MARRIAGE OF PYTHAGORAS--REVOLUTION AT
CROTON--THE MASTER’S END--THE SCHOOL AND
ITS DESTINY
Among the women who followed the master’s teaching was a maiden of
great beauty. Her father, an inhabitant of Croton, was named Brontinos.
His daughter’s name was Theano. Pythagoras was now sixty years of
age, but mastery over passion and a pure life wholly consecrated to
his mission, had kept him in perfect health and strength. The youth
of the soul, that immortal flame the great initiate draws from his
spiritual life and nourishes on the hidden forces of nature, shone
forth in him, throwing into subjection all around. The Grecian mage was
not at the decline, but rather at the height of his might. Theano was
attracted to Pythagoras by the almost supernatural radiance emanating
from his person. Grave and reserved, she had sought from the master an
explanation of the mysteries she loved though without understanding
them. When, however, beneath the light of truth and the tender glow
which gradually enveloped her, she felt her inmost soul expand like
the mystic rose with its thousand petals, when she felt that this
blossoming forth came from him and his words--she silently conceived
for the master a boundless enthusiasm and a passionate love.
Pythagoras had made no effort to attract her. His love and affection
were bestowed on all his disciples; he thought only of his school, of
Greece and the future of the world. Like many great adepts, he had
denied himself the pleasures of earthly love to devote himself to
his work. The magic of his will, the spiritual possession of so many
souls he had formed and who remained devoted to him as to a well-loved
father, the mystic incense of all those unexpressed affections which
came to him, and that exquisite fragrance of human sympathy which
bound together the Pythagorean brethren--all this took the place of
voluptuousness, of human happiness and love. One day, as he was alone,
meditating on the future of his school in the crypt of Proserpine, he
saw coming to him, with grave, resolute steps, this beautiful virgin
to whom he had never spoken in private. She sank on her knees at his
feet, and with downcast eyes begged the master--the one who could do
everything!--to set her free from an impossible, an unhappy love which
was consuming her, body and soul. Pythagoras wished to know the name
of the one she loved. After much hesitation, Theano confessed that it
was himself, but that, ready for any sacrifice, she would submit to his
will. Pythagoras made no reply. Encouraged by his silence, she raised
her head with suppliant look. Her eyes seemed to contain the very
essence of a life and soul offered as a sacrifice to the master.
The sage was greatly disturbed; he could overcome his senses and
imagination, but the electric flash from that soul had pierced his own.
In this virgin, matured by passion, her countenance transfigured by a
sentiment of utter devotion, he had found his companion, and caught a
faint glimpse of a more complete realization of his work. With troubled
look, Pythagoras raised the maiden to her feet, and Theano saw from the
master’s eyes that their destinies were for ever united.
By his marriage with Theano, Pythagoras affixed _the seal of
realization_ to his work. The union and fusion of the two lives was
complete. One day when the master’s wife was asked what length of time
elapsed before a woman could become pure after intercourse with a man,
she replied: “If it is with her husband, she is pure all the time; if
with another man, she is never pure.” Many women would smilingly remark
that to give such a reply one must be the wife of Pythagoras, and love
him as Theano did.
And they would be in the right, for it is not marriage which sanctifies
love, it is love which justifies marriage. Theano entered so thoroughly
into the thought and life of her husband, that after his death she
became a centre for the Pythagorean order, and a Greek author quotes
her opinion as that of an authority on the doctrine of Numbers. She
bore Pythagoras two sons, Arimnestes and Telauges, and a daughter Damo.
At a later date Telauges became the master of Empedocles, to whom he
handed down the secrets of the doctrine.
The family of Pythagoras offered the order a real model to follow. His
house was called the Temple of Ceres, and his court the Temple of the
Muses. In domestic and religious festivals, the mother led the women’s
chorus, and Damo that of the maidens. In all respects Damo was worthy
of her parents. Pythagoras entrusted to her certain writings expressly
forbidding her to communicate them to any one outside the family. After
the dispersion of the Pythagoreans, Damo fell into great poverty. She
was offered a large sum for the precious manuscript, but, faithful to
her father’s will, she always refused to part with it.
