Islands of Angry Ghosts: The Story of Batavia, Australias Bloodiest Mutiny (A&R Classics)
Berri, Life in a River Town: The Victorian Naturalist Fair, staples replaced with string, hinges repaired, foxing. Very good condition, publishers slip pasted to inside cover, small crease on front cover corner. The book in Australia: Crease to bottom corner of rear cover. From Suffragists to Legislators, Volume 2: Contains the biographies of 71 Queensland women who have been elected to the Queensland State Parliament and to the Commonwealth Parliament. In the Wake of Bass and Flinders: The story of the re-enactment voyages years on in the whaleboat Elizabeth and the replica sloop Norfolk to celebrate the bicentenary of the voyages of Geaorge Bass and Matthew Flinders.
More Recollections Gilmore, Mary Sydney. Call of the Highlands: Small area blacked out at top of title page. In unmarked "gift quality" condition, this book reminds us why we love our city so much! The History of Australian Exploration: Minimal edgewear to spine ends. Deltroit and the Valley of Hillas Creek: Tiny ding to top of rear boaard - otherwise book very clean. The History of Green Island: An Ornament to the City: Staples clean and firm. Minor foxing spots, else leaves clean and unmarked.
Printed card wrapper has a faint sticker ghost to front panel, several small spots to rear. A booklet prepared to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Eden Museum Committee. Some rubbing to gilt subtitle on front board. Slipcase has light general wear and no tears. Evolution of an Icon: A couple of marks to edges of page-block. A few very minor spots to preliminaries and a 5mm tear to top edge of half-title page - otherwise internally very clean.
Light foxing to last page - otherwise internally clean. Includes loose errata and book review. Previous owners name to top of front free endpaper. Foxing to title page. The history of Maryborough Grammar Schools. The Hills of Home: Examines Barbara Hanrahan's visual art as well as her 15 works of fiction and autobiography. Inscribed and signed by the author on the front free endpaper. Published to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Ballarat, this books presents the history of the Catholic education system in the Diocese from early settlement to the present day.
This history is based on a vast array of research material. Signed by the author. Presents rare, little-known photographs made by the German-born British photographer during his travels in Australia in Light foxing to edges of page-block. Numbered of copies. Comes in a box, which has one broken end.
A Museum for the People: Wear to top edge of spine. Tape marks to endpapers. Governor Phillip G. A small notation to rear fep - otherwise internally clean. Moderate foxing to top edge of page-block and four tiny spots to fore-edge of page-block. A 1cm x 11cm strip has been cut from the top of the ffep - otherwise internally clean.
Small inscription on title page from Joan Cook, one of the illustrators. The burying grounds of Port Macquarie - Facsimile extract of the original, limited to copies. Compiled from film files of The Northern Champion. One Hundred Years at Wilsonton: Previous owners name at top of front endpaper. There are 20 signatures on the autographs page at the rear. Also includes loose certificate of attendance. Some wear to top edge of spine. Bibliography of Australia Volume II: Australian Women in Papua New Guinea: Spine not creased, Paperclip indentaion to first couple of pages - otherwise internally clean.
Includes 3 loose colour postcards of buildings in Tambo. The world's greatest dune system. Vegetation, animals of the dunes, history, major features, conservation and land use. Dustjacket has wear on the edges. Browning to page edges. Tape marks on endpapers. Cover is rubbed on the edges and spine. Interior of book in excellent condition. Saddle-stitched, staple-bound 3 staples format. Book clean, and 'square'. Monochrome, art-illustrated [Jeanette Graham Cleary ] card wrapper lightly bumped and edgeworn only. Hand-written references of leading local citizens on title-page, else text-block unmarked.
Produced to commemorate the centenary celebration of Waaia Primary School No. In this thoroughly enjoyable local history, contents include: Whilom Wilderness Muriel E. Minor foxing to edges of endpapers. One Hundred Years of Austrailian Sport: Inscription on first page signed by the author. Small Beginnings - Tranter Ed , Alan F. Tiny mark to fore-edge of page-block. Tony, we are glad at your progress. Sea Wolves and Bandits: Hobart, Tasmania, OBN, For the Sovereignty of the People: Small brown marks on title page.
