Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/424

 406 HISTORY OF GREECE. and O. Miiller have even supposed that the select Three Hun- dred Pythagoreans constituted a sort of smaller senate at that "uerunt ; moralis alter, alter ad literas spectans. Discipulos suos bonos irobosque homines rcddcre voluit Pythagoras, et ut civitatem moderantes wtestate suit non abutercntur ad plebem opprimendam ; et ut plebs, intelli- gens suis commodis consul!, conditione su& contenta esset. Quoniam vero bonum sapiensque moderamcn nisi a prudente literisque exculto viro ex- spectari (non) licet, philosophiaj studium necessarium duxit Samius iis,qui ad civitatis clavum tencndum se accingercnt." This is the general view (coinciding substantially with that of 0. Miiller, Dorians, iii, 9, 16) given by an author who has gone through the evi- dences with care and learning. It differs on some important points from the idea which I conceive of the primitive master and his contemporary breth- ren. It leaves out the religious ascendency, which I imagine to have stood first among the means as well as among the premeditated purposes of Py- thagoras, and sets forth a reformatory political scheme as directly contempla- ted by him, of which there is no proof. Though the political ascendency of the early Pythagoreans is the most prominent feature in their early his- tory, it is not to be considered as the manifestation of any peculiar or set- tled political idea, it is rather a result of their position and means ot union. Hitter observes, in my opinion more justly : " We must not be- lieve that the mysteries of the Pythagorean order were of a simply political character : the most probable accounts warrant us in considering that its central point was a mystic religious teaching," (Geschicht. der Philosophic, b. iv, ch. i, vol. i, pp. 365-368 :) compare Hocck. Kreta, vol. iii, p. 223. Krische (p. 32) as well as Boeckh (Philolaus, pp. 39-42) and O. Miiller assimilate.the Pythagorean life to the Dorian or Spartan habits, and call the Pythagorean philosophy the expression of Grecian Dorism, as opposed to the lonians and the Ionic philosophy. I confess that I perceive no anal- ogy between the two, either in action or speculation. The Spartans stand completely distinct from other Dorians ; and even the Spartan habits of life, though they present some points of resemblance with the bodily training of the Pythagoreans, exhibit still more important points of difference, in respect to religious peculiarity and mysticism, as well as to scientific ele- ment embodied with it. The Pythagorean philosophy, and the Elcatio philosophy, were both equally opposed to the Ionic ; yet neither of them is in any way connected with Dorian tendencies. Neither Elea nor Kroton were Doric cities; moreover, Xenophanes as well as Pythagoras were both lonians. The general assertions respecting Ionic mobility and inconstancy, con- trasted with Doric constancy and steadiness, will not be found borne out by a study of facts. The Dorism of Pythagoras appears to me a complete fancy. O. Miiller even turns Kroton into a Dorian city, contrary to al! evidence.