every species are frequently practised among the various professions and callings of the present day, but we never find them succeed for any lengthened period, except indeed amongst small communities which lie beyond the influence of the almost general light of civilization which characterises the present age. That the people of Samos and of the other islands and districts of Greece, were carried away and imposed upon by this system of imposture and pretended sanctity, is not a circumstance so much to be wondered at, as that Pythagoras himself, a man of the highest order of mind, of the soundest knowledge, of the clearest perception of genuine moral doctrines, and of the largest and most comprehensive intellectual faculties, should descend, under any possible pretext, to such a shameful degradation of his powers, and such a base prostitution of his learning, wisdom, and talents. No doubt he proceeded on that mistaken principle which finds an excuse for every extravagance, viz., that "the end justifies the means," and thought that there could be no wrong in bursting the incrustation of ignorance which resisted the light of his wisdom, and in pouring the full flood of knowledge on the dull minds of his countrymen, even when the accomplishment of his object hung on a process of deception and hypocrisy.
After some time he passed from his native country to the Grecian colonies of Italy, where he pursued his task of instructing the people in the various knowledge which he possessed. And not content with disseminating his moral doctrines, and effecting changes in the manners of the inhabitants of the different cities of Magna Græcia, as the Grecian colonies of Italy were then called, he also attempted a
