NOTES TO PYTHAGORAS. 173
allowed them any drink but water; and their food was of the plainest description. And such was the importance which he attached to self-denial in those youths who were entrusted to his care, that he frequently exercised them in this grand virtue by placing them at a table loaded with all sorts of luxury, and compelling them to go away without having tasted a morsel.
Note C, page 164.
And while wealth fails one lasting joy to give,
The gifts of virtue shall forever live.
The Pythagorean disciples were obliged, at their initiation, to put all their wealth into one common fund, and to live together without distinction. Their clothing, food, and attendance were alike. They sat at one table together, fared in the same manner, underwent the same privations, and were subjected, in all respects, to a similarity of discipline. The object which the philosopher aimed at by this regulation, was obviously the suppression of avaricious feeling, as well as the prevention of pride and vanity, in his pupils. We are told that he compelled them to rise before the sun, to whose glorious presence they first paid homage; they then prepared and arranged the day's business; after which they repeated and sang some verses from Homer and other poets. They next betook themselves to the study of science; and after that they took a walk for the purposes of contemplation and peaceful relaxation. Conversation and athletic exercises followed next, which were succeeded by a spare dinner, composed chiefly of bread, honey, and water. After dinner they devoted some time
