The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)

<* Pan, in Greek vS,y, signifies the All, and Phanes is derived from the Phcenician word Vi» (dnesh), man, preceded by the emphatic article D (ph). It must be observed that these two names spring from the same root ]» {An), which, figuratively, expresses the sphere of activity, and hterally, the limitation of the being, its body, its capacity. Hence '3» {&ni), me, and n'JK {aniha), a vessel.

1 62 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras posed in the same way but in an inverse manner, of body, soul, and intelligence; and each of these three parts was, in its turn, considered under three modifications, so that the ternary ruling in the whole ruled equally in the least of its subdivisions. Each ternary, from that which embraced Immensity, to that which constituted the weakest individual was, according to Pythagoras, included in an absolute or relative Unity, and formed thus, as I have already said, the Quaternary or Sacred Tetrad of the Pythagoreans. This Quaternary was universal or particular. Pythagoras was not, however, the inventor of this doctrine : it was spread from China to the depths of Scandinavia.** One finds it likewise expressed in the oracles of Zoroaster.*

In the Universe a Ternary shines forth, And the Monad is its principle.

Thus, according to this doctrine, Man, considered as a relative unity contained in the absolute Unity of the Grand All, presents himself as the universal ternary, under three principal modifications, of body, soul, and spirit or intelligence. The soul, considered as the seat of the passions, is presented in its turn, under the three faculties of the rational, irascible or appetent soul. Now, in the opinion of Pythagoras, the vice of the appetent faculty of the soul is intemperance or avarice; that of the irascible faculty is cowardice ; and that of the rational faculty is folly. The vice which reaches these three faculties is injustice. In order to avoid these vices, the philosopher commends four principal virtues to his disciples: temperance for the appetent faculty, courage for the irascible faculty, prudence for the rational faculty, and for these three faculties together,

" Mint, concern, les Chinois, t. ii., p. 174 et suiv.; Edda Island; Beausobre, Hist, du Manich., t. ii., p. 784; Boehme, De la triple Vie de I'Homme, c. ix., § 35 et suiv.

b TldpTi ev K6jiuf XAiiirei Tpii,t'rj! Mocis Spx^'-

ZoToast. Oracul.

Examinations of the Golden Verses 163

justice, which he regards as the most perfect virtue of the soul." I say the soul, because the body and the intelUgence, being equally developed by means of three faculties instinctive or spiritual, as well as the soul, were susceptible of the vices and the virtues which were peculiar to them.

g. Speak not nor act before thou hast reflected; Be just.

By the preceding lines, Lysis, speaking in the name of Pythagoras, had commended temperance and diligence; he had prescribed particularly watching over the irascible faculty, and moderating its excesses ; by these, he indicates the peculiar character of prudence which is reflection and he imposes the obligation of being just, by binding, as it were, the most energetic idea of justice with that of death, as may be seen in the subsequent lines :

10. ... Remember that a power invincible Ordains to die; . . .

That is to say, remember thou that the fatal necessity to which thou art subjected in reference to the material and mortal part of thyself, according to the sentence of the ancient sages,* will strike thee particularly in the objects of thy cupidity, of thy intemperance, in the things which will have excited thy folly, or flattered thy cowardice; remember thou that death will break the frail instruments of thy wrath, will extinguish the firebrands that it will have lighted; remember thou finally,

11. ... That riches and the honours Easily acquired, are easy thus to lose.

Be just: injustice has often easy triumphs; but what remains after death of the riches that it has procured?

o Hi^rocl., Aurea Carmin., v. 14. * Hermfes, In Pasmandr.

1 64 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras

Nothing but the bitter remembrance of their loss, and the nakedness of a shameful vice uncovered and reduced to impotency.