[34]For an explanation of this assertion of Plato in the Republic, see my Theoretic Arithmetic.
[35]“The Pythagoreans,” (says Syrianus in Aristot. Metaphys. lib. 13.) “received from the theology of Orpheus, the principles of intelligible and intellectual numbers, they assigned them an abundant progression, and extended their dominion as far as to sensibles themselves.” Hence that proverb was peculiar to the Pythagoreans, that all things are assimilated to number. Pythagoras, therefore, in the Sacred Discourse, clearly says, that “number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and is the cause of Gods and dæmons.” He also supposes, that “to the most ancient and artificially ruling deity, number is the canon, the artificial reason, the intellect also, and the most undeviating balance of the composition and generation of all things.” αυτος μεν Πυθαγορας, εν τῳ ιερῳ λογῳ, διαρρηδην μορφων και ιδεων κραντορα τον αριθμον ελεγεν ειναι, και θεων και δαιμονων αιτιον· και τῳ πρεσβυτατῳ και κρατιστευοντι τεχνιτῃ θεῳ κανονα, και λογον τεχνικον, νουν τε και σταθμαν ακλινεσταταν τον αριθμον υπεικε συστασιος και γενεσεως των παντων. Syrianus adds, “But Philolaus declared that number is the governing and self-begotten bond of the eternal permanency of mundane natures.” Φιλολαυς δε, της των κοσμικων αιωνιας διαμονης την κρατιστευουσαν και αυτογενη συοχην ειναι απεφῃνατο τον αριθμον. “And Hippasus, and all those who were destined to a quinquennial silence, called number the judicial instrument of the maker of the universe, and the first paradigm of mundane fabrication.” οι δε περι Ιππασον ακουσματικοι ειπον κριτικον κοσμουργου θεου οργανον, και παραδειγμα πρωτον κοσμοποιϊας. “But how is it possible they could have spoken thus sublimely of number, unless they had considered it as possessing an essence separate from sensible, and a transcendency fabricative, and at the same time paradigmatic?”
[36]i. e. To spheres; Iamblichus indicating by this, that Pythagoras as well as Orpheus considered a spherical figure as the most appropriate image of divinity. For the universe is spherical; and, as Iamblichus afterwards observes, the Gods have a nature and morphe similar to the universe; morphe, as we learn from Simplicius, pertaining to the color, figure, and magnitude of superficies. Keissling, having no conception of this meaning, and supposing the whole passage to be corrupt, has made nonsense of it by his alterations. For according to his version, Pythagoras, after the manner of Orpheus, worshipped the Gods not bound to a human form, but to divine numbers. For instead of ιδρυμασι he reads αριθμοις. But divine numbers both according to Orpheus and Pythagoras are the Gods themselves.
[37]i. e. Futurity is long; Pythagoras signifying by this, that those who do not take an oath religiously, will be punished in some future period, if they are not at present.
[38]i. e. From the time in which the Gods are fabulously said to have reigned in Egypt.
[39]I wonder that the learned Obrechtus should translate ηβηδον, cum omni juventute sua. Had his translation, which is on the whole very excellent, been reviewed by English or Scotch critics, they would have immediately said from this circumstance, that he did not understand Greek.
[40]Iamblichus here alludes to a right-angled triangle, and the Pythagoric theorem of 47. 1 of Euclid. For the square described on the longest side is equal to the two squares described on the two other sides. The longest side therefore is said by geometricians to be equal in power to the powers of the other sides. This however Kiessling not understanding, says, “that power is the space contained between the concurring lines of figures, and is the area of the triangle.” “Δυναμις idem est, quod εμβαδον, spatium, quod infra concurrentes lineas figurarum continetur, area trigoni.” But Kiessling, though a good verbalist, is a bad geometrician, and no philosopher.
[41]In the original δεκατον the tenth month; but as it very seldom happens that a woman is in a state of pregnancy more than nine months, it appears to me that for δεκατον we should read εκτον the sixth month, as in the above translation.
[42]Obrechtus by translating περι δε δοξης in this place, “De fama et gloria,” has evidently mistaken the meaning of Iamblichus.
[43]The wise and magnanimous Pythagoreans, Platonists, Peripatetics and Stoics, among the ancients, looked to virtue as its own reward, and performed what is right, because it is right to do so. And though they firmly believed in the immortality of the soul, their conduct was not at all influenced by the hope of future reward. This great truth indeed, that virtue brings with it its own recompense, is almost at present obsolete; and it is no unusual thing to hear a man, when afflicted, exclaiming with Methodistical cant,