PYTHAGORAS, a celebrated philosopher of antiquity, but one respecting the time and place of whose birth the learned are much divided. Eratosthenes asserts, that in the 48th Olympiad, about 588 years before Christ, when still very young, he was a victor at the Olympic games. Hence Dr Bentley^[1. Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris. ] determines the date of his birth to be the fourth year of the 43d Olympiad; whilst Lloyd,^[2. Chron. of Pythagoras. ] who denies that the Olympic victor was the same person with the philosopher, places it about the third year of the 48th Olympiad. Mr Dodwell^[3. Two Dissertations on the age of Phalereus and Pythagoras. ] differs from both, and wishes to fix the birth of Pythagoras in the fourth year of the 52d Olympiad. Of the arguments of these learned writers, Le Clerc has given a summary in the EibliotEeque Choisie (tom. x. p. 81, et seq.); and from a review of the whole, it would appear that he was not born earlier than the fourth year of the 43d Olympiad, or later than the fourth year of the 52d; but in what particular year of that period his birth took place, cannot with any degree of certainty be ascertained. It is generally believed that he was born in the island of Samos, and that he flourished about five hundred years before Christ, in the time of Tarquin, the last king of Rome.^[4. Quoest. Tusc. lib. iv. cap. 1. ] His father, Mnesarchus, who is supposed by some to have been a lapidary, and by others a merchant of Tyre, appears to have been a man of some distinction, and to have bestowed upon his son the best education.

Jamblicus^[5. Vit. Pythag. 6, n. ] relates a number of wonderful stories respecting the descent of Pythagoras from Jupiter, as well as in regard to his birth and early life; and represents him even in his youth as a prodigy of wisdom and manly seriousness. But most of these idle tales confute themselves, and prove nothing but the credulity, carelessness, and prejudice of their author. Of his childhood and early education we know nothing, except that he was first instructed in his own country by Creophilus, and afterwards in Scyrus by Pherecydes. According to the custom of the times, he was made acquainted with poetry and music; eloquence and astronomy became his private studies; and in gymnastic exercises he often bore the palm for strength and dexterity. He first distinguished himself in Greece at the Olympic games, where, besides gaining the prize, he is said to have excited the highest admiration by the elegance and dignity of his person, and the brilliancy of his understanding.

Soon after his public appearance at these games, Pythagoras commenced his travels in quest of knowledge. He first visited Egypt, where, through the interest of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, he obtained the patronage of Amasis king of Egypt, by whose influence, combined with his own assiduity, patience, and perseverance, he at length won the confidence of the priests, from whom he learned their sacred mysteries, theology, and the whole system of symbolical learning. In Egypt, too, he became acquainted with geometry and the true solar system; and, before he left that country, he had made himself master of all the learning for which it was so famed amongs the nations of antiquity. He afterwards visited Persia and Chaldaea, where from the Magi he learned divination, the art of interpreting dreams, and the science of astronomy. He is likewise said to have travelled into India, conversed with the Gymnosophists, and acquired from them a knowledge of the philosophy and literature of the East; and such was his ardour in the pursuit of science, that, according to Cicero,^[6. Σ⅛ Finibus, fib. iv. sect. 29. ] he crossed many seas, and travelled on foot through many barbarous nations, in prosecution of his researches.

After Pythagoras had spent many years in gathering information on every subject, especially respecting the nature of the gods, the rites of religion, and the immortality of the human soul, he returned to his native island, and attempted to render his knowledge useful by there instituting a school for the instruction of his countrymen. Failing of success in this laudable undertaking, he repaired to Delos, where he pretended to receive moral dogmas from the priestess of Apollo. He then visited Crete, where he was initiated into the most sacred mysteries of Greece. He likewise repaired to Sparta and Elis, and again assisted at the Olympic games, where in the public assembly he was saluted with the title of sophist or wise man, which he declined for one more humble, namely, that of philosopher, or lover of wisdom. Having returned to Samos enriched with mythological learning and esoteric rites, he again instituted a school in that island. His mysterious symbols and oracular precepts rendered this attempt more successful than the former had been; but meeting with some opposition, or being detected in some pious frauds, he suddenly left Samos, and, retiring to Magna Graecia, settled at Crotona.

Here Pythagoras founded the Italic sect, nor was it long ere his mental and personal accomplishments, the fame of his distant travels, and his Olympic crown, procured him numerous pupils. His bold and manly eloquence and his graceful delivery attracted the most dissolute, and produced a remarkable change in the morals of the people of Crotona. His influence was increased by the regularity of his own example, and its conformity to his precepts. He punctually attended the temples of the gods, and paid his devotions at an early hour; he lived upon the purest and most innocent food, clothed himself like the priests of Egypt, and, by his continual purifications and regular offerings, appeared to be superior in sanctity to the rest of mankind. He endeavoured to assuage the passions of his scholars by means of verses and numbers, and made a practice of composing his own mind every morning, by playing on the harp, and singing along with it the paeans of Thales. To avoid the temptations of ease and the seductions of idleness, bodily exercises also formed a considerable part of his scheme of discipline.

