goras seems to have combined the notions he then
received with those of the Egyptian Magi; for he taught immortality to
consist in constant transmigration from one body to another. The Egyptian
Magi claimed to be judges of the dead,[74] and taught this doctrine.
Zoroaster taught a resurrection from the dead, and an immortal state as we
understand it. And it is probable Pythagoras adopted this notion after he
fled from Samos to Egypt to escape from the government of Polycrates.

Be this as it may, he was a master-spirit in a secret society with its
lodges spread through Magna Graecia, originating in one he established at
Crotona in Lower Italy. Like that of the Cabbalists, this society had no
connection whatever with the dominant religion. {66} The Kabbalistae taught
virtue and science, and thus were, perhaps, an auxiliary, but certainly no
opponent to the sacred teachings of the holy law. The Pythagorean league
taught philosophy alone; full instruction was given in the liberal arts and
sciences in accordance with the learning of that age. But, after it was
thought destroyed (and it was suppressed by Cylon and his faction, about
the year 500 B.C.), it still exercised a great influence over all Greece,
in such manner as that Heeren speaks of it as a phenomenon which is in many
respects without a parallel. The grand object of the moral reform of
Pythagoras was SELF-GOVERNMENT. By his dignity, moral purity, dress, and
eloquence, he excited not only attention but enthusiasm. In that day an
aristocracy prevailed in Magna Graecia, based chiefly on the corrupting
tendencies of wealth and luxury. Against this class a popular movement
commenced, by the influence whereof Sybaris was destroyed, and thereupon
five hundred nobles fled for safety to Crotona, and prayed for protection
from that city, which they obtained principally by the advice of
Pythagoras. (Diod. Sic. xii. p. 77. Wechel.) Aristocratic evils he
abrogated. A friend of the people, he recognised their equal rights: and it
would seem that, while he adopted grades in knowledge and moral worth, he
considered mankind on "a level" so far as all political power was
concerned. To accomplish this end, he prescribed in his own society, and
their affiliated {67} lodges, or meetings, a certain manner of life,
distinguished by a most cleanly but not luxurious clothing, a regular diet,
a methodical division of time, part of which was to be appropriated to
one's self, and part to the