PYTHAGORAS
830
PYTHON
It is an obvious deduction from the doctrine of me- tempsychosis that animal life should be scrupulously regarded, and that animals should nol be slaughtered l'ur food. The butcher is a homicide, if not a murderer. Ii is a natural consequence from the doctrine of disem- bodied spirits thai Pythagoras Bhould have attached great ini| ams and other spiritual commu-
. The sanctity of all life, and the considera- tion of human life as a probation and as a progress to a higher existence, explain his strong condemnation of suicide.
'■The Kvci-lastiiiL.' had fixed His canon 'gainst Belf-slaughter."
(Seel hom.Aquin./S'MnMBa rAeo2o^.II,ii,qa.xxiv,art.v.)
Not only the spirits of men arc divine, according t<> l'\ thagoras, but those of the sun. moon, and stars, which move al such musical intervals from each other, and in such regulated concord, as to produce the music of the spheres a doctrine welcome to the poetic imagination of Plato.
"Such harmony is in immortal souls. l'.nt while this muddy vesture ol
J). ah grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."
The ontology of Pythagoras was intimately asso- ciated with his transcendental theory of numbers. It can scarcely be determined which suggested the oth- er, or by what series of reciprocal reactions both were produced. The cosmogony attributed to him is much more manifestly an evolution from the numerical fan- tasy which has always been held to be the most dis- tinctive part of Pythagoreanism.
MuUach justly observes thai the exposition of the significance and potency of numbers in the Pj-thagore- an theory would require an ample volume: hence he notices them very briefly. The like course must be adopted here, and a summary, abridged from an abridg- ment by Baring-Gould, musl suffice.
'• 1. The unit, all. It is the syi servation, and h
l'liili
first ofnnequals. It rep-
ot- Monad, is the beginning and end of eqnality, con- gm. 15). contrasts, the Bymbol of diversity, di\ i ' •• ::. Tine,', or the Triai resents God and the soul of man.
-I. Four, or the Tetrad, is the mosl perfect of nuni- bere; the root, or origin, of all things, whence the soul derives its ctenml nature: hence it furnishes the Py- thagorean oath. [ Vu u i
It,.-, o uewiov tpioetai {Curm. A ur. 47, 4S |. "5. Five, or the Pentad, is everything, supplying the principle of everything, and repelling evil spirits.
, ot the 1 level, is the number of good fortune. ■■;. Seven, or the Heptad, is a sacred number, gener- ating good and evil.
ht, or the Octad, the first cube, is a perfect num- ber.
•■'.'. Nine, or the Ennead, being the square of three, is sacred.
'• in. Ten, or the Decad, the sum of the first four num- bers, contains till numeric, relations. All science proceeds from it and returns to it (comp. Philolai Fragm. 13)."
Whether numbers constituted the essences of things,
Or were only .similitudes, or symbols, is still in dispute, and was. perhaps, never clearly determined. The lan- i \ii-iotle (.1/./. 1. vi is vague and indistinct. Thai they were generally employed in a symbolic sense is apparent. The monad was the firsl principle of all things, the origin whence all things emanated; it was at once the odd and the even, the limited and the unlim- md the universe. The dyad,or firsl evolution of number, was the even, and represented the interval n mes. The triad generated the e Bcale ol numbers. The tetrad was the union oi ih • triad > ith the unit, or of the dyad with itself, and trical body. The pentad was physical and accidents of sense. Num- iii. represented point- ; bj the procession of points, lines are formed; by the movement ol lines, sur- faces; bj the progress of surfaces, solids, l'rom these all bodies, and the four elements of earth, air,
water, fire, which undergo constant change and recipro- cal conversion. •• Nec specie- ana cuique manet : rcruniqne novatrix
Ex ahis alias separat Nntnra I \
Nee peri) in tanto qnicquam, mihi credite, mundo,
Sed variat, faciemque uovat" ^J\ id, Mit. xv, -25-J-255). A fifth element was added bj the pentad; this was the upper air. the surrounding ether, the Quint ssi nee. These five cosmic elements were also Bymbolized by the five mathematical bodies. 1 he cube was the earth; the pyramid, fire; the octahedron, air: the dodecahe- dron, space, or ether; and the eicosahedron, water. All were contained within the enveloping sphere. Such are the bare outlines of the Pj thagorean cosmogony.
Much more influential than this in the intellectu- al development oi Greece was the moral instruction. which long continued to form a large part of Pythag- orean speculation. Morals were divided into two de- partments : disciplinary, or elhicd. for the perfection of the individual ; and political, for the furtherance of the common welfare. In both parts, great stress was laid upon the obligation and the beneiii of friendship, which extended, also, to the metaphysical and to the material constitution of the universe, producing the harmony of the former, and the attraction.-, combinations, and ab- sorptions of the latter. The efficacy, in actual life, of the Pythagorean friendship is exemplified by the well- known ,-tory of Damon and Pythias. The Pythagore- an Symbols belong mainly to practical morals, and ex- hibit a decided advance on the contemporaneous sen- timents of the Greek world. They are unauthentic. Many belong to a later dale, many are simply cen mo- nial, and others are general and traditionary precepts.