^3 HU&6At^D J Little Joubneys OF OfeEAT lEACHEBS P >rTHA60fcAS Pi Cornell University S Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028976889 march; MCMVIII No. 3 m o tl>e riome^ ec5vC^pie] a Cornell University Library J B243 .H87 Little journeys to the homes of great t olin 3 1924 028 976 889 Gri-tlxi -"%.J sle Copie5 lo cenis*J&^ tKe ^t^e^r siss ■^rrnsum^sK' >r.:Ai-S!K>,an::h:--i"j;wiSM £y The dat shows whfcj EI'n >j '■ ^ V? t)ook cojjy the ca.. x' * ■'- *^e librarian. kpn I. and giv: HOME 0SE» A LFi M *" book, subject, |^p^£Y A.11 borrowers m Being the Life in tlie library Master of Finance and S 1^= £°r '>°me >"'s Country. J* ^r 11 books mustv w^ « /\ I i ..ed at end of? J\^ |^ for inspectic TheFinanck «. ;i7 VViorr '^^'^ books I- A vVork for Students of Finance an .j within > History. The two volume biography by Ellis PiS 'tandnc >, Brie Couiit^ N e "sv Yo r* "K M C M V I \51xS^o PYTHAGOPA5 CONSULT and deliberate before thou act, that thou mayst not commit foolish actions. For 'tis the part of a miserable man to speak and to act without reflection. But do that which will not afflict thee afterwards, nor oblige thee to repentance. — PYTHAGORAS LITTLE JOURNEYS ^ITH no desire to deprive Mr. Bok of his bread, I wish to call attention to Pythagoras, who lived a little over five hundred years before Christ. (( Even at that time the world was old Ji Memphis, which was built four thousand years ago, had begun to crumble into ruins. Troy was buried deep in the dust which an American citizen of German birth, was to remove jt Ninevah and Babylon w^ere dying the death that success always brings, and the star of empire was preparing to vrestward wend its way. Q Pythagoras ushered in the Golden Age of Greece. All of the great writers, whom he immediately preceded, quote him, and refer to him. Some admire him ; others are loftily critical; most of them are a little jealous; and a few use him as a horrible example, calling him a poseur, a pedant, a learned sleight-of-hand man, a bag of books. Trial by newspaper was not invented in the time of Pythagoras ; but personal vilification has been popular since Balaam talked gossip with his vis-a-vis. Anaxagoras, who gave up his wealth to the state that he might be free, and who was the teacher of Pericles, was a pupil of Pythagoras, and used often to mention 57 PYTHAGORAS him jt In this way Pericles was impressed by the Pythagorean philosophy, and very often quotes it in his speeches. Socrates gives Pythagoras as an authority on the simple life, and stated that he was willing to follow him in anything save his injunction to keep silence. Socrates wanted silence optional, whereas Pythagoras required each of his pupils to live for a year without once asking a question or making an explana- tion. In aggravated cases he made the limit five years. C[ In many ways Pythagoras reminds us of our friend Muldoon, both being beneficent autocrats, and both proving their sincerity by taking their own medicine. Pythagoras said, " I will never ask another to do what I have not done, and am v^illing to do myself." To this end, he was once challenged by his three hundred pupils to remain silent for a year. He accepted the defi, not once defending himself from the criticisms and accusations that were rained upon him, not once complaining, nor issuing an order. Tradition has it, hoTvever, that he made averages good later on, when the year of expiation was ended. There are two reasonably complete lives of Pythagoras, one by Diogenes Laertius, and another by lamblichus. Personally, I prefer the latter, as lamblichus, as might be inferred from his name, makes Pythagoras a descend- ant of Anseus, who was a son of Neptune jjt This is surely better than the abrupt and somewhat sensational statement to the effect that his father was Apollo. 58 PYTHAGORAS ^HE birthplace of Pythagoras was Samos, an isle of Greece. He was born of wealthy but honest parents, who were much in love with each other, a requisite, says Pythagoras, for parentage on its highest plane Ji It is probable that Pythagoras was absolutely correct in his hypothesis. That he was a very noble specimen of manhood — physically and mentally there is no doubt. He was tall, lithe, dignified, commanding and silent by nature, realizing fully that a handsome man can never talk as well as he looks. He was quite aware of his physical graces, and in following up the facts of his early life, he makes the statement that his father v^as a sea-captain and trader. He then incidentally adds that the best results are obtained for posterity, where a man is absent from his family eleven months in the year. This is an axiom agreed upon by many modern philosophers, few of whom, however, live up to their ideals. Aristophanes, who was on friendly terms with some of the disciples of Pythagoras, suggested in one of his plays that the Pythagorean domestic time limit should be increased at least a month for the good of all concerned. 