Very good, light crease on cover, spine faded. Light wear to cloth. Some foxing to upper margin of pages but text and plates are clean. Documents the Port's history and its contribution to the development of the North-West coast. The Sandy Creek Bushranger: Minor foxing to publisher page, otherwise internally clean. A Man On Edge: Thom Family History Colin W. Cole of the Book Arcade: A Pictorial Biography of E. Owners name on title page, small chip foot of spine.
First edition limited to 3, copies. Kilda is the one place in this city where anything can happen. It is the one suburb that, despite the high-rise, the drugs, the wankers, and perhaps even because of them, has not lost its spontaneity, or its tolerance. Simultaneously it is staggeringly chic and unashamedly raw, and always in your face. Dustjacket has wear, creasing and a small tear on the edges. Moderate foxing to edges of page-block. Some foxing to feps and half-title page. Former owner's name to Publisher page - otherwise internally clean. Corresponding bump to head of spine and sunning to spine.
Internally book is pristine and binding is tight.
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Islands of Angry Ghosts
Past and Present Simon J. Former owner's bookplate to ffep - otherwise internally clean. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. There is a remainder mark on the bottom of the text block. Book comes in its original slipcase. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Road to Botany Bay, The: This trail-blazing re-evaluation of the origins of Australia is a work of powerful imagination. Paul Carter takes insights from many disciplines - philosophy, city planning, sociology, linguistics, psychoanalysis, and art history - and brings them to bear in a deeply original way on the subjects of travel, exploration and settlement.
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Boards and dust jacket are in good condition with only mild shelf wear, otherwise no other pre-loved markings. Dustjacket has light wear on the edges with a cut where a label has been removed. Martin, David Foreword By President. This Volume deals with the background and pressures for local government in the earliest days of the colony with Victoria , city government by commission in Sydney, the establishment of the special authorities, the special incorporations including Melbourne and Geelong , the district councils and the developments leading the Municipalities act of Used hardback with dustwrapper in very good condition.
No torn or missing pages. Covered in clear removable contact. This book weighs gms. Postage may be higher than ABE quote. Illustrated with Donald Friend's artwork. No creasing to spine, minimal edgewear to wraps. Lawyers Then and Now: Minor age-toning to edges ofpage-block. A guide for Rural and Urban walking tours of Victoria. Postage will be reduced for this book. The Conspiracies of Multiculturalism: In this work, the author argues that the previously successful migration policy which emphasised assimilation has been displaced by a multiculturalism that has served Australians badly - including migrants themselves.
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Slight age toning of the page edges. Otherwise no damage to describe. In this book 37 of Australia's historic houses are described and superbly Illustrated. Folio 12"- 15" tall. Please refer to accompanying picture s. Very Good Condition Price: Edges of boards have superficial wear.
Dust jacket has light creasing and superficial rubbing. Edges of dust jacket have moderate bumping and superficial wear. Edges of pages are reasonably browned. Dustjacket has very minor bumping, boards have tiny bit of shelf wear at top and bottom of spine, gift inscription on front endpaper. This book captures the spirit of Australia's long history with the Games.
Using extraordinary photographic and archival material, the book graphically covers every one of the 23 Olympics of modern times, alongside articles, new stories and statistics that bring them vividly to life. Children of Maleth Borg, Augustine J. Covers have light creasing. Pages are clean and unmarked and in excellent condition. Reproduces pages from catalogues of house wares from the federation period. First published in Home of the Black Swan: Box Kites and Beyond Roberts, E.
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He is now in his 80s and still flying. This is his story. The author has signed the book on the title page.. Jane Franklin Hall - Jane Franklin Hall was founded in as a residential college for women students at the University of Tasmania. This is a fascinating history of the inhabitants of this region. There is a chapter on the Darumbal people who inhabited Shoalwater Bay for so long before the English explorers arrived.
There are chapters on the resourceful daily lives of the early settlers and the acquisition by the Army. A Strong Brown God: Work and Strife in Paradise: Bottom corner of pages 57 to 64 torn off not affecting text. Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume Living on the Edge: The European Peopling of Australasia: A Demographic History, - Borrie, W. By Author on Title Page. Edition limited to copies, this copy numbered and signed by the author. The life of the central Irish forebearer, Thomas Trueman Whyly and his decendants who migrated to Australia, each generation grew up and away from the family core, the original name has become all but lost in the multiplicty of surnames which soon stamped their influence on family charts.