Pythagoras lived in Croton for thirty years. Within twenty years this
extraordinary man had acquired such power that those who called him a
demi-god were not looked upon as exaggerating. This power seemed to
have something miraculous about it, no like influence had ever been
exercised by a philosopher. It extended not merely to the school of
Croton and its ramifications in other towns on the coast of Italy,
but even to the politics of all these small states. Pythagoras was
a reformer in the whole acceptation of the term. Croton, a colony
of Achaïa, had an aristocratic constitution. The _Council of the
Thousand_, drawn from the noblest families, carried on the legislative
and kept watch over the executive power. Popular assemblies existed,
though their power was restricted. Pythagoras, who wished the State
to be all order and harmony, was no more enamoured of oligarchical
compression than of the chaos of demagogy. Accepting the Doric
constitution as it was, he simply tried to introduce a fresh mechanism
into it. The idea was a bold one, for it consisted in the creation,
over and above the political power, of a scientific one with a
deliberative and consultative voice in questions of vital interest,
and becoming the key-stone, the supreme regulator of the State. Above
the Council of the Thousand, he organized the _Council of the Three
Hundred_, chosen by the former, but recruited from among the initiates
alone. The number was sufficient for the task. Porphyrus relates
that two thousand of the citizens of Croton gave up their wonted
mode of living and united in order to live together with their wives
and children after placing their possessions in one common stock. It
was thus the wish of Pythagoras that at the head of the State there
should be a scientific government, not so mysterious though quite as
important as the Egyptian priesthood. What he realized for a short time
remained the dream of all such initiates as dealt with politics, viz.
the introduction of the principle of initiation and examination into
the government of the State, and the reconciliation in this superior
synthesis of the elective or democratic principle with a government
constituted of a select number of intelligent and virtuous citizens.
The result was that the Council of the Three Hundred formed a kind
of political, scientific and religious order, of which Pythagoras
himself was the recognized head. The members were bound to him by a
solemn and an awful oath of absolute secrecy, as was the case in the
Mysteries. These societies or ἑταιρεῖαι spread from Croton, the seat
of the original society, throughout almost the whole of the towns in
Greater Greece, where they exercised a powerful political influence.
The Pythagorean order also tended to become the head of the State
throughout the whole of Southern Italy. Its ramifications extended to
Tarentum, Heracleium, Metapontum, Rhegium, Himera, Catana, Agrigentum,
Sybaris and, according to Aristoxenes, even among the Etruscans. As
regards the influence of Pythagoras on the government of these rich and
mighty cities, nothing loftier, nothing more liberal or pacific could
be imagined. Wherever he appeared, order, justice and concord were
restored. Once, when summoned into the presence of a tyrant of Sicily,
he persuaded him, by his eloquence alone, to restore the wealth he had
unjustly acquired and to abdicate a power he had usurped. Such towns as
were subject to one another he made independent and free. So beneficent
were his actions that when he went into a town the inhabitants would
say: “He has not come to teach but rather to heal.”
The sovereign influence of a great mind and character, that magic
of soul and intelligence, arouses jealousy and hatred which is only
the more terrible and violent because it is itself the less capable
of attack. His sway lasted a quarter of a century; the reaction came
when the indefatigable adept had reached the age of ninety. It began
in Sybaris, the rival of Croton, where a rising of the people took
place and the aristocratic party was overthrown. Five hundred exiles
asked the inhabitants of Croton to receive them, but the Sybarites
demanded their extradition. Dreading the anger of a hostile town, the
magistrates of Croton were on the point of complying with this demand
when Pythagoras intervened. At his entreaty, they refused to hand over
the unhappy suppliants to their implacable enemies, whereupon Sybaris
declared war upon Croton. The Croton army, however, commanded by the
famous athlete, Milon, a disciple of Pythagoras, completely defeated
the Sybarites. The downfall of Sybaris followed; the town was taken and
plundered, utterly destroyed and converted into a wilderness of ruins.
