Taylor - Theoretic Arithmetic.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

and beauty. And in external things, prosperity, renown, power
and friendship, are the objects of desire.
The celebrated four causes also of Aristotle, are referred to
the tetrad, divinity as the cause by which ucp'ou, or the efficient
cause, matter from which &S ou, form through which 09, and
the effect with reference to which ~ ~ 0. 0 5
The anonymous author further observes, that in the tetrad
accumulation and abundance are considered, in the same manner
as multitude in the triad, and hence, says he, we proclaim
the living thrice blessed on account of their felicity, but the
dead who have exchanged this life for the next in the best
manner, four times blessed. And thus much for the tetrad.
CHAPTER VII
On the pentad.
THE pentad, as we learn from the Nicomachean extracts,
was called by the Pythagoreans the privation of strife, and the
unconquered, alliation or change of quality, light and justice,
and the smallest extremity of vitality. Likewise Nemesis and
Bubastia, vengeance and Venus, Gamelia and Androgynia,
Cythereia and Zonaea, circular and a demigoddess, the tower
of Jupiter, Didymaea, and a stable axis. They likewise magnificently
celebrate it as immortal and Pallas, Cardiatis and the
leader, Acreotis and equilibrium, unmarried and Orthiatis, and
of the Muses Melpomene.
01 these names the four first are thus explained by the anonymous
author. "The pentad," says he, "is change of quality,
because it changes that which is triply extended or which has
length, breadth and depth into the sameness of a sphere, in