Ir is also said, that Pythagoras was the first who called himself a philosopher; this not being a new name, but previously instructing us in a useful manner in a thing appropriate to the name. For he said that the entrance of men into the present life, resembled the progression of a crowd to some public spectacle. For there men of every description assemble with different views; one hastening to sell his wares for the sake of money and gain; but another that he may acquire renown by exhibiting the strength of his body; ae there is also a third class of men, and those the most liberal, who assemble for the sake of surveying the places, the beautiful works of art, the specimens of valor, and the literary productions which are usually exhibited on such occasions. ‘Thus also in the present life, men of all-various pursuits are collected together in one and the same place. For some are influenced by the desire of riches and luxury; others by the love of power and dominion; and others are possessed with an insane ambition for glory. But the most pure and un- adulterated character, is that of the man who gives himself to the contemplation of the most beautiful things, and whom it is proper to call a philosopher.! He adds, that the survey of all heaven, and of the stars that revolve in it, is indeed beautiful, when the order of them is considered. For they derive this beauty and
1 Tamblichus derived this very beautiful passage from Heraclides Ponticus, as is evident from Cicero, Tusc. Quast. lib. v. 3. who relates the same thing of Pythagoras, from the aforesaid author.
order by the participation of the first and the intelligible essence. But that first essence is the nature of number and reasons [i.e. productive principles, ] which pervades through all things, and according to which all these [celestial bodies] are elegantly arranged, and fitly adorned. And wisdom indeed, truly so called, is a certain science which is conversant with the first beautiful objects,! and these divine, undecaying, and possessing an invariable sameness of subsistence; by the participation of which other things also may be called beautiful. But philosophy is the appetition of a thing of this kind. The attention therefore to erudition is likewise beautiful, which Pythagoras extended, in order to effect the correction of mankind.
CHAP. XIII.
Moreover, if we may believe in so many ancient and
credible historians as have written concerning him, the
words of Pythagoras contained something of a recalling
and admonitory nature, which extended as far as to
irrational animals; by which it may be inferred that
learning predominates in those-endued with intellect,
since it tames even wild beasts, and those which are
considered to be deprived of reason. For it is said
that Pythagoras detained the Daunian bear which had
most severely injured the inhabitants, and that having
gently stroked it with his hand for a long time, fed it
with maize and acorns, and compelled it by an oath no
longer to touch any living thing, he dismissed it. But
the bear immediately after hid herself in the mountains
and woods, and was never seen from that time to attack
any irrational animal. Perceiving likewise an ox at
Tarentum feeding in a pasture, and eating among other
things green-beans, he advised the herdsman to tell the
1 i.e. With intelligibles properly so called.
ox to abstain from the beans. The herdsman, however,
laughed at him, and said that he did not understand
the language of oxen, but if Pythagoras did, it was in
vain to advise him to speak to the ox, but fit that he
himself should advise the animal to abstain from such
food. Pythagoras therefore, approaching to the ear of
the ox, and whispering in it for a long time, not only
caused him then to refrain from beans, but it is said
that he never after tasted them. This ox also lived for
a long time at Tarentum near the temple of Juno,
where it remained when it was old, and was called the
sacred ox of Pythagoras. It was also fed by those that
came to it with human food. When likewise he
happened to be conversing with his familiars about
birds, symbols, and prodigies, and was observing that
all these are the messengers of the Gods, sent by them
to those men who are truly dear to the Gods, he is
said to have brought down an eagle that was flying over
Olympia, and after gently stroking, to have dismissed
it. ‘Through these things, therefore, and other things
similar to these, he demonstrated that he possessed
the same dominion as Orpheus, over savage animals,
and that he allured and detained them by the power
of voice proceeding from the mouth.
CHAP. XIV.
Wits him likewise the best principle originated of
a guardian attention to the concerns of men, and which
ought to be pre-assumed by those who intend to learn
the truth about other things. For he reminded many
of his familiars, by most clear and evident indications,
of the former life which their soul lived, before it was
bound to this body, and demonstrated by indubitable
arguments, that he had been Euphorbus the son of
Panthus, who conquered Patroclus. And he especially
praised the following funeral Homeric verses pertaining
to himself, sung them most elegantly to the lyre, and
frequently repeated them.
‘* The shining circlets of his golden hair,
Which ev’n the Graces might be proud to wear,
Instarr’d with gems and gold, bestrow the shore
With dust dishonor’d, and deform’d with gore.
As the young olive in some sylvan scene,
Crown’d by fresh fountains with eternal green,
Lifts the gay head, in snowy flowrets fair,
And plays and dances to the gentle air ;
When lo! a whirlwind from high heav’n invades The tender plant, and’ withers all its shades;
It lies uprooted from its genial bed,
A lovely ruin now defac’d and dead.
Thus young, thus beautiful, Euphorbus lay, While the fierce Spartan tore his arms away.” 1
But what is related about the shield of this Phrygian
Euphorbus, being dedicated among other Trojan spoils
to Argive Juno, we shall omit, as being of a very popular
nature. ‘That, however, which he wished to indicate
through all these particulars is this, that he knew the
former lives which he had lived, and that from hence
he commenced his providential attention to others,
reminding them of their former life.
