Of the great educators of antiquity, I esteem Pythagoras the most
eminent and successful. Everything of his doctrine and discipline comes
commended by its elegance and humanity, and justifies the name he bore
of the golden-souled Samian, and founder of the Greek culture. He seems
to have stood in providential nearness to the human sensibility, as
if his were a maternal relation as well, and he owned the minds whom
he nurtured and educated. The first of philosophers, taking the name
for its modesty of pretension, he justified his claim to it in the
attainments and services of his followers; his school having given us
Socrates, Plato, Pericles, Plutarch, Plotinus, and others of almost
equal fame, founders of states and cultures.
He was most fortunate in his biographer. For, next to the Gospels,
I know of nothing finer of the kind than the mythological portrait
drawn of him by Jamblichus, his admiring disciple, and a philosopher
worthy of his master. How mellow the coloring, the drapery disposed
so gracefully about the person he paints! I look upon this piece of
nature with ever fresh delight, so reverend, humane, so friendly in
aspect and Olympian. Nor is the interest less, but enhanced rather
by the interfusion of fable into the personal history, the charm of
a subtle idealism being thus given it, relating him thereby to the
sacred names of all times. There is in him an Oriental splendor, as
of sunrise, reflected on statues, blooming in orchards, an ambrosial
beauty and sweetness, as of autumnal fruits and of women.
"In all he did,
Some picture of the golden times was hid."
Personally, he is said to have been the most beautiful and godlike of
all those who had been celebrated in history before his time. As a
youth, his aspect was venerable and his habits strictly temperate, so
that he was reverenced and honored by elderly men. He attracted the
attention of all who saw him, and appeared admirable in all eyes. He
was adorned by piety and discipline, by a mode of life transcendently
good, by firmness of soul, and by a body in due subjection to the
mandates of reason. In all his words and actions, he discovered an
inimitable quiet and serenity, not being subdued at any time by
anger, emulation, contention, or any precipitation of conduct. He
was reverenced by the multitude as one under the influence of divine
inspiration. He abstained from all intoxicating drinks, and from animal
food, confining himself to a chaste nutriment. Hence, his sleep was
short and undisturbed, his soul vigilant and pure, his body in a state
of perfect and invariable health. He was free from the superstitions
of his time, and pervaded with a deep sense of duty towards God, and
veneration for his divine attributes and immanency in things. He fixed
his mind so intently on the attainment of wisdom, that systems and
mysteries inaccessible to others were opened to him by his magic genius
and sincerity of purpose. The great principle with which he started,
that of being a seeker rather than possessor of truth, seemed ever to
urge him forward with a diligence and an activity unprecedented in the
history of the past, and perhaps unequalled since. He visited every
man who could claim any degree of fame for wisdom or learning, whilst
the relics of antiquity and the simplest operations of nature seemed
to yield to his researches; and we moderns are using his eyes in many
departments of activity into which pure thought enters, being indebted
to him for important discoveries alike in science and metaphysics.
"His institution at Crotona was the most comprehensive and complete of
any of which we read. His aim being at once a philosophical school,
a religious brotherhood, and a political association. And all these
characters appear to have been inseparably united in the founder's
mind. It must be considered as a proof of upright intentions in
Pythagoras which ought to rescue him from all suspicion of selfish
motives, that he chose for his associates persons whom he deemed
capable of grasping the highest truths which he could communicate, and
was not only willing to teach them all he knew, but regarded the utmost
cultivation of the intellectual faculties as a necessary preparation
for the work to which he destined them. He instituted a society, an
order, as one may now call it, composed of young men, three hundred
in number, carefully selected from the noblest families, not only of
Crotona, but of the other Italian cities.
"Those who confided themselves to the guidance of his doctrine and
discipline, conducted themselves in the following manner:--
"They performed their morning walks alone in places where there
happened to be an appropriate solitude and quiet, and where there were
temples and groves, and other things adapted to give delight. For
they thought it was not proper to converse with any one till they had
rendered their own soul sedate and co-harmonized with the reasoning
power. For they apprehended it to be a thing of a turbulent nature to
mingle in a crowd as soon as they rose from bed. But after the morning
walk, they associated with each other, and employed themselves in
discussing doctrines and disciplines, and in the correction of their
manners and lives.
"They employed their time after dinner, which consisted of bread and
honey without wine, in domestic labors and economies, and in the
hospitalities due to strangers and their guests, according to the laws.
All business of this sort was transacted during these hours of the day.
"When it was evening, they again betook themselves to walking, yet not
singly as in the morning walk, but in parties of two or three, calling
to mind, as they walked, the disciplines which they had learned, and
exercising themselves in beautiful studies.
"After bathing again, they went to supper; no more than ten meeting
together for this purpose. This meal they finished before the setting
of the sun. It was of wine and maize, bread and salad. They were of
opinion that any animal, not naturally noxious to the human race,
should neither be injured nor slain.
"After supper, libations were performed; and these were succeeded by
readings, the youngest reading, and the eldest ordering what should be
read and after what manner.
"They wore a white and pure garment, and slept on beds the coverlets of
which were of white linen."