There is another thing to be observed in Ithacius, in which the most violent accusers resemble him. No bishop would have found it a more difficult thing than he to give an account of his own conduct, and yet be Was the warmest in defaming and prosecuting others. This unaccountable behaviour has been ob- served by the heathens, who say that innocence is the most necessary qualification of an accuser. Nihil est enim quod minus ferendum sit, quam rationem ab altero vitae reposcere eum, qui non possit suae reddere.
It is probable these irregular and unjust proceedings will last as long as the world. You require of princes, that they should make laws against heretics; you highly commend them, when they appoint a capital punishment fbr them ; you deliver up to them those whom you declare to be heretics: When you tell the magistrates that you are not for their being put to death, you act a farce.
For you say, that a heretic is worse than a poisoner and a murderer. Aristotle's maxim, " posito uno absurdo multa se- quuntur, — one absurdity established, a multitude suc- ceed," was never truer than in the present case: It is to be observed that the inquisitors condemn people to death, and are not contented to declare that a man is a heretic.
In countries where the inquisition prevails, heretics are punished with burning. Now, as in such punish- ment, there are neither bones broken nor blood spilt, the question is, to know whether the maxim, "ecclesia non novit sanguinem,'' expressed here in equivalent terms by St Leo, is in this respect observed, or only eluded.
He persuaded his hearers that the end of the world would come on the third of Octo- ber, , at ten in the morning. He had made this fine discovery by the computation of square num- bers, but he gave it out as a revelation from heaven. A great number of country people suffered themselves to be so infatuated with this notion, that they ne- glected their work and spent their substance.
The day appointed being come, Stifelius got into the pul- pit and exhorted his hearers to be ready, for that the moment was at hand in which they were to ascend into heaven with the same clothes they had on. Upon this they grew angry with their minister, dragged him out of his pulpit, bound him, and carried him to Wirtemberg, where they accused him as an impostor, and insisted upon some repara- tion being made to them.
It is said that their pre- tensions and complaints were declared void, and that Stifelius by the interest of Luther, was re-established in his church. Hanard Gameren gives a pleasant account of this in the ninth Eclogue of his Bucolics. Tilman Bredenbach recites it entire, after having re- lated the adventure in prose. I should not be very ready to believe these two authors, if I did not find it related by an eminent Protestant divine. It is true he does not mention Luther, nor the storm which roused the expectation of the auditory afresh ; Spon- danus tells this story with other circumstances.
He took Lu- ther for that angel of the revelation who flew through the midst of heaven in order to preach the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth ; and as for himself he fancied that he was the seventh angel, whose trum- pet was to proclaim the end of the world. Jesus Christ would come upon earth to judge the world. He grounded his calculation upon those words, 'Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorum;' and upon these, ' Videbunt in quern transfixerunt. The 18th of October, which was St Luke's day, not proving to be the day of judgment as he had posi- tively afiurmed it would, every body laughed at his predictions ; nevertheless, though he was imprisoned at Wirtemberg, he severely reprimanded Luther for exhorting him to be more wise and to proGt by the double experience of his mistake, and persisted all his life in the vain employment of changing his hypo- thesis by the superstitious virtue of numbers.
He died in the year , aged fourscore. He says he will be contented, provided his soul be not cast into the deepest dungeon of hell, and desires no better fate after the resurrection. Multa in thesauris patris est habitatio Christe, Disparibus discreta lods, non posco beati In regione domum: At mihi Tartarei satis est si nulla ministri Occurrat fades, airidae nee flamma Gehennae Devoret banc auimam, mersam fornacibus irois.
Lux immeDsa alios, et tempora viactacoronis Glorificeut: Prudent, in Hamartigenia, p. Have sought thy riches: For rae, if heaven consent. That no dark minister of hell approach me. But since the stains of guilt Require purgation in annealing fires,! Let others at a crown of glory aim, 1 ask but lighter punishment at best.