It is impossible to admit that Pythagoras could have approved of so
terrible a revenge, which was altogether opposed to his principles, as,
indeed, to those of all initiates. Neither he nor Milon, however, could
check the unbridled passions of a conquering army, when once inflamed
by long-standing jealousy and excited by an unjust attack.
Revenge, whether in individuals or in nations, always brings about a
recoil of the passions let loose. The Nemesis of this vengeance was
a terrible one; its consequences fell on Pythagoras and the whole of
his order. After taking Sybaris, the people demanded a division of the
land. Not content with obtaining this, the democratic party proposed a
change of constitution, depriving the Council of the Thousand of its
privileges, and suppressing the Council of the Three Hundred; they were
no longer willing to admit any other authority than universal suffrage.
Naturally the Pythagoreans, members of the Council of the Thousand,
were opposed to a reform which was contrary to their principles and was
undermining the patient work of their master. They had already become
the object of that dull hatred which mystery and superiority ever
arouse in the masses. Their political attitude excited the anger of the
demagogy, and personal hatred against the master proved the spark which
kindled the fire.
A certain Cylon had, some time before this, offered himself as a
candidate for the School. Pythagoras, who was very strict in accepting
disciples, refused him because of his violent and headstrong
disposition. This rejected candidate became a bitter enemy. When
public opinion began to turn against Pythagoras he organized a club,
a large popular society in opposition to that of the Pythagoreans.
He succeeded in attracting to himself the principal leaders of the
people, and at the meetings hatched a revolution which was to begin by
the expulsion of the Pythagoreans. Cylon rises to his feet in front
of a sea of upturned excited faces and reads extracts stolen from the
secret book of Pythagoras, entitled: The Sacred Word (_hiéros logos_).
These extracts are then travestied and wrongly interpreted. A few of
the speakers make an attempt to defend the brothers of silence, who
respect even dumb animals. Such are greeted with outbursts of laughter.
Cylon ascends the tribune again and again. He demonstrates that the
religious catechism of the Pythagoreans is a crime against liberty.
“And that is a slight charge,” he adds. “Is this master, this would-be
demi-god, whose least word is blindly obeyed, and who has merely a
command to give, to have all his brethren exclaiming: ‘The master has
said it!’--any other than the tyrant of Croton, and the worst of all
tyrants, an occult one? What else than scorn and disdain for the people
is this indissoluble friendship which unites all the members of the
Pythagorean ἑταιρεῖαι composed of? They are never tired of repeating
the words of Homer when he says that the prince should be the shepherd
of his people. In their eyes the people are evidently nothing better
than a worthless flock. The very existence of the order, I say, is a
permanent conspiracy against the rights of the people. Until it is
destroyed liberty will be a vain word in Croton!” One of the members
of the meeting, animated by a feeling of loyalty, exclaimed: “Let
Pythagoras and his followers be given an opportunity, at any rate, to
justify their conduct in our presence before we condemn them.” Cylon
replied haughtily: “Have not these Pythagoreans deprived you of the
right to judge and decide upon public matters? What right have they
to ask you to listen to them now? They did not consult you when they
deprived you of the right to exercise justice, now it is your turn to
strike without listening to them!” Such vehement opinions were greeted
with rounds of applause, and popular frenzy and passion rose higher
than ever.
One evening, when forty of the principal members of the order had met
at the abode of Milon, the tribune collected his followers and the
house was surrounded. The Pythagoreans, who had the master with them,
barricaded the doors. The enraged crowd set fire to the building,
which speedily became enveloped in flames. Thirty-eight Pythagoreans,
the very first of the master’s disciples and constituting the flower
of the order, along with Pythagoras himself, perished either in the
flames or at the hands of the people. Archippus and Lysis alone escaped
massacre.[23]
Thus died this mighty sage, this divine man whose effort it had been
to instil his own wisdom into human rule and government. The murder
of the Pythagoreans was the signal for a democratic revolution in
Croton and about the Gulf of Tarentum. The towns of Italy expelled
from their walls the unfortunate disciples of the master. The order
was dispersed; fragments of it, however, spread throughout Sicily
and Greece, propagating everywhere the master’s words and teachings.
