unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her. R. P. 30 a.
(13) The things that can be seen, heard, and learned are what I prize the most. R .P. 42.
(14) . . . bringing untrustworthy witnesses in support of disputed points.
(15) The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears.[1] R. P. 42 c.
(16) The learning of many things teacheth not understanding, else would it have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hekataios. R. P. 31.
(17) Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, practised scientific inquiry beyond all other men, and making a selection of these writings, claimed for his own wisdom what was but a knowledge of many things and an imposture.[2] R. P. 31 a.
(18) Of all whose discourses I have heard, there is not one who attains to understanding that wisdom is apart from all. R.P. 32 b.
(19) Wisdom is one thing. It is to know the thought by which all things are steered through all things. R. P. 40.
(20) This world,[3] which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made; but it was ever, is now, and ever shall be an ever-living Fire, with measures of it kindling, and measures going out. R. P. 35.[4]
- ↑ Cf. Herod. 1. 8.
- ↑ The best attested reading is ἐποιήσατο not ἐποίησεν, and ἐποιήσατο ἑαυτοῦ means "claimed as his own." The words ἐκλεξάμενος ταύτας τὰς συγγρφάς have been doubted since the time of Schleiermacher, and Diels now regards the whole fragment as spurious. This is because it was used to prove that Pythagoras wrote books (cf. Diels, Arch. iii. p. 451). As Bywater pointed out, however, the fragment itself only says that he read books. I would further suggest that the old-fashioned συγγραφάς is too good for a forger, and that the omission of the very thing to be proved would be remarkable. The last suggestion of a book by Pythagoras disappears with the reading ἐποιήσατο for ἐποίησεν. For the rendering given for κακοτεχνίη, compare its legal sense of "falsified evidence."
- ↑ The word κόσμος must mean "world" here, not merely "order"; for only the world could be identified with fire. This use of the word is Pythagorean, and Herakleitos may quite well have known it.
- ↑ It is important to notice that μέτρα is internal accusative with ἁπτόμενον, "with its measures kindling and its measures going out." This interpretation, which I gave in the first edition, is now adopted by Diels (Vors.³ 12 B 30 n.).
