Amidst this uncertainty, Pythagoras distinctly perceived that abuses consecrated by a long course of ages were not at once to be eradicated. He abstained from bloody sacrifices, and the first class of his disciples abstained from them likewise. The rest, obliged still to preserve connections with the world, were permitted to sacrifice a small number of animals; and to taste, rather than eat, their flesh." с This was a compliance which a respect for custom and religion seemed to justify; and, except in this particular, we live in the most social friendship with the mild and peaceable animals. We are forbidden to do them the least injury. After the example of our founder, we feel the strongest aversion to those occupations the business of which is to put them to death; for experience has but too well proved that the frequent effusion of blood makes the soul contract a kind of ferocity. The chase is forbidden us. We renounce pleasures: but we are more humane, mild, and compassionate than other men; and I will add, much more ill treated. No means have been left untried to destroy a pious and learned society,' which, contemning pleasures, has been entirely devoted to promote the happiness of mankind. Anacharsis. I have been but ill acquainted with your institution: may I be permitted to request you to give me a more just idea of it? Samian. You know that Pythagoras, on his return from his travels, fixed his residence in Italy; and that, listening to his advice, the Greek colonies settled in that fertile country, laid their arms at his feet, and consented to make him the arbiter of their disputes; that he taught them to live in peace with each other, and with the neighbouring nations; that both men and women submitted with equal ardour to make the greatest sacrifices; that from all parts of Greece, Italy, and Sicily, an incredible number of disciples resorted to him; that he appeared at the courts of tyrants without flattering them, and induced them to abdicate their power without repining; that at the sight of so many great and beneficial changes, the people every where exclaimed that some deity had descended from heaven to deliver the earth from the evils by which it was afflicted." h Anacharsis. But have not either he or his disciples had recourse to falsehood to support the character he had acquired? Recollect the miracles that are attributed to him; at his voice the sea became calm, the storm was dispersed, and the pestilence suspended its rage. Recollect also the eagle which he called while soaring in the air, and which came and rested on his hand; and the bear that, in obedience to his commands, no longer attacked the timid animals.* i Samian. These extraordinary stories have always Iambl. cap. 6. p. 23; c. 28. p. 118 et 120. Porphyr. Vit. Pythag. p. 25. Elian. Var. Hist. lib. 4. c. 17. i Iambl. c. 28. p. 114. Porphyr. Vit. Pythag. p. 31. * Iambl. Vit. Pythag. c. 13. p. 46. appeared to me destitute of foundation. I find no reason to suppose that Pythagoras ever pretended to exert a power over nature. Anacharsis. But you will at least allow that he pretended to a knowledge of future events,' and to have received his doctrines from the priestess of Delphi. m Samian. He certainly believed in divination; and this error, if it be one, was common to him with the sages of his time, with those posterior to him, and even with Socrates himself." He affirmed that his doctrine was dictated by the oracle of Apollo. If this be esteemed a crime, we must charge with imposture Minos, Lycurgus, and almost all the legislators, who, to give greater authority to their laws, have feigned that they received them from the gods. Anacharsis. Permit me still to urge my objections, for inveterate prejudices are not easily renounced. Why is his philosophy enveloped in a triple veil of darkness? How is it possible that the man who had the modesty to prefer the title of Lover of Wisdom to that of Sage,' should not have had the frankness to declare the truth without disguise? Samian. You will find similar secrets to those at which you now express your surprise, in the mysteries 1 Porphyr. Vit. Pythag. p. 34. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. 1. p. 339. Iambl. cap. 28. p. 126. Anonym. ap. Phot. p. 1316. Aristox. ap. Diog. Laërt. lib. 8. § 21. " Cicer de Divin. lib. 1. c. 3. t. iii. p. 5. lib. 1. c. 43. p. 36. Val. Max. lib. 8. c. 7. • Diod. Sic. lib. 1. p. 84. Cicer de Divin. P Cicer. Tuscul. lib. 5. c. 3. t. ii. p. 361. Extern. N° 2. of Eleusis and Samothrace, among the Egyptian priests, and among all religious societies. Nay, have not also our philosophers a doctrine which they exclusively reserve for those disciples whose circumspection they have proved? The eyes of the multitude were formerly too weak to endure the light; and even at present, who would venture, in the midst of Athens, freely to explain his opinions on the nature of the gods, and the defects of the popular government? There are therefore some truths which the sage should guard with care, and suffer only to escape him, if I may so speak, drop by drop. Anacharsis. But there are others which surely he ought to dispense in a full stream; as the truths of morality, for instance; yet even these you cover with an almost impenetrable veil. When, for example, instead of advising me to fly idleness, or not to irritate an enraged man, you tell me not to sit down on a bushel, or to beware how I stir the fire with a sword, it is evident that, to the difficulty of practising your lessons, you add that of understanding them.s г Samian. Yet is it this very difficulty which impresses them more forcibly on the mind. What has been hardly acquired is more carefully preserved. Symbols excite curiosity, and give an air of novelty Cicer. de Finib. lib. 5. c. 5. t. ii. p. 200. Aul. Gell. lib. 20. c. 5. to common maxims; and as they present themselves more frequently to our senses than the other signs of our thoughts, they give greater authority to the laws they inculcate. Thus the soldier cannot sit near his fire, nor the labourer look on his bushel, without recollecting the prohibition and the precept. Anacharsis. You are so fond of mystery, that one of the first disciples of Pythagoras incurred the indignation of the rest for having published the solution of a problem in geometry.' Samian. It was then a general opinion that science, like modesty, should cover itself with a veil, to increase the charms of the treasures it conceals, and give more authority to him by whom they are possessed. Pythagoras doubtless profited by this prejudice; and I will even acknowledge, if you insist, that, after the example of some legislators, he had recourse to pious frauds to gain credit with the multitude;" for I equally mistrust the extravagant eulogiums which have been bestowed on him, and the odious accusations that have been employed to blacken him. But what insures his glory is, that he conceived the grand project of a society which, perpetually subsisting, and becoming the depositary of the sciences and of manners, should be the organ of truth and virtue, when men should be able to listen to the one, and to practise the other. A great number of disciples embraced the new 'Iambl. Vit. Pythag. c. 34. p. 198. Laërt. lib. 8. § 41. u Hermipp. ap. Diog. * Plat, de Rep. lib. 10. t. ii. p. 600. |