The Golden Verses of Pythagoras · 28 of 122 · tr. Florence M. Firth
Section 12 (part 5)
Explanation .--The Symbol may be considered more Pythagorically, beginning from the same principles with those above.
For since nutriment is to be measured by the corporeal and animal nature, and not by a bushel, do not pass your life in indolence p.
83 nor without being initiated into philosophy; but dedicating yourself to this, rather provide for that part of you which is more divine, which is soul, and much more for the intellect which soul contains; the nutriment of which is measured, not by a bushel, but by contemplation and discipline.
SYMBOL 20.
Nourish not that which has crooked nails.
Explanation .--This Symbol also in a more Pythagorean manner advises us to communicate and impart, and prepare others to do so, accustoming them to give and receive without depravity and abundantly; not indeed receiving everything insatiably and giving nothing.
For the physical organization of animals with crooked nails is adapted to receive rapidly and with facility, but by no means to relinquish what they hold, or impart to others, through the opposition of the nails in consequence of their being crooked; just as the fish called crangœ 1 , are naturally adapted to draw anything to themselves with celerity, but relinquish it with difficulty, p.
84 unless by turning from, we avoid them.
But hands were indeed suspended from us by nature, that through them we might both give and receive, and the fingers, also, are naturally attached to the hands, straight and not crooked.
In things of this kind, therefore, we must not imitate animals with crooked nails, since we are fashioned by our maker in a different way, but should rather be communicative and impart to each other, being exhorted to a thing of this kind by the fabricators of names themselves, who denominated the right hand more honourable than the left, not only from receiving but from being capable of imparting.
We must act justly therefore, and through this philosophize.
For justice is a certain retribution and remuneration equalizing the abounding and deficient by reciprocal gifts.
2 SYMBOL 21.
Cut not in the way.
Explanation .--This Symbol manifests that truth is one, but falsehood multifarious.
But this is evident from hence, that what any p.
85 particular thing is can be predicted only in one way, if it be properly predicted; but what it is not , may be predicted in infinite ways.
Philosophy, too, appears to be a path or way.
The Symbol therefore says, Choose that philosophy, and that path to philosophy in which there is no division, and in which you will not dogmatize things contradictory to each other, but such as are stable and the same with themselves, being established by scientific demonstration through disciplines and contemplation; which is the same thing as if it said, Philosophize Pythagorically .
And this is indeed possible.
But the philosophy which proceeds through things corporeal and sensible, and which is employed by the moderns even to satiety, which likewise considers Divinity, qualities, the soul, the virtues, and in short all the most principal causes of things to be body,--this philosophy easily eludes the grasp, and is easily subverted.
1 And this is evident from the various arguments of its advocates.
On the p.
86 other hand, the philosophy which proceeds through things incorporeal, intelligible, immaterial, and perpetual, and which always subsist according to the same, and in a similar manner, and never, as far as possible to them, admit either corruption or mutation, being similar to their subjects,--this philosophy is the artificer of firm, stable, and undeviating demonstrations.
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
[auto] The passage explicitly commands separation from corporeal and sensible things, defining death as the separation of the soul from the body to achieve wisdom.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
Symbol 18 mentions the 'sympathy, and consent of the world' in relation to the body and universe.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The text explicitly instructs to 'truly meditate upon death' and engage in contemplation of the universe.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The body is described as containing 'tokens of union... of the world', suggesting a reflection of cosmic order.