Chapter IV.—Opinions of Pythagoras and Epicurus.

Then, in regular succession from another starting-point, Pythagoras the Samian, son of Mnesarchus, calls numbers, with their proportions and harmonies, and the elements composed of both, the first principles; and he includes also unity and the indefinite binary.13    μονάδα καὶ τὴν ἀόριστον δυάδα. One, or unity, was considered by Pythagoras as the essence of number, and also as God. Two, or the indefinite binary, was the equivalent of evil. So Plutarch, De placit. philosoph., c. 7; from which treatise the above opinions of the various sects are quoted, generally verbatim. Epicurus, an Athenian, the son of Neocles, says that the first principles of the things that exist are bodies perceptible by reason, admitting no vacuity,14    ἀμέτοχα κενοῦ: the void being that in which these bodies move, while they themselves are of a different nature from it. unbegotten, indestructible, which can neither be broken, nor admit of any formation of their parts, nor alteration, and are therefore perceptible by reason. Empedocles of Agrigentum, son of Meton, maintained that there were four elements—fire, air, water, earth; and two elementary powers —love and hate,15    Or, accord and discord, attraction and repulsion. of which the former is a power of union, the latter of separation. You see, then, the confusion of those who are considered by you to have been wise men, whom you assert to be your teachers of religion: some of them declaring that water is the first principle of all things; others, air, others, fire; and others, some other of these fore-mentioned elements; and all of them employing persuasive arguments for the establishment of their own errors, and attempting to prove their own peculiar dogma to be the most valuable. These things were said by them. How then, ye men of Greece, can it be safe for those who desire to be saved, to fancy that they can learn the true religion from these philosophers, who were neither able so to convince themselves as to prevent sectarian wrangling with one another, and not to appear definitely opposed to one another’s opinions?

Εἶθ' ἑξῆς ἀφ' ἑτέρας ἀρχῆς Πυθαγόρας Μνησάρχου Σάμιος ἀρχὰς τοὺς ἀριθμοὺς καὶ τὰς συμμετρίας καὶ τὰς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἁρμονίας καλεῖ τά τ' ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων σύνθετα στοιχεῖα, ἔτι μέντοι μονάδα καὶ τὴν ἀόριστον δυάδα. Ἐπίκουρος Νεοκλέους Ἀθηναῖος ἀρχὰς τῶν ὄντων σώματα λόγῳ θεωρητὰ εἶναι λέγει, ἀμέτοχα κενοῦ, ἀγένητα, ἄφθαρτα, οὔτε θραυσθῆναι δυνάμενα οὔτε διάπλασιν ἐκ τῶν μερῶν λαβεῖν οὔτ' ἀλλοιωθῆναι, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ λόγῳ θεωρητά. Ἐμπεδοκλῆς Μέτωνος ὁ Ἀκραγαντῖνος τέσσαρα στοιχεῖα, πῦρ ἀέρα ὕδωρ γῆν, δύο δὲ ἀρχικὰς δυνάμεις, φιλίαν τε καὶ νεῖκος, ὧν ἡ μέν ἐστιν ἑνωτική, τὸ δὲ διαιρετικόν. Ὁρᾶτε τοίνυν τὴν ἀταξίαν τῶν παρ' ὑμῖν νομισθέντων γεγενῆσθαι σοφῶν, οὓς διδασκάλους ὑμῶν τῆς θεοσεβείας γεγενῆσθαί φατε, τῶν μὲν ὕδωρ ἀποφηναμένων ἀρχὴν ἁπάντων εἶναι, τῶν δὲ ἀέρα, τῶν δὲ πῦρ, τῶν δὲ ἄλλο τι τῶν προειρημένων, καὶ πάντων τούτων πιθανοῖς τισι λόγοις πρὸς κατασκευὴν τῶν μὴ καλῶς δοξάντων αὐτοῖς χρωμένων καὶ τὸ ἴδιον δόγμα προτιμότερον ἐπιχειρούντων δεικνύναι. Ταῦθ' ὑπ' αὐτῶν εἴρηται. Πῶς οὖν ἀσφαλές, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, τοῖς σώζεσθαι βουλομένοις παρὰ τούτων οἴεσθαι δύνασθαι τὴν ἀληθῆ θεοσέβειαν μανθάνειν, τῶν μηδ' ἑαυτοὺς πεῖσαι δυνηθέντων τὸ μὴ πρὸς ἀλλήλους στασιάζειν μηδ' ἐναντίοι τῆς ἀλλήλων φαίνεσθαι δόξης;