The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)

with the Roman Empire, withering the principles of the life it had received, necessitated the institution of a new cult and thus was exposed to the incursion of foreign errors and the arms of the barbarians.

This colossus, victim of its own fury, after having torn and devoured itself was buried beneath the shams that it had heaped up; Ignorance seated upon its dibris governed Europe, until Bacon and Descartes came and resuscitating, as much as was possible for them the Socratic skepticism, endeavoured by its means to turn minds toward the research of truth.

But they might not have done so well, had they not also awakened certain remnants of Pyrrhonic skepticism, which, being sustained with their passions and their prejudices, soon resulted in bewildering their disciples.

This new skepticism, naive in Montaigne, dogmatic in Hobbes, disguised in Locke, masterly in Bayle, paradoxical but seductive in the greater number of the eighteenth-century writers, hidden now beneath the surface of what is called Experimental philosophy, lures the mind on toward a sort of empirical routine, and unceasingly denjdng the past, discouraging the future, aims by all kinds of means to retard the progress of the human mind.

It is no more even the character of truth; and the proof of this character that the modem skeptics demand ad infinitum,'^ is the demonstration of the very possibility of understanding this character and of proving it: a new subtlety that they have deduced from the tmfruitful efforts that certain thinkers have made recently in Germany, to give to the possibility of the knowledge of self, a basis which they have not given.

I will relate in my next Examination, what has hindered these savants from finding this basis. I must, before terminating this one, show to my readers how I believe one can distinguish the two kinds of skepticism of which I have o C'^tait k quoi se bornaient les sceptiques anciens. Voyez Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrh. hypotyp., 1. i., c. 15, et 1. ii., c. 4, 12, etc., cit6 par De G^rando, Hist. Comp. des Syst., t. iii., p. 395.

Examinations of the Golden Verses 205

just spoken. A simple question put to a skeptic philosopher will indicate whether he belongs to the school of Socrates or Pyrrho. He must before entering into any discussion reply clearly to this demand : Do you admit of any difference whatever between that which is and that which is not? If the skeptic belongs to the school of Socrates, he will necessarily admit a difference and he will explain it, which will make him recognized at once. If on the contrary, he belongs to that of Pyrrho, he will respond in one of three ways : either that he admits a difference, or that he admits none, or that he does not know whether one exists. If he admits it without explaining it, he is beaten ; if he does not admit it, he falls into absurdity ; if he pretends not to distinguish it, he becomes foolish and ridiculous.

He is beaten, if he admits a difference between that which is and that which is not; because that difference, admitted, proves the existence of being; the existence of being proves that of the skeptic who replies; and that existence proved, proves aU the others, whether one considers them in him, or outside of him, which is the same thing for the moment.

He falls into absurdity, if he does not admit any difference between that which is and that which is not, for then one can prove to him that i is equal to o, and that the part is as great as the whole.

He becomes foolish and ridiculous, if he dares to say that he does not know whether a difference really exists between that which is, and that which is not; for then one asks him what he did at the age of six months, at one year, two years, two weeks ago, yesterday? Whatever he replies, he will become the object of ridicule.

Behold the Pyrrhonian beaten, that is to say, the one who professes to doubt everything; since a single acknowledged difference bringing him irresistibly to a certainty, and since one certainty militates against all the others, there is no further doubt; and since, doubting no further, it is

2o6 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras only a question then of knowing what he ought, or ought not to doubt: this is the true character of the skeptic of the Socratic School.

23. Abstain thou if 'tis evil; persevere if good.