Lysis became the teacher of Epaminondas. After fresh revolutions, the
Pythagoreans were permitted to return to Italy on condition they no
longer formed a political body. They were still united in a touching
fraternity, and looked upon themselves as one family. One of them
who had fallen upon sickness and poverty was kindly taken in by an
inn-keeper. Before dying he traced a few mysterious signs on the door
of the inn and said to the host: “Do not be uneasy, one of my brothers
will pay my debt.” A year afterwards, as a stranger was passing by this
inn he saw the signs and said to the host: “I am a Pythagorean; one
of my brothers died here; tell me what I owe you on his account.” The
order existed for two hundred and fifty years; the ideas and traditions
of the master have come down to the present times.
The regenerating influence of Pythagoras over Greece was immense.
This influence was exercised in mysterious though certain fashion,
by means of the temples he had visited. At Delphi we have seen that
he gave new might to the science of divination, strengthened the
priestly influence, and by his art formed a model Pythoness. Thanks to
this inner reform, which aroused enthusiasm in the very heart of the
sanctuaries and in the soul of the initiates, Delphi became more than
ever the moral centre of Greece. This was especially evident during
the Median wars. Scarcely had thirty years elapsed since the death of
Pythagoras when the Asiatic cyclone, predicted by the Samian sage,
burst out upon the coasts of Hellas. In this epic struggle of Europe
against a barbaric Asia, Greece, representing liberty and civilization,
has behind her the science and genius of Apollo. He it is whose
patriotic and religious inspiration stirs up and silences the springing
rivalry between Sparta and Athens. It is he, too, who is the inspirer
of men like Miltiades and Themistocles. At Marathon, enthusiasm is so
great that the Athenians believe they see two warriors, clad in light,
fighting in their ranks. Some recognize in them Theseus and Echetos;
others, Castor and Pollux. When the invasion of Xerxes, tenfold more
formidable than that of Darius, breaks over Thermopylæ and submerges
Hellas, it is the Pythoness who, on her tripod, points out the way
of safety to the envoys from Athens, and helps Themistocles to gain
the victory at Salamis. The pages of Herodotus thrill with her broken
phrases: “Abandon the homesteads and lofty hills if the city is built
in a circle ... fire and dreadful Mars mounted on a Syrian chariot will
bring your towers to ruins ... temples are tottering in their fall,
their walls are dripping with cold sweat, whilst black blood is falling
from their pinnacles ... depart from my sanctuary. Let a wooden wall be
your impregnable bulwark. Flee! turn your backs on numberless enemies
on foot and on horseback! O divine Salamis! How deadly wilt thou be to
those born of woman!”[24] In the account given by Eschylus the battle
begins with a cry resembling the pæan, Apollo’s hymn: “Soon the day,
led on white coursers, spreads throughout the world its resplendent
light. Immediately a mighty shout, resembling a sacred chant, rises
from the ranks of the Greeks and the echoes of the island respond in a
thousand loud-sounding voices.” What wonder that, intoxicated with the
wine of victory, the Greeks at the battle of Mycale, in the presence
of stricken Asia, chose as a rallying cry: “Hebe, Eternal Youth!” Yes,
it is the breath of Apollo that moves through these wonderful Median
wars. Religious enthusiasm, which works miracles, carries off both
living and dead, throws a dazzling light on victory, and gives a golden
glory to the tomb. All the temples were plundered and destroyed, that
of Delphi alone remained intact. The Persian hosts advanced to spoil
the holy town. A quiver of dread came over all. The solar god, however,
said through the voice of the pontiff: “I will defend myself!” Orders
were given from the temple that the city be deserted, the inhabitants
take refuge in the grottoes of Parnassus, and the priests alone keep
sacred guard on the threshold of the sanctuary. The Persian army enters
the town, all still as death; the statues alone look down as the hosts
march along. A black cloud gathers at the foot of the gorge, the
thunders roll and the lightning flashes on the invaders. Two enormous
rocks roll down from the summit of Parnassus, crushing to death great
numbers of Persians.[25] At the same time noises and shouts issue from
the Temple of Minerva, flames leap from the ground beneath the very
feet of the invaders. Before such wonders the barbarians fall back in
terror and the dismayed army takes to flight. The god has undertaken
his own defence.