At Crotona he had a public school for the general benefit of the people, in which he taught them their duty, praising virtue, condemning vice, and particularly instructing them in the duties of social life. Besides this, he had a college in his own house, which he denominated κοινοβιον, in which there were two classes of students; the εζωτεgικοι, who were also called auscultantes, and the εσο>τεoικοι The former of these were neophytes, and were kept under a long probation. A silence of five years was imposed upon them, which Apnleius thinks was intended to teach them modesty and attention; but Clemens Alexandrinus is of opinion that it was for the purpose of abstracting their minds from sen sible objects, and inuring them to the pure contemplation of the Deity. The latter class of scholars were called genuini, perfecti, mathematici, and, by way of eminence, Pythagoreans. They alone were admitted to the knowledge of the arcana of the Pythagorean discipline, and were taught the use of ciphers and hieroglyphical writings.
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Clemens observes, that these orders corresponded very exactly to those amongst the Hebrews. For in the schools of the prophets there were two classes; the sons of the prophets, who were the scholars, and the doctors or masters, who were also called perfecti, and, amongst the Levites, the novices or tyros, who had their quinquennial exercises, by way of preparation. Lastly, even amongst the proselytes there were two orders; exoterisci, or proselytes of the gate, and intrinseci or ρerfexti, proselytes of the covenant. It is highly probable, he adds, that Pythagoras himself had been a proselyte of the gate, if not of the covenant. Gale endeavours to prove that Pythagoras borrowed his philosophy from the Jews; and with this view he produces the authorities of many fathers and ancient authors, and even points out traces of Moses in several parts of Pythagoras’s doctrine. But the learned author was, we believe, misled by the Christian Platonists.

The authority of Pythagoras amongst his pupils was so great that it was even deemed a crime to dispute his word; and their arguments were considered as infallibly convincing, if they could enforce them by adding that “the master said so,” an expression which afterwards became proverbial, jurare in verba magistri. This influence over his school was soon extended to the world, and even his pupils themselves divided with their master the applause and approbation of the people; whilst the rulers and the legislators of all the principal towns of Greece, and Sicily, and Italy, boasted of being the disciples of Pythagoras. To give more weight to his exhortations, as some writers mention, Pythagoras retired into a subterranean cave, where his mother sent him intelligence of everything which happened during his absence. After a certain number of months he again re-appeared on the earth with a grim and ghastly countenance, and declared in the assembly of the people that he was just returned from the shades. From similar exaggerations, it has been asserted that he appeared at the Olympic games with a golden thigh; that he could write whatever he pleased in letters of blood on a looking-glass; and that by setting it opposite to the moon, when full, all the characters which were on the glass became legible on the moon’s disc. They also relate, that by some magical words he tamed a bear, stopped the flight of an eagle, and appeared on the same day and at the same instant of time in the cities of Crotona and Metapontum.

At length his singular doctrines, and perhaps his strenuously asserting the rights of the people against their tyrannical governors, excited a spirit of jealousy, and raised against him a powerful party, which soon became so outrageous as to oblige him to fly for his life. His friends withdrew to Rhegium; and he himself, after being refused protection by the Locrians, fled to Metapontum, where he was obliged to take refuge in the temple of the Muses, and where it is said he died of hunger, about 497 years before Christ. Respecting the time, place, and manner of his death, however, there are various opinions, and many think it uncertain when, where, or in what manner he ended his days. After his death his followers paid him the same respect they would have done to the immortal gods; they erected statues in his honour, converted his house at Crotona into a temple to Ceres, appealed to him as a deity, and even swore by his name.

Pythagoras married Theano of Crotona, or, according to others, of Crete, by whom he had two sons, Telauges and Mnesarchus, who, after his death, took care of his school. He is also said to have had a daughter called Damo.

Whether he left any writings behind him is disputed. It seems probable, however, that he left none, and that such as went under his name were written by some of his followers. The golden verses which Hierocles has illustrated with a commentary, have been ascribed to Epicharmus or Empedocles, and contain a brief summary of his popular doctrines. From this circumstance, and from the mysterious secrecy with which he taught, our information concerning his doctrine and philosophy is very uncertain, and cannot always be depended upon.

The main purpose of philosophy, according to the system of Pythagoras, is to free the mind from encumbrances, and to raise it to the contemplation of immutable truth and the knowledge of divine and spiritual objects. To bring the mind to this state of perfection is a work of some difficulty, and requires a variety of intermediate steps. Mathematical science was with him the first step to wisdom, because it inures the mind to contemplation, and takes a middle course between corporeal and incorporeal beings. The whole science he divided into two parts, numbers and magnitude; and each of these he subdivided into two others, the former into arithmetic and music, and the latter into magnitude at rest and magnitude in motion, the one comprehending geometry and the other astronomy. Arithmetic lie regarded as the noblest science, and an acquaintance with numbers as the highest good. He considered numbers as the principles of everything, and divided them into scientific and intelligible. Scientific number is the production of the powers involved in unity, and its return to the same. Number is not infinite, but it is the source of that infinite divisibility into equal parts which is the property of all bodies. Intelligible numbers are those which existed in the divine mind before all things. They are the model or archetype of the world, and the cause of the essence of beings. Of the monad, duad, triad, tetrad, and decad, various explanations have been given by different authors; but nothing certain or important is known of them. In all probability numbers were used by Pythagoras as symbolical representations of the first principles and forms of nature, especially of those eternal and immutable essences which Plato denominated ideas; and in this case the monad was the simple root from which he conceived numbers to proceed, and, as such, analogous to the simple essence of Deity, from whom, according to his system, the various properties of nature are derived.

