c. 3; Budd, Introd. ad Phil. Hebr.; Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, t. i.

« This is founded upon a great number of passages, of which it will siiffice to cite the following. One finds in Amos, ch. iii., v. 6: "Shall there be evil in a city which the Lord hath not done?" And in Ezekiel, ch. xxi., v. 3: "And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off in thee the just, and the wicked . . . against all flesh, from the south even to the north. . . . That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my sword."

^ Mohammed said of himself, that he possessed no heavenly treasures, that he was ignorant of the mysteries, that he could say nothing of the essence of the soul (Koran, ch. 6 and 17); and as he admitted the literal text of the Sepher, he could not do otherwise than aimounce predestination. "God," he said, "holds in his hands the keys of the future. He alone knows it. . . .

Examinations of the Golden Verses i6i

been capable of perceiving the inferences in it have denied this predestination, and have wished, either by allegorizing the dogma of original sin, as Origen, or rejecting it wholly, as Pelagius, to establish the free will and the power of the will; but it is easy to see, in reading the history of the church, that the most rigid Christians, such as Saint Augustine and the ecclesiastical authority itself, have always upheld predestination as proceeding necessarily from the divine Prescience and from the AU-Powerful, without which there is no Unity. The length of this examination forces me to suspend the proofs that I was going to give regarding this last assertion; but further on I will return to it.

8. Be sober, diligent, and chaste; avoid all wrath. In public or in secret ne'er permit thou Any evil; and above all else respect thyself.

Pythagoras considered man imder three principal modifications, like the Universe ; and this is why he gave to man the name of the microcosm or the small world." Nothing was more common among the ancient nations than to compare the Universe to a grand man, and man, to a small Universe.* The Universe, considered as a grand and animated AU, composed of intelligence, soul and body, was called Pan or Phanes."* Man, or microcosm, was comThe nations know not how to retard or to hasten the moment of their downfall" {Koran, ch. 6 and 23).

<* Vit& Pythag.; Photius, Bibl. Cod., 259.

* Kircher, (Edip., t. i., p. 411; Edda Island Fabl.; Macrob., Saturn., 1. i., c. 20.

« Plotin, Ennead., iii., 1. 2; Euseb., Prap. Evan., 1. iii., c. 9; Macrob., Somn. Schip., 1. ii., c. 12; Marc. Aurell., 1. iv., c. 34.