Would these wonders have happened, would these victories humanity looks
upon as its own have taken place, had not Pythagoras, thirty years
earlier, appeared in the Delphic sanctuary to kindle there the sacred
fire? This may, indeed, be questioned.
One word more regarding the master’s influence on philosophy. Before
his time, there had been natural philosophers on the one hand, and
moral philosophers on the other; Pythagoras included in a vast
synthesis, morality, science and religion. This synthesis is nothing
else than the esoteric doctrine, whose full glory I have endeavoured
to reveal in the very basis of Pythagorean initiation. The philosopher
of Croton was not the inventor but the light-bearing arranger of these
fundamental truths, in the scientific order of things. Consequently I
have chosen his system as offering the most favourable framework to a
complete account of the doctrine of the Mysteries as well as of true
theosophy.
Those who have followed the master up to this point will have seen that
at the basis of the doctrine there shines the sun of the one Truth.
Scattered rays may be discovered in philosophies and religions, but
here is their centre. What must be done to attain thereto? Observation
and reasoning are not sufficient. In addition to and above all else
is intuition. Pythagoras was an adept and an initiate of the highest
order. His was the direct vision of the spirit, his the key to the
occult sciences and the spiritual world. It was from the primal
fount of Truth that he drew his supplies. And as he joined to these
transcendent faculties of an intellectual and spiritualized soul,
a careful and minute observation of physical nature and a masterly
classification of ideas by the aid of his lofty reason, no one could
have been better equipped than himself to build up the edifice of the
knowledge of the Kosmos.
In truth this edifice was never destroyed. Plato, who took from
Pythagoras the whole of his metaphysics, had a complete idea
thereof, though he unfolded it with less clearness and precision.
The Alexandrine school occupied the upper storeys of the edifice,
whilst modern science has taken the ground-floor and strengthened its
foundations. Numerous philosophical schools and mystical or religious
sects have inhabited its many chambers. No philosophy, however, has yet
embraced the whole of it. It is this whole I have endeavoured to reveal
here in all its harmony and unity.
THE END
_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London and Bungay._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The _Amphictyonic oath_ of the allied peoples gives
some idea of the greatness and social might of this
institution: “We swear that we will never overthrow
Amphictyonic towns, never, during either peace
or war, prevent them from obtaining whatever is
necessary for their needs. Should any power dare to
attempt this, we will march against it and destroy
its towns. Should impious hands remove the offerings
of the temple of Apollo, we swear that we will use
our feet, our arms, our voice, and all our strength
against them and their accomplices.”
[2] _The Golden Verses of Pythagoras._
[3] Iamblichus relates this fact in his _Life of
Pythagoras_.
[4] _The Oracles of Zoroaster_, taken from the theurgy
of Proclus.
[5] Reichenbach called this fluid _odyle_. His work
has been translated into English by Gregory:
_Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light,
Crystalization and Chemical Attraction_.--London,
1850.
[6] See the Bulletin of the Société de Pyschologie
Physiologique. M. Charcot, president, 1885. See more
especially the fine book by M. Ochorowicz, _De la
Suggestion Mentale_, Paris, 1887.
[7] There is a great deal of literature on this subject,
very unequal in value, in France, Germany and
England. I will here mention two books in which the
subject is treated scientifically by men of real
worth.
(1) _Letters on Animal Magnetism_, by William Gregory,
London, 1850. Gregory was a professor of chemistry
at the University of Edinburgh. His book is a
profound study of the phenomena of animal magnetism,
from suggestion to vision at a distance and lucid
clairvoyance, on subjects observed by himself, in
accordance with scientific method, and with minute
exactness.