Perkins, a Protestant divine, says this is an im- pious prayer, and that it ought not to he ascribed to rrudentius. Observe that it is to be found as a genuine piece in the most exact editions, whereas , some verses that are accounted supposititious, have been left out. The prayer that is at the end of the Hamartigenia would likewise have been expunged, if there had been any reasons to believe that it was not genuine: Rescissa sed ista seorsum Solvunt hominem perimuntque: Humus excipit arida corpus, Animae rapit aura Liquorem.
When soul and body by the hand Of death divided are, The body to the dost returns. The liquid soul to air. The following verses make it plain that he means a material substance by '' Animae liquorem: Interior qui spirat homo: Nee mihi difficile est Liquidam circumdare flammis Naturam, quamvis Perflabilis ilia feratur Instar not! Th' interior man, he says, will never die, But bear eternal punishment in hell. I can conceive a liquid nature, tho' Impassive as the wind, by flames encompassM, Suffer eternal burnings. Mr le Clerc observes that these words of Prudentius, " Animae rapit aura liquorem," naturally signify the mortality of the soul, and that an Epicurean could not express himself better.
It is certain that this verse and the foregoing, explain a doctrine which is to be found in the books of several Pagan authors concerning the characters of death. Denique coelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi, Omnibus ille idem pater est, unde alma liquenteis Humorum guttas mater cum terra recepit Fceta parit nitidas Bruges, arbustaque laeta, Rt genus humanum Cedit item retro de terra quod fuit ante. Lastly, we all from seed celestial rise, Which hearen our common parent still supplies.
From him the earth receives enlivening rain, And strait she bears bird, tree, and beast, and man. And so each part returns when bodies die. What came from earth to earth, what from the sky Dropp'd down, ascends again, and mounts on high. But though these two poets agree in their expressions, their notions are quite different. The return of the soul to its principle was a true death according to Lucretius, but not according to all other heathens, and less still according to Prudentius, who soon af- ter explains himself so positively, that one cannot doubt of his believing the immortality of the soul.
I desire I may be allowed to say that Dr Perkins's judgment seems too severe to those who have a re- gard to equity and charity. They think that this poet was willing to be deprived of happiness in heaven, and to suffer a moderate punishment after this life, because he looked upon himself as a man unworthy of the supreme beatitude, and too worthy of punishment.
Is such a humility impious? May not one call it a sacrifice of himself to divine justice? Pyrrho, a Greek philosopher, born at Elis in Pelo- ponnesus, was a disciple of Anaxarchus, and accom- panied him as far as India. He had been a painter before he applied himself to the dtudy of phi- losophy.
His opinions did not differ much from those of Arcesilaus, for he almost taught, as well as he, the incomprehensibility of all things. Though he is not the inventor of that method of pMosophizing, yet it goes by his name: It is justly detested in the schools of divinity, where it is dangerous with respect to that divine science ; but it is not very dangerous with respect to natural philo- sophy or to the state.
It is enough for us to endeavour to find out some probable bypothesis, and to make a collection of experiments ; and I am sure that there are very few good natural philosophers in our age, but are convinced that nature is an impene- trable abyss, and that its springs are known to none, but to the maker and director of them ; so that all those philosophers are in that respect, Academics and Pyrrhonists.
The civil life needs not be afraid of them ; for the sceptics did not deny but that men ought to conform to the customs of their country, and practise moral duties, and resolve upon those things from a probable reason, without staying for certainty. But, on the other side, we need not be uneasy at it ; there never was and there never will be but a small number of men capable of being deceived by the arguments of the Sceptics.
Let us see upon what grounds it builds such a strange pretension. About two months ago a learned man gave me a full account of a conference at which he had been present. The first had said somewhat coldly, that he forgave the heathen philosophers their floating in the uncertainty of their opinions, but that he could not comprehend how there could be any Pyrrhonists under the light of the gospel.
Agesilaus complained that he had to do with enemies who understood not the war ; his stratagems were useless, he could not deceive inexperi- enced troops. See Plutarch in his Life, towards the end. He answered thus, applying himself to the first abbot: The name of Sextus Empiricus was scarcely known in our schools ; what he proposed with so great subtlety concerning suspending one's judgment, was not less unknown there than the Terra Australis, when.
Gassendus gave an abridg- ment of it, which opened our eyes. Cartesianism has put the last hand to the work, and none among good philosophers doubt now but that the Scep- tics are in the right to maintain, that the qualities of bodies which strike our senses, are only mere appearances. Every one of us may say, ' I feel heat before a fire,' but not 'I know that fire is such in it- self as it appears to me;' such was the style of the ancient Pyrrhonists.