Music followed numbers, and was held as useful in raising the mind above the dominion of the passions. Pythagoras considered it as a science to be reduced to mathematical principles and proportions, and is said to have discovered the musical chords from the circumstance of several men successively striking with hammers a piece of heated iron upon an anvil. This story Dr Bnrney^[7. History of Music, vol. i. p. 441. ] discredits, but at the same time allows, from the uniform testimony of writers ancient and modern, that he invented the harmonical cαnοη, cr monochord. The music of the spheres, of which every one has heard, was a most fanciful doctrine of Pythagoras. It was produced, he imagined, by the planets striking on the ether through which in their motion they passed; wherefore he considered their musical proportions as exact, and their harmony perfect.

Pythagoras, as we have already seen, learned geometry in Egypt; but, by investigating many new theorems, and by digesting its principles, he reduced it to a more regular science. A geometrical point, which he defines to be a monad, or unity with position, he says corresponds to unity in arithmetic, a line to two, a superficies to three, and a solid to four. He discovered several of the propositions of Euclid; and on discovering the 47th of the first book, he is said to have offered a hecatomb to the gods; but as he was averse to animal sacrifices, this assertion is most probably false.

Wisdom, according to Pythagoras, is conversant with [7:18:761]those objects which are naturally immutable, eternal, and incorruptible; and its end is to assimilate the human mind to the divine, and to qualify us to join the assembly of the immortals. Active and moral philosophy prescribes rules and precepts for the conduct of life, and leads us to the practice of public and of private virtue. On these heads many of his precepts were excellent, whilst some of them were whimsical and useless. Theoretical philosophy treats of nature and its origin, and is, according to Pythagoras, the highest object of study. It included all the profound mysteries which he taught, of which but little is now known. God he considers as the universal mind, diffused throughout all things, and the self-moving principle of all things (αυτοματισμός των <ιrαvτων), and of whom every human soul is a portion.^[8. Cicero de Senectute, sect. 21. ] It is very probable that he conceived of the Deity as a subtile fire, eternal, active, and intelligent; which is not inconsistent with the idea of incorporeality, as the ancients understood that term. This Deity was primarily combined with the chaotic mass of passive matter, but he had the power of separating himself, and since the separation he has remained distinct. The learned Cudworth contends that Pythagoras maintained a trinity of hypostases in the divine nature, similar to the Platonic triad. We cannot say that his arguments appear to have much force; but we think the conclusion which he wishes to establish extremely probable, as Plato certainly drew his doctrine from some of the countries which Pythagoras had visited before him.

Subordinate to the Deity there were in the Pythagorean creed three orders of intelligences; gods, demons, and heroes, of different degrees of excellence and dignity. These, together with the human soul, were considered as emanations from the Deity, the particles of subtile ether assuming a grosser clothing the farther they receded from the divine fountain. Hierocles defines a hero to be a rational mind united with a luminous body. God himself was represented under the notion of monad, and the subordinate intelligences as numbers derived from and included in unity. Man is considered as consisting of an elementary nature and a divine or rational soul. His soul, a self-moving principle, is composed of two parts; the rational, seated in the brain, and the irrational, including the passions, in the heart. In both these respects he participates with the brutes, whom the temperament of their body and other circumstances allow not to act rationally. The sensitive souI perishes; the other assumes an ethereal vehicle, and passes to the region of the dead, till sent back to the earth to inhabit some other body, brutal or human. It was unquestionably this notion which led Pythagoras and his followers to deny themselves the use of flesh, and to be so peculiarly merciful to animals of every description. Some authors, however, say that flesh and beans, the use of which he also forbade, were prohibited because he supposed them to have been produced from the same putrefied matter out of which, at the creation of the world, man was formed.

The scantiness and uncertainty of our information respecting Pythagoras renders a regular and complete account of his life and doctrines impossible. A modern author,^[9. Monboddo’s Ancient Metaphysics. ] of profound erudition, pronounces him to have been unquestionably the wisest man that ever lived, if his masters the Egyptian priests must not be excepted. This is perhaps saying too much; but that he was one of the most distinguished philosophers of antiquity, or, as Cicero expresses it, vir praestanti sapientia, appears very evident; and his moral character has never been impeached. The mysterious air which he threw over his doctrines, and the apparent inanity of some of his symbols, have indeed sub jected him to the charge of imposture; and perhaps the charge is not wholly groundless. But when we consider the age in which he lived, and the nature of the people with whom he had to deal, and who would in all probability have resisted more open innovations, even this will not appear so blameable as at first sight we are apt to think it; and it is worthy of notice, that the worst stories of this kind have come down to us in a very questionable shape, and show every appearance of being fabulous.