(2) _Die mystischen Erscheinungen der menschlichen
Natur_, von Maximilian Perty, Leipzig, 1872.
Perty is a professor of philosophy and medicine
at the University of Berne. His book presents an
immense repertory of all such occult phenomena as
have historical value. The extremely remarkable
chapter on clairvoyance (Schlafwachen), Volume I.,
contains twenty accounts of female and five of male
clairvoyants, related by the doctors who treated the
cases. That of Weiner, treated by the author, is
most curious. See also the treatises on magnetism by
Dupotet and Deleuze, and the very strange book, _Die
Seherin von Prévorst_, by Justinus Kerner.
[8] Numerous examples in Gregory’s work: Letters XVI,
XVII, and XVIII.
[9] The German philosopher, Schelling, has acknowledged
the great importance of somnambulism in the question
of the immortality of the soul. He remarks that, in
lucid sleep, there is produced an elevation of the
soul, and its relative liberation with regard to
the body, which does not take place in the normal
state. In somnambulists, everything indicates the
loftiest consciousness, as though their whole being
were met in one luminous focus, uniting together
past, present and future. Far from losing all memory
of the past, it lies open before them, and even
the veil of the future is at times cast aside in
a glorious ray of light. If this is possible in
earthly life, Schelling inquires, is it not certain
that our spiritual personality, which follows us in
death, is at this very moment present in us, that
it is not born then but simply set free, and shows
itself when it is no longer bound by the senses to
the outside world? The post-mortem condition is
accordingly more real than the earthly one. For in
this life, that which is accidental, mingling with
the whole, paralyzes in us that which is essential.
Schelling calls the future state quite simply,
clairvoyance. The spirit liberated from everything
accidental in earthly life becomes stronger and more
alive; the wicked man becomes worse, the good better.
Quite recently Charles du Prel has advanced the same
opinion, supporting it with numerous facts and
details in a well-written volume, _Philosophie
der Mystik_ (1886). He starts from this fact: the
consciousness of the ego does not exhaust its
object. “Soul and consciousness are not two adequate
terms; they do not cover one another as they have
not an equal scope. The sphere of the soul far
surpasses that of the consciousness.” Consequently
there is _a latent ego_ in us. This latent ego,
which manifests itself in sleep and in dreams, is
the real ego, supra-terrestrial and transcendent,
whose existence precedes our terrestrial ego which
is bound to the body. The terrestrial ego is
perishable, the transcendent ego is immortal. This
is what St. Paul meant when he said--“----the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, so
that it be fashioned like unto His glorious body.”
[10] Origen states that Pythagoras was the inventor of
physiognomy.
[11] _Katharsis_ in Greek.
[12] In transcendent mathematics it is demonstrated
algebraically that zero multiplied by infinity is
equal to One. Zero, in the order of absolute things,
signifies the indeterminate Being. The Infinite,
the Eternal in the language of the temples, was
marked by a circle of a serpent biting its tail,
signifying the Infinite moving itself. Now, once the
Infinite is determined it produces all the numbers
it contains in its great unity, and which it governs
in perfect harmony.
Such is the transcendent meaning of the first problem
of the Pythagorean theogony, the reason which brings it
to pass that the great Monad contains all the small
ones, and that all the numbers spring from the great
Unity in movement.
[13] Doctrine identical with that of the initiate St.
Paul, who speaks of the _spiritual body_.
[14] In the first rank of these must be placed Fabre
d’Olivet (_Vers dorés de Pythagore_). This living
conception of the forces of the universe, traversing
it from top to bottom, has nothing to do with the
_thesis_, the _antithesis_ and the _synthesis_ of
Hegel, which are simply _jeux d’esprit_.
[15] In Greek: _Teleiôtes_.