They were very willing to except extension and motion, but they could not do it ; for if the objects of our senses appear to us coloured, hot, cold, smelling, though they are not so, why should they not appear extended and figured, at rest and in motion, though they had no such thing. I have not therefore, one good proof of the existence of bodies. Ever since the beginning of the world, all men, except perhaps one in two hundred millions, do firmly believe that bodies are coioufed, and yet it is a mistake.
I ask whether God deceives men with respect to those co- lours? If he deceive them in that respect, what hin- ders but he may deceive them with respect to ex- tensicm. This latter illusion will not be less innocent nor less consistent than the former, with the most per- fect being. If he do not deceive them with respect to colours, it is without doubt, because he forces them not to say, ' Uiose colours exist out of my soul, but only it appears to me there are some colours there.
God does not force you to say that it exists, but only to judge that you feel it, and that it appears to you to exist. And therefore if we are mistaken in affirming the ex- istence of extension, God will not be the cause of it, since you acknowledge that he is not the cause of that peasant's error. Such are the advantages which the new philosophers would procure to the Pyrrhonists, but I will not take advantage of them. You will, justly maintain against him, that evidence is a certain character oftruth, for if evidence were not that character, we should have none.
Let it be so, will he say, it is what I would have you be at: I will shew you several things of the greatest evidence, which you reject as false. You may invent as many dis- tinctions as you please, but you will never be able to shew that that maxim is not contradicted by this great mystery. It is evident that for a man to be really and perfectly a person, it is enough to unite together a human body and a reasonable soul ; but the mystery of the Incar- nation has taught us that this is not sufficient.
Whence it follows that neither you nor I can be sure whether we are persons ; for if it was essential to a human body and a reasonable soul, united together, to constitute a person, God could never cause that thus united they should not constitute a person: But every accident may be separated from its subject several ways ; Grod therefore may hinder us several ways from being persons, though we are made up of a body and a soul ; and can any one assure us that he does not make use of some such means to strip us of dur personality t Is he obliged to reveal to us the several ways he disposes of us?
It is evi- dent that a human body cannot be in several places at one time, and that its head cannot be penetrated, with all its other parts, under an indivisible point: I am obliged to give the reader notice of this in this second edition, because I Ikuow that several persons of the Protestant religion have been offended to see the mysteries of the Tiinity and Incarna- tion paralelled with the doctrine of the Real Presence and Transuhstautiation. Would God, who does nothing in vain, create several men, when one man only, created in several places, and dothed with several qualities, may suffice?
This doctrine deprives us of like truth we find in numbers, for we know no longer what two Of three are ; we know not what identity and diver- sity are. If we judge that John and Peter are two men, it is only because we see them in distinct places, and because the one has not the accidents of the other ; but that ground of distinction becomes null from the doctrine of the Eucharist. It may be that there is but one creature in the world, multiplied in several places by production, and by the diversity of qualities: We are not only ignorant whether there are two bodies in the world, but we do not so much as know whether there is a body and a spirit ; for if matter is penetrable, it is plain that extension is only an accident of the body, and so the body, accord- ing to its essence, is a substance not extended ; it is, therefore, capable of all the attributes which we con- ceive in a spirit, as the understanding, the will, the passions, and the sensations: It is evident, that the modes of a sub- stance cannot subsist without the substance which they modify ; but the mystery of Transubstantiation has taught us that this is false.
Is it not very likely that we shadl then learn the falsity of a thousand diings which appear to us undeniable? Let us make a good use of the rash- ness of those who lived before the Gospel, and who affirmed that some evident doctrines were true, the falsity whereof has been revealed to us by the mys- teries of our theology. It is evident that evil ought to be prevented, if it be possible, and that it is a sinful thing to permit it when it can be prevented.
Nevertheless, our theology shews us, that this is false: It is evident that a creature which does not exist, cannot be an accomplice of an ill action. And that it is unjust to punish that creature as an accomplice of that action. Nevertheless, our doc- trine concerning original sin shews us the falsity of those evidences. It is evident that what is honest ought to be preferred before what is profitable, and that the more holy a being is, the less freedom he has to prefer what is profitable to what is honest.
