The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)

Learn of the sea-shell to love thine enemy, and to fill with pearls the hand thrust out to harm thee. Be not less generous than the hard rock; make resplendent with precious stones, the arm which rends thy side. Mark thou yonder tree assailed by a shower of stones; upon those who throw them it lets fall only delicious fruits or perfumed flowers. The voice of all nature calls aloud to us : shall man be the only one refusing to heal the

» Emng. St. Math., ch. i8. * Vendidad Sade, p. 89.

c 34* hd, p. 174. <i 3* fargard., p. 284. ' Jeshts Sadis, p. 151.

1 66 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras hand which is wounded in striking him? To bless the one who offends him?"

The evangelical precept paraphrased by Hafiz is found in substance in a discourse of Lysias ; it is clearly expressed by Thales and Pittacus ; Kong-Tse taught it in the same words as Jesus; finally one finds in the Arya, written more than three centuries before our era, these lines which seem made expressly to inculcate the maxim and depict the death of the righteous man :

The duty of a good man, even at the moment of his destruction, consists not only in forgiving but even in a desire of benefiting his destroyer; as the Sandal-tree, in the instant of its overthrow sheds perfume on the ax which fells ; and he would triumph in repeating the verse of Sadi who represents a return of good for good as a slight reciprocity, but says to the virtuous man, " confer benefits on him who has injured thee." *

Interrogate the peoples from the Boreal pole to the extremities of Asia, and ask them what they think of virtue : they will respond to you, as Zeno, that it is all that is good and beautiful; the Scandinavians, disciples of Odin, will show you the Hdvamdl, sublime discourse of their ancient legislator, wherein hospitality, charity, justice, and courage are expressly commended to them : You will know by tradition that the Celts had the sacred verses of their Druids, wherein piety, justice, and valour were celebrated as national virtues ''; you will see in the books preserved

" Hafiz, cit6 par les auteurs Des Recherches asiatiques, t. iv., p. 167. l> L'Arya, dt6 comme ci-dessus:

"L'homme de bien, paisable au moment qu'il expire, Toume sur ses bourreaux un oeil religieux, Et b6nit jusqu'au bras qui cause son martyre: Tel I'arbre de Sandal que frappe un furieux, Couvre de ses parfums le fer qui le dechire."

Edda Island; Hdvamdl. "* Diogen. Laert., In Prmm., p. 5.

Examinations of the Golden Verses 167

under the name of Hermes" that the Egyptians followed the same idea regarding morals as the Indians their ancient preceptors; and these ideas, preserved still in the DharmaShastra,'' will strike you in the Kings of the Chinese. It is there, in those sacred books whose origin is lost in the night of time," that you will find at their source the most sublime maxims of Fo-Hi, Krishna, Thoth, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Jesus. Morals, I repeat, are everywhere the same; therefore it is not upon its written principles that one should judge of the perfection of the cult, as has been done without reflection, but upon their practical application. This application, whence results the national spirit, depends upon the purity of the religious dogmas upon the sublimity of the mysteries, and upon their more or less great affinity with the Universal Truth which is the soul, apparent or hidden, of all religion.

12. As to the evils which Destiny involves,

Judge them what they are; endure them all and strive,

As much as thou art able, to modify the traits.

The Gods, to the most cruel, have not exposed the sage.

I have said that Pythagoras acknowledged two motives of human actions, the power of the Will and the necessity of Destiny, and that he subjected both to one fundamental law called Providence from which they emanated alike. The first of these motives was free, and the second constrained: so that man found himself placed between two opposed, but not injurious natures, indifferently good or bad, according as he understood the use of them. The power of the Will was exercised upon the things to be done,

» Poemander et Asclepius.

t> This is the vast collection of Brahmanic morals. One finds there many of the lines repeated word for word in the Sepher of Moses.