[16] Certain strange definitions, in metaphorical form,
which have been handed down to us and come from the
secret teaching of the master, give us some idea,
in their occult signification, of the magnificent
conception Pythagoras had of the Kosmos. Speaking
of the constellations, he called the Great and
the Little Bear the hands of Rhea-Kybele. Now
Rhea-Kybele means, esoterically, the rolling astral
light, the divine spouse of universal fire, or of
the creative Spirit, which, becoming concentrated in
the solar systems, attracts the immaterial essences
of beings, seizes them, and forces them into the
whirl of lives. He called the planets the dogs
of Proserpine. This strange expression has only
an esoteric meaning. Proserpine, the goddess of
souls, presided over their incarnation in matter.
Pythagoras accordingly called the planets the dogs
of Proserpine because they keep and retain the
incarnated souls, just as the mythological Cerberus
guards the souls in the infernal regions.
[17] The law called _Karma_ by Brahmans and Buddhists.
[18] The _epiphany_, or vision from above; the _autopsy_,
or direct vision; the _theophany_, or manifestation
of God, are so many correlative ideas and divers
expressions to indicate the state of perfection in
which the initiate, having united his soul to God,
contemplates truth in its entirety.
[19] I will here mention two well-known facts of
this kind, which are quite authentic. The first
belongs to antiquity, its hero being the famous
philosopher-magician, Apollonius of Tyana.
1. _Second sight of Apollonius of Tyana._--“Whilst
these things (the assassination of the Emperor
Domitian) were taking place at Rome, Apollonius saw
them at Ephesus. Domitian was assailed by Clement
about noon; on the very same day, at that moment,
Apollonius was discoursing in the gardens close to
the Xystes. Suddenly he lowered his voice as though
smitten with sudden terror. He continued his speech,
but his language was of a different character, as
is the case often with those who are speaking or
thinking of something else. Then, he stopped, as
though he had lost the thread of his argument, gave
a terrified look on the ground, took three or four
steps forward and exclaimed: ‘Strike the tyrant!’
One would have said that he saw, not the image of
the deed in a mirror, but the deed itself in all its
reality. The Ephesians (for the whole of Ephesus was
present at the speech of Apollonius) were struck
with wonder. Apollonius stopped like a man waiting
to see the result of some doubtful event. Finally
he exclaimed: ‘Be of good courage, Ephesians, the
tyrant has been killed to-day. To-day? Yes, by
Minerva! He was being assassinated the very moment
I interrupted my speech.’ The Ephesians thought that
Apollonius had lost his senses; it was their keen
desire that he should have said what was true,
but they were afraid that some danger might come
to them as the result of this speech.... Soon,
however, messengers came bringing the good news and
testifying in favour of the knowledge of Apollonius,
for every detail: the murder of the tyrant, the
day of its consummation, the hour of noon, the
instigator of the murder whom Apollonius had
encouraged, were found to be in perfect conformity
with those the Gods had shown him on the day of his
discourse to the Ephesians.”--_Life of Apollonius_,
by Philostratus.
2. _Second sight of Swedenborg._--The second fact
refers to the greatest seer of modern times. The
objective reality of Swedenborg’s visions may be
discussed, but there can be no doubt regarding his
second sight, which has been attested by a multitude
of facts. Swedenborg’s vision of the burning of
Stockholm, a distance of ninety miles away, caused
much wonderment in the second half of the eighteenth
century. Kant, the well-known German philosopher,
caused an inquiry to be made by a friend living at
Gothenburg, in Sweden; the following is his account
as related to a lady friend--
“In my opinion the following fact is of the greatest
demonstrative importance, and ought to do away
with any kind of doubt. In 1759, M. de Swedenborg,
one Saturday about four in the afternoon, about
the end of December, landed at Gothenburg, after a
journey to England. M. William Castel invited him
to his house, where a company of fifteen persons
was present. At six o’clock in the evening, M. de
Swedenborg, who had left the room, returned, with
a look of consternation on his pallid face, and
said that ‘at that very moment a fire had burst out
in Stockholm, at the Sudermalm, and was rapidly
spreading its ravages in the direction of his own
home....’ He said that the house of one of his
friends, whom he named, was in ashes, and that
his own was in danger. At eight o’clock, again
leaving the room, he returned and said joyfully:
‘Thank God! The fire has been extinguished at the
third door from my own house.’ That very evening
the governor was informed of the fact. On Sunday
morning, Swedenborg was summoned before this
functionary, who questioned him on the matter.
