ficult, when the political or religious feelings of men have
been engaged, to ascertain the truth of events in which they have been
concerned; deception, and falsehood, seem to be licensed. In the midst
of the troubles befalling Italy as the consequence of these Pythagorean
machinations, it is impossible to ascertain facts with certainty. One
party exalts Pythagoras to a superhuman state; it pictures him majestic
and impassive, clothed in robes of white, with a golden coronet around
his brows, listening to the music of the spheres, or seeking relaxation
in the more humble hymns of Homer, Hesiod, and Thales; lost in the
contemplation of Nature, or rapt in ecstasy in his meditations on God;
manifesting his descent from Apollo or Hermes by the working of
miracles, predicting future events, conversing with genii in the
solitude of a dark cavern, and even surpassing the wonder of speaking
simultaneously in different tongues, since it was established, by the
most indisputable testimony, that he had accomplished the prodigy of
being present with and addressing the people in several different places
at the same time. It seems not to have occurred to his disciples that
such preposterous assertions cannot be sustained by any evidence
whatsoever; and that the stronger and clearer such evidence is, instead
of supporting the fact for which it is brought forward, it the more
serves to shake our confidence in the truth of man, or impresses on us
the conclusion that he is easily lead to the adoption of falsehood, and
is readily deceived by imposture.

[Sidenote: His character.]

By his opponents he was denounced as a quack, or, at the best, a
visionary mystic, who had deluded the young with the mummeries of a
free-masonry; had turned the weak-minded into shallow enthusiasts and
grim ascetics; and as having conspired against a state which had given
him an honourable refuge, and brought disorder and bloodshed upon it.
Between such contradictory statements, it is difficult to determine how
much we should impute to the philosopher and how much to the trickster.
In this uncertainty, the Pythagoreans reap the fruit of one of their
favourite maxims, "Not unto all should all be made known." Perhaps at
the bottom of these political movements lay the hope of establishing a
central point of union for the numerous Greek colonies of Italy, which,
though they were rich and highly civilized, were, by reason of their
isolation and antagonism, essenti