The golden verses of Pythagoras

[510] The root of this word is stand, a fixed thing, a state; its remote root is stat, that which is permanent. Its primitive root is שדד (shdad), firmness, force, constancy. The initial syllable ver expresses the movement which carries far away, which transports from the place where one is, to that where one is not.

[511] The nearest root of this word, as well as its remote root, has disappeared from the modern German, where one finds only its derivatives. Its primitive root is in the Latin word opt, whence comes opto, I choose: and optime, best. This root is attached to the Phœnician עיף (whôph), anything which is raised above another thing. It becomes nasal in the German word and has changed the ph to ft. From it is derived the Saxon, English, Belgian, and Danish word up, which expresses the movement of everything which tends above. Also from it, the German word luft, air, and the English word aloft, that which is elevated. The preposition ver has taken the final n, placing it before unft, as it carries it constantly in its analogue fern, that which is distant. Likewise one says fernglass, a telescope with which one sees at a distance.

[512] De Gérando, Hist. des Systèmes de Philos., t. ii., p. 193.

[513]Krit. der Rein. Vernunft, s. 24.

[514] In the Oriental languages רו (rou) indicates the visual ray, and רד (rad), all movement which is determined upon a straight line. This root, accompanied by a guttural inflection, is called recht, in German, and right in English and Saxon. The Latins made of it rectum, that which is straight. In French rature and rateau. The Teutons, taking right in a figurative sense, have drawn from this same root, rath, a council, and richter, a judge.

[515]In Tim., cité par Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 174.

[516] The word intelligence, in Latin intelligentia, is formed of two words, inter eligere or elicere, to choose, to attract to self interiorly, and by sympathy. The etymology of the word expresses exactly the use of the faculty.

[517]Kritik der Reinen Vernunft, s. 662, 731; De Gérando, Hist. des Systèm., t. ii., p. 230.

[518]Krit. der Reinen Vernunft, s. 306, 518, 527, etc.

[519]Ibid., s. 135, 137. 399. etc.

[520]Kritik der praktischen Vernunft(Critique de la Raison pratique), s. 5, 22, 219, 233, etc.

[521]Characteristics, London, 1737.

[522]A System of Moral Philosophy, t. i., ch. 4.

[523]Enquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principle of Common Sense.

[524]An Appeal to Common Sense, etc., Edinburgh, 1765.

[525]Pensées, § 21.

[526] In Greek τὸ ἡγεμονικόν, that which dominates and rules, that which is intelligible.

[527] In Greek τὸ φυσικόν, that which pertains to generative nature, that which is physical, and sentient.

[528] In Greek τὸ λογικόν, that which pertains to reasonable nature, that which is logical, the thing which proves that another thing is. Voyez Platon, in Tim., et conférez avec Beausobre, Hist. du Manich., t. ii., p. 174.

[529]Plutar., de Facie in Orb. lun., p. 943.

[530] The first kind of virtue is called ἀνθρωπίνη, human, and the second ἡρωικὴ καὶ δία, heroic and divine. Attention should be given to these epithets which are related to the three principal faculties of man. Aristot., ad Nicom., l. vii., c. 1; Plato, in Theæt.; Gallien, in Cognit et Curat. morb. anim., l. i., c. 3, et 6; Theod. Marcil, in Aur. Carmin.

[531]In Somn. Scip., c. 8.

[532]Aristot., de Cælo et Mundo, l. i.; Philo, de Mund. opific..

[533]Pausan., in Corinth., p. 72; Tzetz., in Schol.

[534] Suidas, in Εποπ; Harpocr., ibid.

[535]Clem. Alex., l. v., p. 582.

[536] Psellus, Ad Oracul. Zoroastr.

[537] Meurs. Eleus. 12; Dion. Chrysost., Orat. xii.

[538]Sophocl.apudPlutar., De Audiend. Poet. Schol.; Aristoph., De Pace.

[539]Porphyr., Vitâ Pythag., p. 5.

[540] γνῶσις, savant.

[541]Epiph., l. i.; Plucquet, Dictionn. des Hérésies, t. ii., p. 72.

[542]Diod. Sicul., l. i.; Herodot., l. ii.

[543]Aristot., Polit., l. ii.; Strab., l. viii.

[544]VoyezDaniel, et conférez avec Court de Gébelin, Monde primitif, t. viii., p. 9.

[545]Zend-Avesta, 14ᵉ hâ, p. 127.

[546]Pomp. Mela, iii., c. 2; César, l. vi., c. 14; Pelloutier, Hist. des Celtes, l. iv., ch. 1, § 27 et 30.

[547] The first Shastra is entitled Djatimala. I am ignorant of the title of the other, that I cite from Henry Lord: Discovery of the Banian Religion, in Church, Collect., vol. vi.

[548]Asiat. Research., tom. vi., p. 254.

[549]Mémoir. concern. les Chin., t. ii., p. 174 et suiv.