Swedenborg gave an exact description of the fire,
its beginning and end, and the time it had lasted.
The same day, the news spread throughout the town,
which was all the more excited as the governor had
manifested interest in it, and many people were
anxious about their property and friends. On Monday
evening there arrived in Gothenburg a courier whom
the business men of Stockholm had despatched during
the conflagration. Among the letters the fire was
described in exactly the manner above mentioned.
What can be alleged against the authenticity of
this event? The friend who wrote to me has examined
the whole affair, not only in Stockholm, but, about
two months ago, at Gothenburg also; he is well
acquainted with the best-known families, and has
been able to obtain complete information in a town
where there are still living the majority of the
eye-witnesses, considering the short lapse of time
(nine years) since 1859.”--Letter to Mademoiselle
Charlotte de Knoblich, quoted by Matter, in his
_Life of Swedenborg_.
[20] This idea springs logically from the human and
divine ternary, from the trinity of the microcosm
and the macrocosm we have spoken of in the previous
chapters. The metaphysical correlation of Destiny,
Liberty and Providence has been admirably drawn by
Fabre d’Olivet, in his commentary on the _Golden
Verses of Pythagoras_.
[21] This classing of men corresponds to the four stages
of Pythagorean initiation, and forms the basis
of all initiations, even that of the primitive
freemasons, who were not without a smattering of
esoteric teaching.--See Fabre d’Olivet, _les Vers
dorés de Pythagore_.
[22] Montesquieu and Michelet are almost the only writers
who have made mention of the virtue of Greek wives.
Neither of them states its cause, which I point out
in these few lines.
[23] This is the version of Diogenes of Laërte regarding
the death of Pythagoras--according to Dicearchus,
quoted by Porphyry, the master escaped massacre,
along with Archippus and Lysis. He wandered from
town to town until he reached Metapontum, where
he died of hunger in the Temple of the Muses. The
inhabitants of Metapontum, on the other hand,
affirmed that the sage they had taken in, died
peacefully in their city. They pointed out to
Cicero his house, seat and tomb. It is noteworthy
that, long after the master’s death, those cities
which had persecuted Pythagoras most, at the time
of the democratic change of opinion, claimed for
themselves the honour of having offered him refuge
and protection. The towns around the Gulf of
Tarentum claimed that they each contained the ashes
of the philosopher with as much desperation as the
towns of Ionia disputed among one another the honour
of having given birth to Homer.--See this question
discussed in M. Chaignet’s conscientious work:
_Pythagore et la philosophie pythagoricienne_.
[24] In temple language the term _son of woman_ indicated
the lower degree of initiation, woman here
signifying nature. Above these were _the sons of
man_ or initiates of the Spirit and the Soul, _the
sons of the Gods_ or initiates of the cosmogonic
sciences, and _the sons of God_ or initiates in the
supreme science. The Pythoness calls the Persians
_sons of woman_, giving them this name from the
character of their religion. Interpreted literally,
her words would be devoid of meaning.
[25] “These may still be seen in the enclosure of
Minerva,” said Herodotus, VIII. 39. The invasion of
the Gauls, which took place two centuries later,
was repelled in like manner. Here, too, a storm
gathers, thunderbolts fall time after time on the
Gauls; the earth quakes beneath their feet, they see
supernatural visions; and the temple of Apollo is
saved. These facts seem to prove that the priests of
Delphi were acquainted with the science of cosmic
fire and knew how to handle electricity by occult
power as did the Chaldæan magi.--See Amédée Thierry,
_Histoire des Gaulois_, I. 246.
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Transcriber’s Note:
Five misspelled words were corrected. Words and phrases in italics are
surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Those in bold are surrounded by
equal signs, =like this=. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and
were moved to the end of the book. Final stops missing at the end of
abbreviations were added. ἑταιρείαι was changed to ἑταιρεῖαι.