Chapter 27

Chapter XXVII
Pythagoras. Egyptian Deities. Oracles The teachings of Anchises to AEneas, respecting the nature of the
human soul, were in conformity with the doctrines of the
Pythagoreans. Pythagoras (born, perhaps, about five hundred and
forty years B.C.) was a native of the island of Samos, but passed
the chief portion of his life at Crotona in Italy. He is
therefore sometimes called "the Samian," and sometimes "the
philosopher of Crotona." When young he travelled extensively and
is said to have visited Egypt, where he was instructed by the
priests in all their learning, and afterwards journeyed to the
East, and visited the Persian and Chaldean Magi, and the Brahmins
of India. But Pythagoras left no writings which have been preserved. His
immediate disciples were under a pledge of secrecy. Though he is
referred to by many writers, at times not far distant from his
own, we have no biography of him written earlier than the end of
the second century of our era. In the interval between his life
and this time, every sort of fable collected around what was
really known of his life and teaching. At Crotona, where he finally established himself, it is said that
his extraordinary qualities collected round him a great number of
disciples. The inhabitants were notorious for luxury and
licentiousness, but the good effects of his influence were soon
visible. Sobriety and temperance succeeded. Six hundred of the
inhabitants became his disciples and enrolled themselves in a
society to aid each other in the pursuit of wisdom; uniting their
property in one common stock, for the benefit of the whole. They
were required to practise the greatest purity and simplicity of
manners. The first lesson they learned was SILENCE; for a time
they were required to be only hearers. "He (Pythagoras) said
so," (Ipse dixit,) was to be held by them as sufficient, without
any proof. It was only the advanced pupils, after years of
patient submission, who were allowed to ask questions and to
state objections. Pythagoras is said to have considered NUMBERS as the essence and
principle of all things, and attributed to them a real and
distinct existence; so that, in his view, they were the elements
out of which the universe was constructed. How he conceived this
process has never been satisfactorily explained. He traced the
various forms and phenomena of the world to numbers as their
basis and essence. The "Monad," or UNIT, he regarded as the
source of all numbers. The number TWO was imperfect, and the
cause of increase and division. THREE was called the number of
the whole, because it had a beginning, middle, and end; FOUR,
representing the square, is in the highest degree perfect; and
TEN, as it contains the sum of the first three