Page:The Golden verses of Pythagoras (IA cu31924026681076).pdf/59

 *tion, and this observation will be somewhat novel: it is that, the poetic inspiration being once received by the poet and his soul finding itself transported into the intelligible world, all the ideas which then come to him are universal and in consequence allegorical. So that nothing true may exist outside of unity, and as everything that is true is one and homogeneous, it is found that, although the poet gives to his ideas a form determined in the sentient world, this form agrees with a multitude of things which, being distinct in their species, are not so in their genus. This is why Homer has been the man of all men, the type of all types, the faithful mirror, wherein all ideas becoming reflected have appeared to be created. Lycurgus read his works, and saw there a model of his legislation. Pericles and Alcibiades had need of his counsels; they had recourse to him as a model of statesmen. He was for Plato the first of the philosophers, and for Alexander the greatest of kings; and what is more extraordinary still, even the sectarians, divided among themselves, were united in him. The Stoics spoke only of this great poet as a rigid follower of the Porch ; at the Academy he was considered as the creator of dialectics; at the Lyceum, the disciples of Aristotle cited him as a zealous dogmatist ; finally, the Epicureans saw in him only a man calm and pure, who, satisfied with that tranquil life where one is wholly possessed by it, seeks nothing more. The temples, which devout enthusiasm consecrated to him, were the rendezvous for mankind. Such is the appanage of universal ideas: they are as the Divinity which inspires them, all in all, and all in the least parts.