Superphysics
The Pythagorean Educational System
6 minutes • 1178 words
Pythagoras prepared his disciples for erudition. He tried and judiciously examined those who came to him to be his associates.
He asked how they associated with their parents, and the rest of their relatives.
He then surveyed:
- their unseasonable laughter, their silence, and their speaking when it was not proper.
- their desires with whom they associated
- how they conversed with them
- how they employed their leisure time, and
- what were the subjects of their joy and grief.
- their form, mode of walking, and whole motion of their body.
Physiognomically also considering the natural indications of their frame, he made them to be manifest signs of the unapparent manners of the soul.
He then neglected his chosen associates for 3 years while he observed how they were:
- stable
- true lovers of learning
- prepared with glory as to despise [popular] honor.
After this, he ordered those who came to him to observe a quinquennial silence, in order that he might experimentally know how they were affected as to continence of speech, the subjugation of the tongue being the most difficult of all victories; as those have unfolded to us who instituted the mysteries.
During this [probationary] time, their property were made common. He was committed to the care of those appointed for this purpose, who were called:
- politicians [ksattriya]
- economizers [vaesya]
- legislators [brahmin].
They then became Esoterics.
- They both heard and saw Pythagoras within the veil.
Prior to this, they heard his words beyond the veil, without at all seeing him, giving for a long time a specimen of their peculiar manners.
But if they were rejected, they received double of the wealth which they made common.
A tomb was raised to them as if they were dead by the homacoï (the disciples of Pythagoras).
The rejects were treated as other persons by the homacoï. To the disciples, those rejects were:
- dead
- were thought to be slower in the acquisition of knowledge, were badly organized, imperfect and barren.
Pythagoras physiognomically considered:
- their form
- their mode of walking and every other motion
- the state of their body
- the quinquennial silence
- the orgies and initiations from so many disciplines
- the ablutions of the soul
- many and such great purifications produced from such various theorems, through which the sagacity and sanctity of the soul is perfectly ingenerated
If, after all this, the applicant was found to be still sluggish and of a dull intellect, a pillar and monument was raised in the school. This is similar to what was done to Perialus the Thurian, and Cylon the prince of the Sybarites, who were rejected by them. He was then expelled from the Homacoïon or auditory, giving him a lot of silver and gold which were:
- deposited by them in common, and
- committed to the care of certain persons called “Economics” from the office which they bore
If afterwards they happened to meet with such a one, they conceived him to be any other person, than him who according to them was dead.
Hence also Lysis, blamed Hipparchus because he had communicated the doctrines of the Pythagoreans to the profane, and to those who acceded to them without disciplines and theory, says as follows:
You, Hipparchus, philosophize publicly with everyone you meet. Pythagoras did not think fit to do so.
You learnt philosophy diligently. But you did not preserve it because you tasted Sicilian delicacies, which you should not have tasted a second time.
Please abandon these. But if not, you will be dead in my opinion.
It will be pious to call to mind the divine and human precepts of Pythagoras, and not to make the goods of wisdom common to those, who have not even in a dream their soul purified.
It is not lawful to extend to every casual person, things which were obtained with such great labors, and such diligent assiduity, nor to divulge the mysteries of the Eleusinian Goddesses to the profane. For those who do either of these, are equally unjust and impious.
But it will be well to consider what a great length of time we consumed in wiping away the stains which had insinuated themselves into our breasts, till, after the lapse of some years, we became fit recipients of the doctrines of Pythagoras.
For as dyers previously purify garments, and then fix in the colors with which they wish them to be imbued, in order that the dye may not be washed away, and may never become evanescent; after the same manner also that divine man prepared the souls of those that were lovers of philosophy, so that they might not deceive him in any of those beautiful and good qualities which he hoped they would possess.
For he did not impart spurious doctrines, nor snares, in which most of the sophists, who are at leisure for no good purpose, entangle young men; but he possessed a scientific knowledge of things human and divine. These men, however, making his doctrine a pretext, perform many dreadful deeds, ensnaring youth not in a becoming nor yet in a casual way.
Hence they render their auditors noxious and precipitate.
For they infuse theorems and divine doctrines into confused and turbid manners. Just as if some one should pour pure and clear water into a deep well full of mud; for he would disturb the mud, and destroy the clear water. The same thing likewise takes place between those who teach and those who are taught after this manner. For dense thickets and which are full of briars surround the intellect and heart of those who have not been purely initiated in disciplines, obscure the mild, tranquil, and reasoning power of the soul, and openly impede the intellective part from becoming increased and elevated.
It is requisite likewise to call intemperance and avarice the mothers of these thickets; both which are naturally prolific. From intemperance, therefore, unlawful marriages, [unjust] desires, corruptions, intoxication, preternatural pleasures, and certain vehement appetites blossom forth, and which impel their possessors into profundities and precipices.
For now desires have compelled some not to abstain either from their mothers or their daughters, and violating law, their country, city, and king, with their hands as it were bound behind them, they are violently dragged along like slaves to extreme destruction. But from avarice germinate rapine, robbery, parricide, sacrilege, sorcery, 56 and such other evils at are the sisters of these.
In the first place, it is necessary to purify the woods in which these passions have fixed their abode, with fire and sword, and all the machines of disciplines; and having liberated the reasoning power from such mighty evils, we may then implant in and deliver to it something useful and good.”
So great and so necessary was the attention which, according to Pythagoras, ought to be paid to disciplines prior to philosophy.
He likewise ordained that a singular honor, and the most accurate investigation, should be given to the teaching and participation of his dogmas, as he judiciously examined the conceptions of those that came to him, by various documents, and 10,000 forms of scientific theory.
