ee, he is unworthy
of further assistance.

[Illustration: PYTHAGORAS]

PYTHAGORAS

Consult and deliberate before you act, that thou mayest not commit
foolish actions. For 't is the part of a miserable man to speak and
to act without reflection. But do that which will not afflict thee
afterwards, nor oblige thee to repentance.

--_Pythagoras_

PYTHAGORAS

With no desire to deprive Mr. Bok of his bread, I wish to call attention
to Pythagoras, who lived a little more than five hundred years before
Christ.

Even at that time the world was old. Memphis, which was built four
thousand years ago, had begun to crumble into ruins. Troy was buried
deep in the dust which an American citizen of German birth was to
remove. Nineveh and Babylon were dying the death that success always
brings, and the star of empire was preparing to westward wend its way.

Pythagoras ushered in the Golden Age of Greece. All the great writers
whom he immediately preceded, quote him and refer to him. Some admire
him; others are loftily critical; most of them are a little jealous; and
a few use him as a horrible example, calling him a poseur, a pedant, a
learned sleight-of-hand man, a bag of books.

Trial by newspaper was not invented in the time of Pythagoras; but
personal vilification has been popular since Balaam talked gossip with
his vis-a-vis.

Anaxagoras, who gave up his wealth to the State that he might be free,
and who was the teacher of Pericles, was a pupil of Pythagoras, and used
often to mention him.

In this way Pericles was impressed by the Pythagorean philosophy, and
very often quotes it in his speeches. Socrates gave Pythagoras as an
authority on the simple life, and stated that he was willing to follow
him in anything save his injunction to keep silence. Socrates wanted
silence optional; whereas Pythagoras required each of his pupils to live
for a year without once asking a question or making an explanation. In
aggravated cases he made the limit five years.

In many ways Pythagoras reminds us of our friend Muldoon, both being
beneficent autocrats, and both proving their sincerity by taking their
own medicine. Pythagoras said, "I will never ask another to do what I
have not done, and am not willing to do myself."

To this end he was once challenged by his three hundred pupils to remain
silent for a year. He accepted the defi, not once defending himself from
the criticisms and accusa