re he
arrived in South Italy he had travelled extensively in Egypt and other
countries of the East. There is, however, no historical evidence of
this. There is nothing in itself improbable in the belief that
Pythagoras made these travels, but it cannot be accepted as proved for
lack of evidence. The legend is really founded simply upon the
oriental flavour of his doctrines. In middle age he arrived in South
Italy and settled at Crotona. There he founded the Pythagorean Society
and lived for many years at the head of it. His later life, the date
and manner of his death, are not certainly known.

Now it is important to note that the Pythagorean {32} Society was not
primarily a school of philosophy at all. It was really a religious and
moral Order, a Society of religious reformers. The Pythagoreans were
closely associated with the Orphic Sect, and took from it the belief
in the transmigration of souls, including transmigration of human
souls into animals. They also taught the doctrine of the "wheel of
things," and the necessity of obtaining "release" from it, by which
one could escape from the weary round of reincarnate lives. Thus they
shared with the Orphic religious Sect the principle of reincarnation.
The Orphic Sect believed that "release" from the wheel of life was to
be obtained by religious ceremonial and ritual. The Pythagoreans had a
similar ritual, but they added to this the belief that intellectual
pursuits, the cultivation of science and philosophy, and, in general,
the intellectual contemplation of the ultimate things of the universe
would be of great help towards the "release" of the soul. From this
arose the tendency to develop science and philosophy. Gradually their
philosophy attained a semi-independence from their religious rites
which justifies us in regarding it definitely as philosophy.

The Pythagorean ethical views were rigorous and ascetic in character.
They insisted upon the utmost purity of life in the members of the
Order. Abstinence from flesh was insisted upon, although this was
apparently a late development. We know that Pythagoras himself was not
a total abstainer from flesh. They forbade the eating of beans. They
wore a garb peculiar to themselves. The body, they taught, is the
prison or tomb of the soul. They thought that one must not attempt to
obtain "release" by suicide, because "man is the {33} property of
God," the chattel of God. They were not politicians in the modern
sense, but t