Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er th' unbending corn or skims along the main."
--Essay on Criticism.
CHAPTER XXXIV
PYTHAGORAS--EGYPTIAN DEITIES--ORACLES
PYTHAGORAS
The teachings of Anchises to Aeneas, respecting the nature of the
human soul, were in conformity with the doctrines of the
Pythagoreans. Pythagoras (born five hundred and forty years B.C.)
was a native of the island of Samos, but passed the chief portion
of his life at Crotona in Italy. He is therefore sometimes called
"the Samian," and sometimes "the philosopher of Crotona." When
young he travelled extensively, and it is said visited Egypt,
where he was instructed by the priests in all their learning, and
afterwards journeyed to the East, and visited the Persian and
Chaldean Magi, and the Brahmins of India.
At Crotona, where he finally established himself, his
extraordinary qualities collected round him a great number of
disciples. The inhabitants were notorious for luxury and
licentiousness, but the good effects of his influence were soon
visible. Sobriety and temperance succeeded. Six hundred of the
inhabitants became his disciples and enrolled themselves in a
society to aid each other in the pursuit of wisdom, uniting their
property in one common stock for the benefit of the whole.
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