THE PYTHAGOREANS.
Pythagoras appears to have flourished about 550 years before Christ. He was, probably, a native of the island of Samos; but a part of his education, which was extensive and thorough, was received in Egypt. He taught a new philosophy; and, according to some, endeavored to enforce it by laying claim to supernatural powers. But, be this as it may have been, he was certainly a man of extraordinary qualities and powers, as well as of great and commanding influence. In an age of great luxury and licentiousness, he taught, both by example and precept, the most rigid doctrines of sobriety, temperance, and purity. He abstained from all animal food, and limited himself entirely to vegetables; of which he usually preferred bread and honey. Nor did he allow the free use of every kind of vegetable; for beans, and I believe every species of pulse, were omitted. Water was his only drink. He lived, it is said, to the age of eighty; and even then did not perish from disease or old age, but from starvation in a place where he had sought a retreat from the fury of his enemies.
His disciples are said to have been exceedingly numerous, in almost all quarters of the then known world, especially in Greece and Italy. It is impossible, however, to form any conjecture of their numbers. The largest school or association of his rigid followers is supposed to have been at the city of Crotona, in South Italy. Their number was six hundred. They followed all his dietetic and philosophical rules with the utmost strictness. The association appears to have been, for a time, exceedingly flourishing. It was a society of philosophers, rather than of common citizens. They held their property in one common stock, for the benefit of the whole. The object of the association was chiefly to aid each other in promoting intellectual cultivation. Pythagoras did not teach abstinence from all hurtful food and drink, and an exclusive use of that which was the best, for the sole purpose of making men better, or more healthy, or longer-lived animals; he had a higher and nobler purpose. It was to make them better rationals, more truly noble and god-like—worthy the name of rational men, and of the relation in which they stood to their common Father. And yet, after all, his doctrines appear to have been mingled with much bigotry and superstition.