The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

86 HISTORY OF INITIATION
clothed in white garments as emblematical of purity; 21
were entitled to all the privileges of esotericks, and
admitted within the screen, or into the sanctum sanctorum
of the philosopher; and from henceforth received
the appellation of Pythagoreans, as having had perfect
initiation into the mysteries of Pythagoras, and fully
instructed in the abstruse principles
of his philoso-
22 -
phy.
In his Lectures, Pythagoras defines his system, the
true method of obtaining jijknowledge :.J)f_divme and
humanJaws, 23 bv ineditation onjleath. 2*
bvpurifym^the
bvthe
sTni'nifJj^
discovery of truth,
and the practice
of virtue thus ; imitating the perfections
25
of God, as far as is possible
in a human being. He
taught the mathematics as a medium whereby to prove
the existence of God from the results of reason and
observation, and to convey happiness to man; grammar,
rhetoric, and logic were taught to cultivate and improve
the human reason and ; arithmetic, because he conceived
that the ultimate benefit of man consisted in the science
of numbers. 26 He thought the creation of the world was
21
Persius, Sat. 2, v. 40.
22