Good Rulers, Customs, Laws, alone can mend.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY,
TOOKE’S COURT, CHANCERY LANE;
AND SOLD BY THE AUTHOR,
9, MANOR PLACE, WALWORTH.
1818.
CONTENTS
The Life, &c. [Chap. I] 1 [Chap. II] 2 [Chap. III] 9 [Chap. IV] 12 [Chap. V] 13 [Chap. VI] 18 [Chap. VII] 21 [Chap. VIII] 23 [Chap. IX] 28 [Chap. X] 32 [Chap. XI] 34 [Chap. XII] 38 [Chap. XIII] 40 [Chap. XIV] 41 [Chap. XV] 43 [Chap. XVI] 48 [Chap. XVII] 50 [Chap. XVIII] 56 [Chap. XIX] 66 [Chap. XX] 69 [Chap. XXI] 71 [Chap. XXII] 73 [Chap. XXIII] 75 [Chap. XXIV] 77 [Chap. XXV] 80 [Chap. XXVI] 83 [Chap. XXVII] 89 [Chap. XXVIII] 97 [Chap. XXIX] 114 [Chap. XXX] 122 [Chap. XXXI] 135 [Chap. XXXII] 151 [Chap. XXXIII] 162 [Chap. XXXIV] 170 [Chap. XXXV] 176 [Chap. XXXVI] 188 [Fragments of the Ethical Writings of Certain Pythagoreans] 193 [From Hippodamus, the Thurian, in his Treatise on Felicity] 195 [From Euryphamus, in his Treatise Concerning Human Life] 202 [From Hipparchus, in his Treatise On Tranquillity] 207 [From Archytas, in his Treatise Concerning the Good and Happy Man] 212 [From Theages, in his Treatise On the Virtues] 222 [From Metopus, in his Treatise Concerning Virtue] 227 [From Clinias] 231 [From Theages, in his Treatise On the Virtues] 233 [From the Treatise of Archytas On Ethical Erudition] 242 [From Archytas, in his Treatise On the Good and Happy Man] 244 [From Crito, in his Treatise On Prudence and Prosperity] 245 [From Archytas, in his Treatise On the Good and Happy Man] 250 [From Archytas, in his Treatise On Disciplines] 252 [From Polus, in his Treatise On Justice] 254 [Pythagoric Ethical Sentences from Stobæus, which are omitted in the Opuscula Mythologica, &c. of Gale] 259 [Select Sentences of Sextus the Pythagorean] 268 [Pythagoric Sentences, from the Protreptics of Iamblichus] 278 [Additional Notes] 281
INTRODUCTION.
When it is considered that Pythagoras was the father of philosophy, authentic memoirs of his life cannot fail to be uncommonly interesting to every lover of wisdom, and particularly to those who reverence the doctrines of Plato, the most genuine and the best of all his disciples. And that the following memoirs of Pythagoras by Iamblichus are authentic, is acknowledged by all the critics, as they are for the most part obviously derived from sources of very high antiquity; and where the sources are unknown, there is every reason to believe, from the great worth and respectability of the biographer, that the information is perfectly accurate and true.
Of the biographer, indeed, Iamblichus, it is well known to every tyro in Platonism that he was dignified by all the Platonists that succeeded him with the epithet of divine; and after the encomium passed on him by the acute Emperor Julian, “that he was posterior indeed in time, but not in genius, to Plato,”[1] all further praise of him would be as unnecessary, as the defamation of him by certain modern critics is contemptible and idle. For these homonculi looking solely to his deficiency in point of style, and not to the magnitude of his intellect, perceive only his little blemishes, but have not even a glimpse of his surpassing excellence. They minutely notice the motes that are scattered in the sunbeams of his genius, but they feel not its invigorating warmth, they see not its dazzling radiance.
Of this very extraordinary man there is a life extant by Eunapius, the substance of which I have given in my History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theology, and to which I refer the English reader. At present I shall only select from that work the following biographical particulars respecting our Iamblichus: He was descended of a family equally illustrious, fortunate, and rich. His country was Chalcis, a city of Syria, which was called Cœle. He associated with Anatolius who was the second to Porphyry, but he far excelled him in his attainments, and ascended to the very summit of philosophy. But after he had been for some time connected with Anatolius, and most probably found him insufficient to satisfy the vast desires of his soul, he applied himself to Porphyry, to whom (says Eunapius) he was in nothing inferior, except in the structure and power of composition. For his writings were not so elegant and graceful as those of Porphyry: they were neither agreeable, nor perspicuous; nor free from impurity of diction. And though they were not entirely involved in obscurity, and perfectly faulty; yet as Plato formerly said of Xenocrates, he did not sacrifice to the Mercurial Graces. Hence he is far from detaining the reader with delight, who merely regards his diction; but will rather avert and dull his attention, and frustrate his expectation. However, though the surface of his conceptions is not covered with the flowers of elocution, yet the depth of them is admirable, and his genius is truly sublime. And admitting his style to abound in general with those defects, which have been noticed by the critics, yet it appears to me that the decision of the anonymous Greek writer respecting his Answer to the Epistle of Porphyry,[2] is more or less applicable to all his other works. For he says, ‘that his diction in that Answer is concise and definite, and that his conceptions are full of efficacy, are elegant, and divine.’[3]