CHAP. XV.
Concervinc, however, that the first attention which
should be paid to men, is that which takes place through
the senses; as when some one perceives beautiful
figures and forms, or hears beautiful rhythms and
melodies, he established that to be the first erudition
which subsists through music, and also through certain
1 Tliad, lib. 17. The translation by Pope.
melodies and rhythms, from which the remedies of human manners and passions are obtained, together with those harmonies of the powers of the soul which it possessed from the first. He likewise devised medi- cines calculated to repress and expel the diseases both of bodies and souls. And by Jupiter that which deserves to be mentioned above all these particulars is this, that he arranged and adapted for his disciples what are called apparatus and contrectations, divinely contriving mix- tures of certain diatonic, chromatic, and euharmonic melodies, through which he easily transferred and circularly led the passions of the soul into a contrary direction, when they had recently and in an irrational and clandestine manner been formed; such as sorrow, rage, and pity, absurd emulation and fear, all-various desires, angers, and appetites, pride, supineness, and vehemence. For he corrected each of these by the tule of virtue, attempering them through appropriate melodies, as through certain salutary medicines. In the evening, likewise, when his disciples were retiring to sleep, he liberated them by these means from diurnal perturbations and tumults, and purified their intellec- tive power from the influxive and effluxive waves of a corporeal nature; rendered their sleep quiet, and their dreams pleasing and prophetic. But when they again rose from their bed, he freed them from nocturnal heaviness, relaxation and torpor, through certain peculiar songs and modulations, produced either by simply striking the lyre, or employing the voice. Pythagoras, however, did not procure for himself a thing of this kind through instruments or the voice, but employing a certain ineffable divinity, and which it is difficult to apprehend, he extended his ears, and fixed his intellect in the sublime symphonies of the world, he alone hearing and understanding, as it appears, the universal harmony and consonance of the spheres, and the stars that are moved through them, and which produce a fuller and more intense
melody than any thing effected by mortal sounds.?
This melody also was the result of dissimilar and
variously differing sounds, celerities, magnitudes, and
intervals, arranged with reference to each other in a
certain most musical ratio, and thus producing a most
gentle, and at the same time variously beautiful motion
and convolution. Being therefore irrigated as it were
with this melody, having the reason of his intellect well
arranged through it, and as I may say, exercised, he
determined to exhibit certain images of these things to
1“ The Pythagoreans,” says Simplicius, in his Commentary on the 2d book of Aristotle’s treatise On the Heavens, said, ‘ that an har- monic sound was produced from the motion of the celestial bodies, and they scientifically collected this from the analogy of their intervals ; since not only the ratios of the sun and moon, of Venus and Mercury, but also of the other stars, were discovered by them.” Simplicius adds, ‘“‘ Perhaps the objection of Aristotle to this assertion of the Pythagoreans, may be solved according to the philosophy of those men, as follows: All things are not commensurate with each other, nor is every thing sensible to every thing, even in the sublunary region. This is evident from dogs who scent animals at a great distance, and which are not smelt by men. How much more, therefore, in things which are separated by so great an interval as those which are incorruptible from the corruptible, and celestial from terrestrial natures, is it true to say, that the sound of divine bodies is not audible by terrestrial ears? But if any one like Pythagoras, who is reported to have heard this harmony, should have his terrestrial body exempt from him, and his luminous and celestial vehicle 1 and the senses which it contains purified, either through a good allotment, or through probity of life, or through a perfection arising from sacred operations, such a one will perceive things invisible to others, and will hear things inaudible by others. With respect to divine and immaterial bodies, however, if any sound is produced by them, it is neither percussive nor destructive, but it excites the powers and energies of sublunary sounds, and perfects the sense which is co-ordinate with them. It
1 The soul has three vehicles, one etherial, another aerial, and the third this terrestrial body. The first, which is luminous and celestial, is connate with the essence of the soul, and in which alone it resides in a state of bliss in the stars. In the second, it suffers the punish- ment of its sins after death. And from the third it becomes an
inhabitant of earth.
his disciples as much as possible, especially producing
an imitation of them through instruments, and through
the mere voice alone. For he conceived that by him
alone, of all the inhabitants of the earth, the mundane
sounds were understood and heard, and this from a
natural fountain itself and root. He therefore thought
himself worthy to be taught, and to learn something
about the celestial orbs, and to be assimilated to them
by desire and imitation, as being the only one on the
earth adapted to this by the conformation of his body,
through the demoniacal power that inspired him. But
he apprehended that other men ought to be satisfied
in looking to him, and the gifts he possessed, and in
being benefited and corrected through images and
examples, in consequence of their inability to compre-
hend truly the first and genuine archetypes of things.
Just, indeed, as to those who are incapable of looking
intently at the sun, through the transcendent splendor
of his rays, we contrive to exhibit the eclipses of that