t. And this feeling
of being surrounded with truths which I cannot grasp, amounts to an
indescribable awe sometimes! Everything seems to be full of God's
reflex, if we could but see it. Oh! how I have prayed to have the
mystery unfolded, at least hereafter. To see, if but for a moment, the
whole harmony of the great system! To hear once the music which the
whole universe makes as it performs His bidding!"(1) In this connection
may be mentioned the very significant fact that the Pythagoreans did
not consider the earth, in accordance with current opinion, to be a
stationary body, but believed that it and the other planets revolved
about a central point, or fire, as they called it.

(1) CHARLES KINGSLEY: _His Letters and Memories of His Life_, edited by
his wife (1883), p. 28.

As concerns PYTHAGORAS' ethical teaching, judging from the so-called
_Golden Verses_ attributed to him, and no doubt written by one of his
disciples,(2) this would appear to be in some respects similar to that
of the Stoics who came later, but free from the materialism of the Stoic
doctrines. Due regard for oneself is blended with regard for the gods
and for other men, the atmosphere of the whole being at once rational
and austere. One verse--"Thou shalt likewise know, according to Justice,
that the nature of this Universe is in all things alike"(3)--is of
particular interest, as showing PYTHAGORAS' belief in that principle of
analogy--that "What is below is as that which is above, what is above is
as that which is below"--which held so dominant a sway over the minds of
ancient and mediaeval philosophers, leading them--in spite, I suggest,
of its fundamental truth--into so many fantastic errors, as we shall
see in future excursions. Metempsychosis was another of the Pythagorean
tenets, a fact which is interesting in view of the modern revival
of this doctrine. PYTHAGORAS, no doubt, derived it from the East,
apparently introducing it for the first time to Western thought.

(2) It seems probable, though not certain, that PYTHAGORAS wrote nothing
himself, but taught always by the oral method.

(3) Cf. the remarks of HIEROCLES on this verse in his _Commentary_.

Such, in brief, were the outstanding doctrines of the Pythagorean
Brotherhood. Their teachings included, as we have seen, what may justly
be called scientific discoveries of the first importance, as well as
doctrines which, though we may feel compelled--perhaps rightly--to
regard th