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SCIENCES IN CONNEXION WITH THE STATE. 195tended by further consequences, that we must not omit toobserve.Pythagoras, though somewhat younger than the founderof the Ionian school, was himself an Ionian of the island ofSamos. Nevertheless he found his sphere of action notthere, but in Croton in Lower Italy.Of no one of theGrecian sagesis the history so involved in the obscurities oftradition and the marvellous ;and yet no other became of1such political importance. If we desire to estimate the influence of his philosophy on the state, we must byall meansdistinguish the influence of the Pythagorean league on thecities of Magna Graecia, from the influence of his philosophyon Greece itself, after that league had come to an end.If we subject to a critical investigation,that which antiquity relates in a credible manner of his society and theirobjects, we observe a phenomenon, which is in many respects without a parallelAnd yet I believe this is mostintimately connected with the aristocratic and democraticfactions which may be remarked so frequentlyin the Grecianstates.Pythagoras had deserted Samos, to escape from thegovernment of Polycrates and whatever; scruples may beraised respecting his other journeys, no one has denied hisresidence in Egypt. At the time when he visited this country, probably under Amasis, who made it accessible to theGreeks, the throne of the Pharaohs was still standing; andthe influence of the caste of priests unimpaired. From themIt is certain that he adopted much, both in respect to dressand manner of living and;could it have escaped a man ofhis penetration, how much can be effected in a state by theunion of men of influence ; although he must have seen, thata caste of priests could never thrive among the Greeks? According to all which we hear respecting him, he was masterof the art of exciting, not attention only, but enthusiasm.His dignity,his dress, the purity of his morals, his eloquence, were of such a kind, that men were inclined to ex-1We cannot exactly fix the year of the "birth, or of the death of Pythagoras.It is most probable that he came to Croton about the year 54Q; he was certainly there at the period of the destruction of Sybaris, in the year 510 B, C.His league, which existed at that time, was afterwards, about the year 500B. C n (Mssolved by Cylon and his faction. Little would remain to be addedto the critical inquiries of Meiners respecting the Pythagorean Philosophy, iftie had not almost wholly neglected to treat of the political doctrines ofPytnagoras.o 2