59 PYTHAGORAS Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle make frequent references to Pythagoras. In order to impress men like these the man must have taught a very exalted philosophy. In truth, Pythagoras was a teacher of teachers. And like all men who make a business of wsdom he sometimes came tardy off, and indulged in a welter of words that wrecked the original idea — if there were one. There are these three — Knowledge, Learning, 'Wisdom. And the world has until very recent times assumed that they were practically one and the same thing. Q Knowledge consists of the things we knovr, not the things we believe or the things we assume. Kno^vledge is a personal matter of intuition, confirmed by experi- ence jH Learning consists largely of the things we memorize and are told by persons or books. Tomlinson of Berkeley Square was a learned man. \Vhen we think of a learned man, v/e picture him as one seated in a library surrounded by tomes that top the shelves. Wisdom is the distilled essence of what we have learned from experience. It is that which helps us to live, work, love and make life more Tvorth living for all we meet. Men may be very learned, and still be far from wise. Pythagoras was one of those strange beings who are born with a desire to know, and who finally compre- hending the secret of the Sphinx, that there is really nothing to say, insist on saying it jH That is, vast learning is augmented by a structure of words, and on 60 PYTHAGORAS this is built a theogony. Practically he was a priest. ((Worked into all priestly philosophies are nuggets of wisdom that shine like stars in the darkness and lead men on and on. All great religions have these periods of sanity, other- wise they would have no followers at all jf> The followers understanding little bits of this and that, hope finally to understand it all. Inwardly the initiates at the shrine of their own conscience know that they know nothing jt \Vhen they teach others they are obliged to pretend that they, themselves, fully com- prehend the import of vrhat they are saying. The novitiate attributes his lack of perception to his own stupidity, and many great teachers encourage this viev^. C("Be patient and you shall some day know," they say, and smile frigidly. And when credulity threatens to balk and go no further, magic comes to the rescue and the domain of Hermann and Kellar is poached upon. Mystery and miracle were born in Egypt. It was there that a system was evolved, backed up by the ruler, of religious fraud so colossal that modern deception looks like the bungling efforts of an amateur. The govern- ment, the army, the taxing power of the state were sworn to protect gigantic safes in which was hoarded — nothing. That is to say, nothing but the pretence, upon which cupidity and self-hypnotized credulity battened and fattened. 61 PYTHAGORAS All institutions which through mummery, strange acts, dress and ritual, affect to know and impart the inmost secrets of creation and ultimate destiny, had their rise in Egypt jt In Egypt now are only graves, tombs, necropoles and silence. The priests there need no soldiery to keep their secrets safe. Ammon-Ra who once ruled the universe, being finally exorcised by Yaveh, is now . as dead as the mummies who once were men and upheld his undisputed sway. =g''^'— — ^- I ' II— ^HE Egyptians guarded their mysteries with jealous dread. C{ We kno\v their secret now.s It is this — there are no mys- teries Ji Ji That is the only secret upon which any secret society holds a caveat. Wisdom cannot be corralled with gibberish and fettered in jargon. Knowledge is one thing — ^palaver another. The Greek letter societies of our callow days still survive in bird's eye, and next to these come the Elks who take theirs with seltzer and a smile, as a rare good joke, save that brotherhood and good fellowship are actually a saving salt which excuses 62 PYTHAGORAS much that would otherwise be simply silly. QAU this mystery and mysticism was once official, and later, on being discarded by the authorities, was continued by the students as a kind of prank. Greek letter societies are the rudimentary survivals of what was once an integral part of every college. Making dead languages optional was the last convulsive kick of the cadaver. And now a good many colleges are placing the seal of their disapproval on secret societies among the students ; and the day is near vrhen the secret society will not be tolerated either directly or indirectly as a part of the education of youth. All this because the sophomoric mind is prone to take its Greek letter mysteries seriously, and regard the college curriculum as a joke of the faculty. If knowledge were to be gained by riding a goat, any petty cross-roads, with its lodge-room over the grocery, would contain a Herbert Spencer; and the agrarian mossbacks would have wisdom by the scruff and detain knowledge with a tail-hold. There can be no secrets in life and morals, because Nature has so provided that every beautiful thought you know, and every precious sentiment you feel shall shine out of your face so that all who are great enough may see, know, understand, appreciate and appropri- ate. You can keep things only by giving them away. 63 PYTHAGORAS 3HEN Pythagoras was only four or five years old his mother taught him to take his morning bath in the cold stream, and dry his baby skin by running in the wind. As he