They would have you there ; the main thing they aim at is, to prove that the absolute nature of things is unknown to us, and that we know only some relations they have one to another. We know not, say they, whether sugar be sweet in itself; we only know that it seems to us to be sweet when we taste it. We know not whether a certain action be honest in itself afid by its nature, we only believe that with respect to such a one, and by reason of certain circumstan- ces, it has the appearance of honesty ; but it is another thing in other respects, and under other relations.
See, therefore, how you expose yourself, by telling them that the ideas we have of justice and honesty are liable to exception, and are relative.. Besides, I would have you to observe, that the more you raise the rights of God to the privilege of acting contrary to our ideas, the more you destroy the only means left you to prove that there are bodies, viz. To shew a people a thing which does not exist out of their minds would be a deceit; but they will answer you, dUtingtio,. I distinguish; if a prince did so, concedo,.
I grant it; if God did it, nego,. I deny it; for the rights of Grod are quite different froni those of kings. Besides, if the exceptions you make to the principles of morality are grounded upon the incom- prehensible infinity of God, I can never be sure of any thing, for I shall never be able to comprehend the whole extent of the rights of God. This abbot replied modestly, " that he knew very well those objections were very inconsiderable and mere so- phisms ; but that it is reasonable, that those who so much despise the Pyrrhonists should not be ignorant of the state of things. I am going to shew you that you have no good reason to be sure of it: I argue from the priuciples of our theology.
Your soul has been created ; God must, therefore, at every moment renew its existence, for the conservation of creatures is a continued creation.. How do you know but that God permitted this morning your soul to relapse into nothing, which he had continued to create till then, ever since the first moment of your life? How do you know but that he has created another soul, modified as yours was?
That new soul is that which you have now. Shew me the contrary ; let the company judge of my objection. He confirms his opinion by some reasons, and then he speaks thus. We say nothing herein but what is agreeable to the best theo- logy, seeing that of St Dionysius teaches nothing in more express terms than the weakness of our minds, and their ignorance, especially with respect to divine things. Thus that great doctor explains what God himself said by the mouth of his prophets, that ' he made his retreat in darkness. There- fore there would be some certainty, there would be a certain rule of truth.
It is a great step towards the Christian religion, which requires of us that we should expect from God the knowledge of what we are to believe and do, and that we should captivate our understanding to the obe- dience of faith. Hence it is that Pascal and some - , others have said, that to convert lihertines, they must be made sensible of the weakness of reason, and taught to mistrust it.
The most ignorant men may be instructed, the most conceited may be con- vinced, and the most incredulous may be persuaded. But it is impossible, I will not say to convince a scep- tic, but to reason close with him, for it is not possible to urge him with any argument but what is a sophism, and even the grossest of all sophisms, I mean a beg- ging the question. In effect, there is no argument that can be conclusive, but by supposing that what- ever is evident is true, that is to say, by supposing what is in question.
For Pyrrhonism, properly speak- ing, consists only in not admitting that fundamental maxim of the Dogmatists. Not that they professed themselves to be Athei3ts, as some have believed. One may see in Sextus Empiricus that they admitted the existence of the gods, as the other philosophers did ; that they paid the common worship to them, and denied not their providence.
And, consequently, seeing they have not had the least light of that imphqit faith, on which we have grounded the hopes of the salvation of some heathens, who enjoyed it together with an extraordinary grace of God, I cannot see how any sceptic or Pyrrhonist of that kind, could avoid going to hell.
Pythagoras is the first of the ancient sages who took the name of philosopher. Before him, those who excelled in the knowledge of nature, and made themselves conspicuous by an exemplary life, were called sages, trofol. That title appearing to him too assuming, he took another, which showed that he as- cribed not to himself the possession of wisdom, but only the desire of possessing it.
