effected by the harmony of numbers, and that they existed in the regions of the blessed before the world began.28 Odd numbers he assigned to the celestial gods, and hence all sacrifices to those beings ought to be in odd numbers. Even numbers were for the infernal deities.29 Geometry, music, and astronomy were inculcated, because he conceived that man is indebted to these sciences for a knowledge of what is really good and useful. He accounted his system vain if it did not con tribute to expel vice, and introduce virtue into the mind;50 and he taught that the two most excellent things for man, were theoretic and practical virtue; i. e. to speak the truth; and to render benefits to each other. The several heads to which he reduced these virtues were institution,

27 Stob. Physic., 1. ii.

28 Nicom. Arith., c. 5.

Serv. in Æn., 3. How did Pythagoras reconcile this doctrine of odd and even numbers, with his known axiom, that the numbers four and ten were the Tetractys, or sacred name of God? 30 Stob. Serm.

31 One of the methods which Pythagoras used to enforce on his disciples the practice of moral virtue, was by the use of short and pithy sentences, which were symbolical of some great moral duty. The following is a specimen of this mode of instruction:-Sit not upon a Chanix, means, live not without initiation; and be not initiated without contemplation and discipline; for initiation, without previous preparation and subsequent diligence, is but to enjoy a faint shadow of Light, and is worse than total darkness.-Travelling from home, turn not back, for the furies go back with you. A greater than Pythagoras hath said, "no man having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke ix., 62.) Pythagoras meant the same thing applied to an inferior purpose. It was an exhortation to his followers to pass honourably through every degree of his system, that they might attain to perfection.-Turn away from thyself every edge. Use prudence, and abstain from ungovernable passion.-Take off thy right shoe first. This also denoted prudence.-Pass not over a balance, referred to justice and equality. Wear not a ring. Bind not your soul about with the chain of ignorance as the finger is bound with a ring, but be initiated into philosophy, which separates the mind from terrestrial considerations, and fits it for the contemplation of high and immortal things.-Look not in a glass by candlelight. Beware of that state of twilight which consists in superficial knowledge; for this is worse than absolute ignorance; but search for the true light, that you may be enabled to find out the nature of the Deity, and estimate his infinite perfections. -Lay not hold of every one readily with the right hand. Try and prove every one before you admit him into your society as a friend and brother.-Eat not the heart. Eat not the brain. Do not rend asunder the social bond which unites your society, by unnecessary disputes or useless divisions.-Put not meat in a chamber-pot. Com.

silence, temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice. He proceeded to inculcate the omnipresence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the necessity of personal holiness to qualify man for admission into the society of the gods; and declared his opinion that no man could be accounted happy or miserable till the day of his death; because, in his most exalted moments he is not able to pry into futurity, or to divine to-day what evils to-morrow may bring upon him.

He taught that man is endowed with eight organs of knowledge to which symbolical institution might be usefully applied; and these were, sense, phantasy, art,

municate not your mysteries to an idle or foolish person, for such an one will disgrace and betray you.-Sleep not at noon. Shut not your eyes against the Light of knowledge at a time when its hidden stores are most clearly displayed before you, lest the remainder of your life be passed amidst the uncertain glimmering of twilight, or the shades of midnight darkness; the mists of imperfect information, or the dark clouds of total ignorance.-The curious reader who wishes to pursue this subject further, may find all the symbolical sentences of Pythagoras in Stanley's Lives of the Philosophers, from which celebrated work the above have been extracted.

32 The following are some of the symbols of Pythagoras:-The equilateral triangle, a perfect figure, refers to God, the principle and author of all sublunary things; who, in his body, resembles Light, and in his soul Truth. He was, and is, and shall be.-The right angle or square comprehends the union of the celestial and terrestrial capacities; and was an emblem of Morality and Justice.- The perfect square represents the divine mind, as has already been explained of the Tetractys.-The cube was a symbol of the mind of man after a well spent life in acts of piety and devotion; which is thus perfectly prepared by virtue for translation into the society of the celestial gods. A point within a circle. A symbol of the universe. Mesouraneo, because the most excellent body ought to have the most excellent place, viz., the centre. The central fire was esteemed by Pythagoras, the mansion of Jove. The Dodecaedron was also a symbol of the universe.-The triple triangle formed of five lines returning into itself, was a symbol of health, and was called Hygeia. -The forty-seventh proposition of Euclid was invented by Pythagoras, and is so extensively useful that it has been adopted in all lodges since his time, as a significant symbol of Masonry. It is said by Apollodorus and other authors, that Pythagoras sacrificed a Hecatomb on the discovery of this useful problem. This, however, is exceedingly doubtful, because Pythagoras abhorred bloody sacrifices, and directed his followers to offer nothing but cakes and wine, herbs, flowers, and fruit.-The letter Y. This symbolical character represented the course of human life. Youth, arriving at manhood, sees two ways before him, and deliberates which he shall pursue. If he

opinion, prudence, science, wisdom, and mind. He arranged his assemblies due East and West, because he said that motion began in the East or right side of the world and proceeded towards the West or left side. In a word, though his Institution was the most perfect system ever practised amongst idolaters, yet when he endeavoured to enter the Holy of Holies, and began to speculate on the knowledge of God and a future state, he was bewildered with childish notions and idle conjectures, instead of enjoying the brilliant beams of divine truth.

