nician or Pelasgian. He is credited with having traveled very extensively in foreign countries,-Egypt, Babylon, and even India. He not only taught the doctrine of re-incarnation, something as do the Hindus, but made this the ground for inculcating the duty of kindness and tenderness towards animals and of abstinence from their flesh. He was especially tender toward the whole animal creation. He rose in the morning before the sun, and bowed in reverence toward the east. He loved the song of the early birds, and listened in a sort of dreamy mysticism to the music of the spheres. was the Shaker of his period. He His system of philosophy was largely deduced from the science of numbers, which he is believed to have acquired in some of the esoteric brotherhoods, which existed in those days in Egypt, Babylon, Iran, and India. He is likewise credited with several important geometrical theorems. He invented several important stringed musical instruments. He was the first to coin the word philosophy, and characterized its cultivation as the supreme effort to become wise. He united the functions of both priest and philosopher in his cult, since he established a secret brotherhood and gathered about him a coterie of six hundred enthusiastic disciples. They abstained from flesh eating, they wore white linen garments, they sang a song before their meals, and they refused to wear leather sandals because they were prepared from the skins of slain animals. They had all things in common, and so remind us of the Shaker fraternities of the present century. None of his writings are extant, and what we know of his labors is mainly derived from writers who interpreted him, doubtless imperfectly. Philolaus, 450 B. C., wrote three books on the Pythagorean system, which became so scarce and were regarded as so valuable, that Plato gave the equivalent of fifteen hundred dollars for a copy. Jamblicus says: "His sleep was brief, his soul vigilant and pure, and his body was a sample of perfect and invariable health." He was the founder THE ETHICS OF FLESH-EATING AND LONG LIFE. 23 of Theocratic Communism as distinguished from the democratic variety. The tenderness and beneficence of Pythagoras toward the animal creation bore a striking resemblance to the traits accredited to Gautama Buddha, who was his contemporary; yet his obligation to abstain from animal flesh was founded more on mental and spiritual than on humanitarian grounds. Porphyry tells us that his abhorrence of slaughter houses was such that he not only carefully abstained from the flesh of its victims, but he could never endure contact with butchers and cooks. He also refused to eat beans, for reasons well known to mystics. Abstinence, cleanliness, and simplicity in bodily habits were fundamental parts of his system, and although he lived in the dawn of authentic history, his influence on the Greek and Hebrew ideas was so profound that he may be wellclassed among the master spirits of the world. "Amongst other reasons, Pythagoras," says Jamblicus, "enjoined abstinence from the flesh of animals, because it is conducive to peace. For those who are accustomed to abominate the slaughter of other animals, as iniquitous and unnatural, will think it still more unjust and unlawful to kill a man or to engage in war." Specially did he exhort those politicians of his time who were blood-shedding legislators to abstain from fish, flesh, and fowl. For, if they were willing to act justly in the highest degree, it was indubitably incumbent on them not to injure the lower animals. Since how could they persuade others to act justly if they themselves were proved to be indulging an insatiable avidity by slaying and devouring these animals that are allied to us. For through the communion of life, the elements and the sympathy thus existing, they are, as it were, conjoined to us by a fraternal alliance. All life is a unit in infinite differentiation. How many politicians in our American Congress refuse to kill? How many rise above selfish ends? How many renounce and deny themselves that they may the better serve the state? How many consecrate themselves, as did Pythag oras, Lycurgus, and Solon, to the service of the state? It is questionable if we should find in our congressional body, though aided by Diogenes' lantern, one in that lobbying den of political self-seekers, one comparable to that self-sacrificing, unassuming, yet regal-souled old Samosian sage! CHAPTER II. HESIOD. 800 B. C. "God's prophets of the beautiful, these poets were.' "Blessings be with them, and eternal praise, -Wordsworth. "Poets are all who love, who feel great truths, -Bailey. Hesiod was one of the earliest of the prophet poets of Greece. His paternal stock was derived from Asia Minor, not far from the site where once stood the famous city of Troy. He was born in Boeotia, at the foot of Mount Helicon, in the town of Ascra. He must have been nearly contemporary with Homer. Three books were ascribed to him-"Works and Days," "Theogony," and the "Shield of Hercules." They were the fountain whence Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, and Milton derived their mythical fables. Hesiod was the poet of peace, of rural life, of simplicity in living, of sweetness of expression in the poetic style of writing. He was likewise the remote original of nearly all that has been written concerning a golden age and times of innocence. The following passage, descriptive of a "Golden Age," sufficiently indicates his leanings toward a vegetable diet: "Pleased with earth's unbought feasts: all ills removed, Wealthy in flocks, and of the Blest beloved, Death as a slumber pressed their eyelids down; All Nature's common blessings were their own. A full, spontaneous and ungrudging store. The second race, the "Silver Age," though less transcendentally pure, still preserved much of the primitive innocence, cultivated friendliness with the lower creatures, and wholly abstained from the slaughter of animals in the preparation of their food; nor did they offer sacrifices. But with the third race, the "Brazen Age,' the feast of blood was inaugurated. "Strong with the ashen spear, and fierce and bold, Their thoughts were bent on violence alone, Bloody their feasts with wheaten food unblessed." In his old age Hesiod left the populous city, and, retiring to a mountain, subsisted upon grains, berries, and fruits. PLATO. 428-347 B. C. The most profound and illustrious philosopher which the transcendent genius of Greece ever produced! He belonged to one of the highest families of Athens, being descended on his father's side from Codrus, and on that of his mother related to the celebrated Athenian law-giver, Solon. Several places claimed his birth-Athens, the Island of Ægina, etc. His original name was Aristocles, after his grandfather. But he was finally surnamed Plato, from plax (broad), on account |