He therefore called himself philosopher ; that is to say, a lover of wisdom. The professors of the science of nature and of morals, have retained that name ever since. Leon ad- mired his parts and eloquence, and asked what art he chiefly excelled in ; to which Pythagoras made an- swer, ' that he knew no art, but was a philosopher: For as there, some sought for glory by the exercise of the body, and nobility by obtaining a crown ; and others aimed at profit and gain in buying and sell- ing ; but a third sort, who were people of the best fashion, neither wanted applause nor gain, but came only to see and consider what was doing, and in what manner: The mistake of those who say that he came over into Italy in the time of Nupaa, is glorious to him ; for the only reason which has made them fancy so, is that they could not believe that Numa should have been so able a man, and so great a philo- sopher, had he not been a disciple of Pythagoras.
He made himself very illustrious by his learning and virtue, and proved a very useful man in reforming and instructing the world. His eloquence must needs have been very powerful, seeing his exhortations moved the inhabitants of a great city, plunged in debauchery, to avoid luxury and good cheer, and to live according to the rules of virtue: He daily recommended virtue, and laid open the vice of luxury, and showed the misery of those cities that were infected with it: He frequendy in- structed the married women, separately from their husbands, and children from their parents.
The former he taught chastity and obedience to their husbands ; and the latter modesty, and the love of learning. In the mean time he inculcated frugality on all, as the parent of virtue, and by continual exhortations, pre- vailed on the ladies to part with their fine clothes, and all their other ornaments as instruments of luxury, to bring them to the temple of Juno, and dedicate them to that goddess, declaring that they looked on chastity, and not on clothes, as the true ornaments of women.
What reformation was wrought amongst the young men, evidently appears from the conquered abBtinacy of the women. If Pythagoras was able to overcome the obstinacy of women, you may judge of the progress he made in the reformation of young men. It is certain that the love of fine clothes is a passion of so great resistance, that nothing will so much reflect back the darts of a preacher. See the efHcacy of Capistran's sermons against gamesters ; but it is not said that he had the same success against jewels.
Connecte made more conquests against head dresses with stones thrown by children, than with rhetorical figures. These Chris- tian preachers could not do what a heathen philoso- pher did. But however let us not forget the actions of the Roman ladies in the time of Camillus. It was a hard disdi- pline: Servius mentions the noviciate of five years, and here is what Apuleius observes concerning that whidk was imposed for the space of five years on such dis- ciples as were not so discreet as others.
A short time was thought sufficient for diose that were reserved ; but the space of five years was imposed on them who were more inclined to talk. Almost sixty of them perished in the tumult, and the rest went into banishment. One of his greatest cares was to correct the abuses committed by married persons; he believed that without this, the public peace and liberty, a good form of government, and other such things about which he was very zealous, would not be able to make private men happy.
It is said that this philosopher, being arrived in Italy, shut himself up in a subterra- nean place, having desired his mother to keep an ac- count of what should happen. When he had been in that place as long as he thought fit, his mother deli- vered her table-book to him, as it had been agreed between them. He found in it the dates and other circumstances of what had passted: It was without doubt on that occasion that he frighted ill husbands, by telling them that those who refuse to pay the matri- monial duties, to their wives, are tormented in hell with great severity.
In all likelihood he spoke also of the punishments that are inflicted upon intriguing women, and we ought to believe that it was one of the reasons which moved the Crotoniates to send their wives to his school. Observe the contradiction of that great master. The metempsychosis destroyed hell, as he declares it in Ovid: O genus attonitum gelids formidine mortis. Quid Styga, quid tenebras, et uomina vana timetis, Materiem vatum, falsique pericula muudi? Corpora sive rogus flamma, seu tabe vetnstas Abstulerit, mala posse pati non uUa putetis.
Why thus frighted at an empty name, A dream of darkness, and fictitious flame? Vain themes of wit! And fables of the world that never was. What feels the body when the soul expires. By time corrupted or consum'd by fires. But he rather chose to acquire authority, and make himself fit to extirpate debauchery by contradicting himself, than to follow a coherent method of teaching, which would not have proved so useful. I wonder that a philosopher, so learned in astronomy, geometry, and the other parts of mathematics, should take delight in delivering his finest precepts under the veil of enigmas.
That veil was so thick that it has afforded the interpreters a large field of conjectures, and as many mystical senses as they pleased. That symbolical way of teaching was very much in use in the eastern countries and Egypt. Whence Pythagoras without doubt acquired it. He came from his travels loaded with the learning he had got in aU the coun- tries he went through. Nay, it is pretended that his Tetractys is the same thing with the name TetnigramnuUonf a name not to be pro- nounced, and full of mysteries, as the Rabbins say. Others assert, "that the Tetractys, that great object of veneration, and by which they used to swear, was only a mysterious way of teaching by numbers.