Plato was deeply versed in all the mysteries of antiquity, which he believed capable of restoring the soul to its primitive purity. He adopted the division of three degrees, because three was a mystical number, dedicated to the celestial deities. These degrees were progressive, the ceremonial being in accordance with the Greek mode; and no candidate was admitted to them without an elementary course of study and privation, during which he was subjected to the Pastos, by being placed in a well for a specified period, as the medium of regeneration. The first degree was mathematical; and embraced arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy; the instruction of the second degree was confined to physics; and the third, in which the brows of the candidate were encircled with a crown or tiara, to intimate

meet with a guide that directs him to pursue philosophy, and he procures initiation, his life shall be honourable and his death happy. But if he omits to do this, and takes the left hand path, which appears broader and better, it will lead to sloth and luxury; will waste his estate, impair his health, and bring on an old age of infamy and misery. (Porph. vit. Pyth. Stob. Serm. Persius. Sat. iii., v. 56. Stanley. Lives of Philos., &c.) See also the Theocr. Phil. of Freemas., where the system of Pythagoras is elaborately explained. Proclus says that Plato derived his theology from Orpheus. (Cudw. Intell. Syst., p. 547.)

34 In Phadone.

35 It was in allusion to such rites that Plato," says Faber (Pag. Idol., vol. iii., p. 188). "whose philosophy was largely tinged with the doctrines of the Mysteries, was wont to say, that Truth must be sought for at the bottom of a well. By truth he meant the speculations revealed to the initiated, who were henceforth styled Epopts, or persons who see things truly as they are; and by the well, he meant the sacred pit or cavern where the mysteries were so frequently celebrated."

that he had now received the inestimable gift of superior endowments, and a power of instructing others, was confined to theology. His doctrines embraced disquisitions on the nature of God, and the creation and ultimate destruction of the world. His opinion of the divine nature was, that it contained three hypostases, which he termed Tagathon-Nous-Psyche, or Goodness, Wisdom, and Spirit, the second of which emanated from the first, and the third from both. But he taught that all good men, after death, became demons, and were, therefore, entitled to the homage of divine worship; that the governor of the world had committed all things to their superintendence; and that they were the authorized mediators between the gods and men, and appointed to convey sacrifices and supplications from earth to heaven, and blessings and rewards from heaven to earth. He taught that God created the world, but held, from the deductions of human reason, that, as something could not have been formed from nothing, the materials must have descended from some pre-existent state. He believed that the universe was doomed to be ultimately destroyed by fire, in verification of the fable of Phaeton;37 and preserved in his system a tradition of the first created beings in Paradise; how they conversed with angels in a state of nature and unclothed; how the earth brought forth its fruits spontaneously to provide these favourites of heaven with food; how they spent their time in innocence and unoffending simplicity; and how at length, by the suggestions of a serpent, they fell from their purity, became ashamed of their nakedness, and were cast forth into a world of sorrow, grief, and despair. These traces

36 De Repub., 1. v.

38

37 In Timæo.

38 An obscure tradition of this event had been propagated in every nation of the heathen world from the dispersion; but it had been studiously disguised by fable to keep it secret from the vulgar and uninitiated, until, in process of time, the true intent and meaning of the symbols and allegory in which it had been enveloped, were almost entirely lost. "Origen thinks that Plato, by his converse with the Jews in Egypt, did understand the history of the Fall of Man; which he, after his way, enigmatically describes in his Symposiacks. Where he brings in Porus the god of plenty feasting with the rest of the gods; after supper, Penia comes a begging to the door; Porus being drunk with nectar, goes into Jupiter's garden, and there falls asleep. Penia observing it, steals to him, and by this deceit con

of truth fully prove the source whence the mysteries in general proceeded, because they bear undoubted marks that at their institution they were commemorative rites pointing to events which actually took place at the commencement of the world.99 He taught the history of the Deluge, and wrote a book professedly on the subject, which he called Atlanticus; and he inculcated the metempsychosis, and the important doctrine of man's personal responsibility.

The chief hierophant or dispenser of the mysteries, represented the Demiurgus, or Creator of the universe, 40 and led a retired life of perpetual celibacy, that he might be entirely at liberty to devote himself to the study and contemplation of celestial things, and thus become a perfect master of every science embraced by the Institution of which he was the despotic head. The next

41

ceives by him. In this fable of Plato, Origen takes notice what a near resemblance the garden of Jupiter hath to Paradise, Penia to the Serpent which circumvented Adam, and Porus to the man who was deceived by the Serpent. Which he conceives to be the more probable, because of Plato his custom to wrap up those excellent things he knew under some fables because of the vulgar; for which he after speaks of his custom in altering and disguising what he had from the Jews, lest he should too much displease the fabulous Greeks, if he should adhere too close to the Jews, who were so infamous among them." (Stillingfleet. Orig. Sacr., p. 518.)

39 The truth is, that though Plato professed to have received his knowledge from an ancient tradition, he had it in reality from the Jews, as Origen has truly testified (see also Clem. Alex. Štrom. 1); but the facts were unaccompanied by the key; and, therefore, he inculcated on his disciples, the unimportant nature of the information, unless some future philosopher should rise up among them, who should be capable of revealing the true interpretation.

40 Euseb. Præp. Evan., 1. iii., c. 12.

1 To accomplish this abstraction with the greater certainty, it was customary for these dignified priests, in the earlier periods of their history, to mortify the flesh by the use of certain herbs which were reputed to possess the virtue of repelling all venereal excitements. Nay, some were so rigid in this respect, as literally to proceed to the expedient of emasculating themselves, that all inclination to illicit pleasures might be effectually subdued. This practice was esteemed highly meritorious. It was an axiom that what is most valuable to man should be offered in sacrifice to the gods; and, hence, castration was invested with a high degree of supererogatory merit. Hence we are told by Lucian (de Dea Syria.), that in Syria, during the celebration of their most solemn rites, the priests would suffer themselves to be attired in female habiliments, and submit to the castigating knife, in the presence of the assembled crowd! Such is the power of enthusiasm!