the erudition the philosophers of Greece could give him he had already visited many cities of Syria, and performed his initiations: it is said he had consulted Thales in person, and been advised by that sage to prosecute his studies amongst the learned Egyptians but this is doubtful; it is altogether improbable that he should depart from Samos at the age of eighteen upon the patriotic motive ascribed to him by Laertius, of avoiding the growing tyranny of his countryman Polycrates; especially when the same biographer informs us, that he took letters of recommendation from Polycrates to King Amasis, desiring him to give order for Pythagoras's being instructed by the Egyptian priests.

With this letter Pythagoras repaired to Amasis, and obtained an order to the priests, agreeable to the request of Polycrates; with this, he went first to the priests of Heliopolis; they declined the execution of it by referring him to their brethren at Memphis, as being their seniors in the sacerdotal rank: these again evaded the order, and dispatched him to the Diospolites: he found these sages as little disposed to compliance as the priests of Heliopolis or Memphis; however, as the king's command was urgent, they did not think fi absolutely to disobey it, but took a method, which they thought would answer the same purpose, and began by deterring and alarming the inquisitive youth by their preparatory austerities; but they had no common spirit to deal with Pythagoras had a constitution that could endure hardships, and an ambition that nothing could daunt; he submitted to the ceremony of circumcision, and was initiated into their sacred rites, unintimidated by all the horrors with which they contrived to set them forth. They began then to regard him with more benignity and respect, and when they found him learning their language with surprising

rapidity, and conforming to their discipline with the most rigid exactness, they looked upon him with surprise and admiration; they now resolved to hold nothing back from talents so extraordinary and temper sc conformable; he learnt their three sorts of letters; they admitted him to their sacrifices, and disclosed the most secret rites of their religion, mysteries never before imparted to any foreigner. He resided in Egypt a long time, during which he read the books of the ancient priests, and in them he discovered the sources of the Grecian theology, and how erroneous the system was which they had derived from these sources: he is supposed henceforth to have held the gods of the heathens in contempt, and to have entertained suitable ideas of The One Supreme Being.

Having perfected himself in the geometry and astronomy of the Egyptians, and acquired the observations of 'infinite ages' (as Valerius Maximus expresses it), he determined upon exploring new and more distant scenes in search of knowledge, and from Egypt went to Babylon: his recommendations from Egypt secured him a reception by the Chaldees and Magi; here he was a disciple of Nazaratus the Assyrian, and we are told by Porphyry, that he was purified by Zabratus from all defilements of his former life by what particular modes of discipline this purification was effected Porphyry does not explain. From Babylon he pushed his travels into Persia, and was instructed by the Magi in their religion and way of living; from them he received those rules of diet which he afterward prescribed to his disciples, with various opinions of things clean and unclean, which were amongst his maxims: these conform to the present practice of the Brahmins, which may well be supposed to have been inviolably preserved through that separated and sacred cast from times of high

antiquity; for what invention can be devised to secure the longevity of any system better than that upon which the sacerdotal order of Brahmins is established? By the Persian Magi he was instructed in many particulars of Jewish knowledge, chiefly their interpretations of dreams. We have Cicero's authority for this part of his travels, (de fin. lib. v.) and Valerius Maximus says the Persian Magi taught him a most complete system of ethics; that they likewise instructed him in the motions and courses of the heavenly bodies, their properties and effects, and the influence every star respectively is supposed to have.

In the course of these travels he passed more than twenty years; he then turned his face homewards, taking the isle of Crete in his way: here and at Lacedemon he perused their famous codes of laws, and having now completed the great tour of science, and stored his mind with all the hidden treasures of oriental knowledge, he presented himself, for the first time, to the admiring eyes of Greece, assembled at the Olympic Games.

A spectacle no doubt it was for universal admiration and respect; an understanding so enriched and full in its meridian vigour, was an object that the wisest of his contemporaries might look up to with veneration little short of idolatry. Pythagoras in this attitude, surrounded by the Grecian sages on the field of the Olympic Games, whilst every eye was fixed with rapture and delight upon one of the most perfect forms in nature, began to pour forth the wonders of his doctrine: astonishment seized the hearers, and almost doubting if it was a mortal that had been discoursing, they with one voice applauded his wisdom, and demanded by what title he would in future be addressed: Pythagoras answered, that their seven sages had taken the name of wise men,

or sophists; for his part he left them in possession of a distinction they so well merited; he wished to be no otherwise remembered or described than as a 'Lover of Wisdom;' his pretensions did not go to the possession of it: and if they would call him a Philosopher he should be contented with the appellation: from this time the name of philosopher became a title of honour amongst the learned, whilst that of sophist sunk into universal contempt.

NUMBER IX.

I HAVE observed that Pythagoras, on his return from the East, took the island of Crete in his way; here he visited the famous philosopher Epimenides. Porphyry and Jamblichus must be greatly out in their chronology, when they make Epimenides one of Pythagoras's scholars; Laertius's account is more probable, who says he was one of Pythagoras's masters, which naturally accounts for that philosopher's seeking an interview with him in Crete, as he did afterward with Pherecydes on his death-bed in Syria in this interview, Pythagoras, no doubt, gave an account to Epimenides of the many marvellous things he had learnt in his travels, and so far the disciple may be said to have instructed his master; Epimenides himself was no small adept in the marvellous, and propagated a story through Greece of his having slept fifty-seven years in a cave, and that upon waking, after his long repose, he resumed his search for some sheep, which his father had sent him upon more than half a century before; the story does not say that he found these sheep,

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which probably were now become more difficult to recover than upon his first search; he returned however to his father's house, and was rather surprised upon discovering a new generation in possession, who thought no more of Epimenides than they did of his sheep this sleeping philosopher however filled up the gap in his life pretty well, for Zenophanes says he lived to one hundred and fifty-seven years of age; and the Cretans, who are liars upon record, stretch their account to two hundred and ninetynine years, modestly stopping short of three centuries. Deducting therefore fifty-seven years of sleep, during which he probably made no great advances in science, he might have occasion to go to school when he waked, and, though an old man, might be a young scholar under Pythagoras, if the credibility of the above story can once be admitted.

From the Olympic Games, Pythagoras repaired to Samos, and opened school in a place called in the time of Antipho (who is quoted by Laertius), Pythagoræ Hemicyclus. Here he began a practice he continued in Italy, of retiring to a cave without the town for the purpose of study, but in fact the idea was, like most others of his, oriental: hermits have it to this day, and if mortification is used to recommend religion, solitude may be chosen to set off wisdom. Pythagoras in a cave, visited in the dead of night with awful reverence and credulity, might pass stories upon his hearers, which he could not risk in the face of the sun and the streets of the city.

He was not, however, so far sequestered from the concerns of the world, as to enjoy himself in his cave under the tyranny of Polycrates, now more oppressive than at his departure for Egypt. He thereupon resolved to go into Italy, and took Delos in his way; here he wrote the verses on the sepulchre of Apollo, which Porphyry records; from Delos he