The first was clear and perspicuous, the second was symbolical and enigmatical. They who explain, in a literal sense, the order he gave to abstain from eating of beans allege, amongst other reasons, that Pythagoras was instructed by the Egyptians, and even suffered himself to be circum- cised, that he might be admitted to their most secret mysteries: The priests carried the superstition farther, they durst not so much as look upon them, they ac- counted them unclean, and had rather chosen to eat the flesh of their fathers ; whence they conclude that Pythagoras, who had been their disciple, forbad the eating of beans in a literal sense.
Several grave au- thors among the ancients thus understood that prohibi- tion. Some say he chose rather to be killed by those that pursued him, than to make his escape through a field of beans, so great was his respect or abhorrence for that plant! I think Aristoxenus is the only au- thor who says, that Pythagoras would eat them often ; but learned men do not much value the testimony of Aristoxenus ; they believe he was mistaken, and look upon that Pythagorean abstinence as a certain matter of fact, and enquire into the reasons of it.
Aristotle gives four or five reasons for it ; one of which is, be- cause beans were made use of in the election of magis- trates. Those that pretend that the prohibition was a moral precept, and that Pythagoras understood it only in an allegorical sense, fancy that he forbad there- VOL. Few men, in those times, travelled in so many places as he did.
He is looked on by some as a great magi- cian, but Mandaeus clears him from that accusation. They say that Pythagoras boasted of a special privilege about it ; for he asserted that he could remember in what bodies he had been before he was Pythagoras. Some time after, he was Euphorbus, and was wounded by Menelaus at the siege of Troy ; after the death of Euphorbus, he was Hermotimus, and then a fisherman at Delos named Pyrrhus, and at last Pythagoras, a man who remem- bered all these transmigrations, and what he had suf- fered in hell, and what other souls suffer there.
Here is a little contradiction ; for if the souls of men go firom one body into another, they do not go to hell. Our philosopher, according to Ovid, goes no higher than Euphorbus. Ipse ego nam memini Trojani tempore belli Panthoides Euphorbus eram: Cognovi clypeum laevae gestamina nostras Nuper Abantaeis, templo Jnnonis in Argis.
Mayumi Amada
Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats In other forms, and only changes scats. O our wretched forgetfulnessy who know nothing of our pre-existence: The vain old man forsooth as idle old women use to do in- vented those stories as if he were talking to credulous children. Had he judged rightly of those to whom he told them, had he looked upon them as men, he would never have been so bold as to forge such lies.
But his ridiculous vanity deserves contempt.
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He had acquired so great a reputation, and made so many experiments of the blind docility and great cre- dulity of his hearers, that he might easily flatter him- self that what he would say, concerning his memory, would not be disbelieved. If you desire to know his several transmigrations since the death of Pythagoras, you need but read the following words, and you will see that he was a courtezan at the third change.
I think that it was by reason of this opinion, that he disapproved the sacrificing of beasts, and it is observed that he adored an altar on which no sacrifice had ever been offered, as a place which had never been profaned or polluted. The heathen philo- sophers never said any thing finer than what he said concerning God, and the end of all our actions ; and it is likely that he had carried his orthodoxy much farther, had he had the courage to expose himself to martyrdom. According to Plutarch, he admitted of two inde-- pendent principles, unity and binary, and ascribed to the first the Divine essence, goodness, aud under- standing ; and to the second the nature of a demon, evil and matter.
The worst of it is, that Pythagoras, considering God as the mover of the universe, and the soul of the world, affirmed that our souls are por- tions of God. Cur autem quicquam ignoraret animus hominis, si esset Deus? But why should the mind of man be ignorant of any thing if it were God? But here is a thought which is absolutely true: Clemens Alexandrinus compares it with St Paul's words. The author of the Jewish antiquities seems to be very well satisfied with the doctrines of several philosophers, especially of Pythagoras, concerning the nature of Grod ; and he doubts not but they had spoken more soundly still, had they not been afraid of persecution: A saga of sex, sedition, mayhem and mutiny, and survival against extraordinary odds.
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