It 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; and 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 unadulterated 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.[14] 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 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,[15] 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.