ran, she ran with him, and together they sang a hymn to the rising sun, that for them represented the god Apollo. Q This mother taught him to be indifferent to cold, heat, hunger, to exult in endurance and take a joy in the glow of the body. So the boy grew strong, and handsome, and proud, and perhaps it was in those early years, from the mother herself, that he gathered the idea, afterward developed, that Apollo had appeared to his mother, and so great was the beauty of the god that the woman was actually overcome, it being the first god at which she had ever had a good look. The ambition of a great mother centres on her son. Pythagoras was filled with the thought that he was different, peculiar, set apart to teach the human race. Q Having compassed all there was to learn in his native place, and as he thought, being ill appreciated, he started for Egypt, the land of learning. The fallacy that knowledge was a secret to be gained by word of mouth §4 PYTHAGORAS and to be gotten from books existed then as now. The mother of Pythagoras wanted her son to comprehend the inmost secrets of the Egyptian mysteries. He would then know all. To this end she sold her jewels, in order that her son might have the advantages of an Egyptian education. Women were not allowed to know the divine secrets — only just a few little ones. This vroman wanted to know, and she said her son would learn, and tell her. QThe family had become fairly rich by this time, and influential. Letters were gotten from the great ones of Samos to the secretary of state in Egypt. And so, Pythagoras, aged twenty, "the youth with the beauti- ful hair," went on his journey to Egypt and knocked boldly at the doors of the temples at Memphis where knovrledge was supposed to be in stock. Religion then monopolized all schools and continued to do so for quite some time after Pythagoras was dead. He was turned away vrith the explanation that no foreigner could enter the sacred portals — that the initiates must be those born in the shadows of the temples and nurtured by holy virgins from infancy in the faith. Pythagoras still insisted, and it was probably then that he found a sponsor who made for him the claim that he was a son of Apollo. And the holy men peeped out of their peep-holes in holy admiration for any one who, could concoct as big a lie as they themselves had ever 65 PYTHAGORAS invented. CJThe boy surely looked the part. Perhaps, at last, here was one who was Tvhat they pretended to be ! Frauds believe in frauds, and rogues are more easily captured by roguery than are honest men. His admittance to the university became a matter of international diplomacy. At last, being too hard pressed, the wise ones who ran the mystery monopoly gave in, and Pythagoras was informed that at midnight of a certain night, he should present himself, naked, at the door of a certain temple and he \vould be admitted. QOn the stroke of the hour, at the appointed time, Pythagoras, the youth with the beautiful hair, was there, clothed only in his beautiful hair. He knocked on the great, bronze doors, but the only ansvirer v/as a faint, hollow echo. Then he got a stone and pounded, but still no answer. CJThe wind sprang up fresh and cold. The young man was chilled to the bone, but still he pounded and then called aloud demanding admittance. His answer now was the growling and barking of dogs, within. Still he pounded! After an interval a hoarse voice called out through a little slide, ordering him to begone or the dogs would be turned loose upon him. He demanded admittance. " Fool, do you not know that the law says these doors shall admit no one excepting at sunrise?" " I only know that I was told to be here at midnight and I would be admitted." 66 PYTHAGORAS "All that may be true, but you were not told when you would be admitted — wait, it is the will of the gods." So Pythagoras waited, numbed and nearly dead jt <{The dogs which he had heard had, in some way, gotten out, and came tearing around the corner of the great stone building. He fought them with desperate strength. The effort seemed to warm his blood, and whereas, before he was about to retreat to his lodgings he now remained. The day broke in the east, and gangs of slaves went by to work. They jeered at him and pelted him with pebbles jt ^ Suddenly across the desert sands he saw the faint pink rim of the rising sun. On the instant the big bronze doors against ^vhich he was leaning swung suddenly in. He fell with them, and coarse, rough hands seized his hair and pulled him into the hall. The doors swung to and closed with a clang. Pythagoras was in dense darkness, lying on the stone floor. A voice, seemingly coming from afar, demanded, " Do you still wish to go on ? " And his answer was, "I desire to go on." A black-robed figure, wearing a mask, then appeared with a flickering light, and Pythagoras was led into a stone cell. His head was shaved, and he was given a coarse robe and then left alone. Toward the end of the day he was given a piece of black bread and a bowl of water. This 67 PYTHAGORAS he was told was to fortify him for the ordeal to come. <5 What that ordeal was we can only guess, save that it consisted