The Four, the fount of nature’s endless stream.
—Ascribed to Pythagoras.
Quoted in Whewell’s History of the Inductive Sciences, Bk. 4, chap. 3.
Along the skiey arch the goddess trode,
And sought Harmonia’s august abode;
The universal plan, the mystic Four,
Defines the figure of the palace floor.
Solid and square the ancient fabric stands,
Raised by the labors of unnumbered hands.