to have been the only instrument employed in regulating the designs and operations of the Creative Power; and in which the tottering theories of imagination usurped the province of divine revelation. His moral and social doctrines, however, it must be admitted, were in a very high degree calculated to prove the blessings of society. He endeavoured with great earnestness to establish union and harmony amongst the people by instilling into their minds the absolute necessity of mutual forbearance and universal charity. "Love one another," was his great, his most cherished precept; and to this Cicero alludes in his "Offices," when he says,—"Nihil autem est amabilius, nec copulatius, quam morum similitudo bonorum; in quibus enim eadem studia sunt, eaedemque voluntates, in his fit, ut aeque quisque altero delectetur, ac se ipso; efficiturque id quod Pythagoras ultimum in amicitia putavit, ut unus fiat ex pluribus." (Off. Cic., Lib. 1.)
Yes; that one might be made out of many,—that is to say, that many might be ruled by one mind, and directed by one will, was, with Pythagoras, the highest point and the chief merit in real friendship.
Of our philosopher's merits as a poet we have very little opportunity of now judging, since few of his poetic productions have come down to us. Indeed the poem now given is the only one that I have met with, if I except a single verse which is attributed to him by one of his editors, and which bears the following interpretation:—
Direct thy life beneath a wise control,
And guard against th' affections of the soul.