partially in running over hot sands where he sank to his waist jt At a point where he seemed about to perish a voice called loudly, "Do you yet desire to go on?" And his answer was, " I desire to go on." Returning to the inmost temple he was told to enter a certain door and wait therein. He was then blind- folded and when he opened the door to enter, he walked off into space and fell into a pool of ice-cold water. €( While floundering there the voice again called, "Do you yet desire to go on ? " And his answer was, "I desire to go on." At another time he was tied upon the back of a donkey and the donkey was led along a rocky precipice, where lights danced and flickered a thousand feet below. " Do you yet want to go on ? " called the voice. And Pythagoras answered, " I desire to go on." The priests here pushed the donkey off the precipice, which proved to be only about two feet high, the gulf below being an illusion arranged with the aid of lights that shone through apertures in the wall. These pleasing little diversions Pythagoras afterward introduced into the college which he founded, so to teach the merry freshmen that nothing, at the last, was as bad as it seemed, and that most dangers are simply illusions jt jt 68 PYTHAGORAS • The Egyptians grew to have such regard for Pythagoras that he was given every opportunity to know the inmost secrets of the mysteries. He said he encom- passed them all, save those alone that were incompre- hensible. This was probably true. The years spent in Egypt were not wasted — he learned astronomy, mathematics, and psychology, a thing then not named, but pretty well understood — ^the manage- ment of men. It was twenty years before Pythagoras returned to Samos. His mother was dead, so she passed away in ignorance of the secrets of the gods — which perhaps was just as well. Samos now treated Pythagoras with great honor Jt Crowds flocked to his lectures, presents were given him, royalty paid him profound obeisance. But Samos soon tired of Pythagoras. He was too austere — too severe, and when he began to rebuke the officials for their sloth and indifference he vras invited to go elsewhere and teach his science of life. And so he journeyed into Southern Italy and at Crotona, built his Temple to the Muses and founded the Pythagorean school. He was the wisest as well as the most learned man of his time. PYTHAGORAS ^OME unkind person has said that Pythagoras was the original charter member of the Jesuit's Society S«^ The maxim that the end justifies the means was the corner stone of Egyptian theology. When Pythagoras left Egypt he took with him this corner stone as a souvenir J> That the priests could only hold their power over the masses through magic and miracle, was fully believed, and as a good police system the value of organized religion was highly appreciated. In fact no ruler could hold his place, unsupported by the priest. Both were divine propositions. One searches in vain for simple truth among the sages, solons, philosophers, poets, and prophets that existed down to the time of Socrates. Truth for truth's sake was absolutely unimagined ; free- thought was unguessed. Expediency was always placed before truth. Truth was furnished with frills — ^the people otherwise would not be impressed. Chants, robes, ritual, pro- cessions, banging of bells, burning of incense, strange sounds, sights and smells — these were considered necessary factors in teaching divine truth. To worship with a noise, seems to us a little like 70 PYTHAGORAS making love with a brass band. C^ Pythagoras was a very great man, but for him to eliminate theological chafF entirely was impossible. So we find that when he was about to speak, red fire filled the building as soon as he arose. It was all a little like the alleged plan of the late Rev. T. DeW^itt Talmage who used to have an Irishman let loose a v^hite pigeon from the organ loft at an opportune time. When Pythagoras burned the red fire, of course the audience thought a miracle ^vas taking place, unable to understand a simple stage trick which all the boys in the gallery \vho delight in " Faust " now understand. Q However, the Pythagorean school had much virtue on its side, and made a sincere and earnest effort to solve certain problems that yet are vexing us. The Temple of the Muses, built by Pythagoras at Crotona, is described by lamblichus as a stone struc- ture, with walls twenty feet thick, the light being admitted only from the top. It was evidently con- structed after the Egyptian pattern, and the intent was to teach there the esoteric doctrine. But Pythagoras improved upon the Egyptian methods and opened his temple on certain days to all and any who desired to come. Then at times he gave lectures to women only, and then to men only, and also to children, thus showing that modern revival methods are not wholly modern S^ St^^^^j»^^jt THE ROYCROFTERS EAST AURORA, NEW YORK SENT POSTPAID TO ANY ADDRESS IN THE UNITED STATES "Sweets for the Immortals" CHOCOLATES and CONFECTIONS For sale where the best is sold. Imtantaneous Chocolate. gSuSg'^m'uS"^ "*'" SMiphen F. Whitman & Son, 1316 Cheitnut Street. 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