white with down beneath; 3, the Mountain Ashes, with pinnated or pinnatifid leaves; and 4, the Dwarf Crabs, with oval simple leaves, and the stature of bushes. Upon each of these it is necessary to state something.

To the section of apples and pears belong not only the well-known fruits so called [APPLE; PEAR] and all their many varieties, but also several species whose fruit is less valuable. On Mount Sinai grows a species called P. Sinaica, whose fruit is hard, gritty, and austere, and whose leaves are grey with down; in Germany a similar kind, the P. nivalis, is by no means uncommon, with a considerable resemblance to the last; Siberia and Persia produce another, called P. salicifolia, with very narrow hoary leaves; and in the former country are found the Siberian crab, P. prunifolia, and the berry-fruited crab, P. baccata, whose fruit is too small for ordinary consumption, but is often seen in the form of a sweetmeat. Besides these, the Chinese crab, P. spectabilis, and also P. coronaria, are cultivated for their flowers.

The Beam-trees derive their name from the use that has been made of their tough wood for beams, axletrees, and similar purposes, where great strength is required. It is especially for the cogs in the wheels of machinery that it was used, till superseded by iron. The common Beam-tree is Pyrus Aria, and inhabits the rocks of the west and north of England, where it forms an ornamental object with its dark-green foliage shifting to silvery-white when disturbed by the wind. To this section may be referred without inconvenience the true Service, Pyrus domestica, a tree now not uncommon in England, but originally from the south of Europe, with a large pyramidal head, coarsely serrated leaves, and a green austere fruit, which however blets like the medlar, when it becomes tolerably eatable, though very indigestible. Its wood is very compact, and is said to be the hardest and heaviest of any indigenous in Europe. The mountain ash, P. aucuparia, is a well-known ornamental tree, with a graceful habit, fragrant clusters of white flowers, and loose bunches of scarlet berries. It is found wild all over Europe and in the north of Asia; a variety occurs with yellow berries. In North America it is represented by a nearly allied species, P. Americana, with large copper-coloured berries, and a third kind, P. microcarpa, with very small scarlet fruit. The mountain ash is the rowen-tree of the Scotch, whose boughs were supposed to be a protection against witchcraft. It forms a hardy and good stock on which to graft the pear-tree, when it is desired to dwarf that species.

The dwarf crabs are small bushes with dense clusters of white flowers succeeded by black or red fruit very like that of the mountain ash. All are North American, except a Swiss species, P. chamœmespilus, and are scarcely cultivated except as objects of curiosity.

(See Loudon's Arboretum Britannicum, vol. ii., p. 917, &c., for very copious information concerning this genus.) PYTHAGORAS, the son of Mnesarchus, was born about the year 570 B.C., in the island of Samos. By his mother's side he was connected with the most distinguished families of the island his father, according to most accounts, was not of pure Greek blood, but either a Phoenician or a Tyrrhenian of Lemnos or Imbros. The history of Pythagoras is obscured and disfigured by a cloud of fables, through which we are unable to discover anything beyond the most general outline of the chief events of his life and his character. He is said to have been a disciple of Pherecydes of Syros; and if we could give credit to the various other traditions respecting his masters, he would appear to have been connected with almost all the philosophers of the age, from Thales and Anaximander down to the obscure Creophilus and Hermodamas. (Porphyr., De Vit. Pythag., 2; Diog. Laert., viii. 2.) But the information which he derived from his countrymen did not satisfy his inquisitive mind, and, like many other illustrious Greeks, he travelled into various countries. He first visited Egypt, where he was introduced to King Amasis by letters from Polycrates. From Egypt he went to Asia, where he is said to have made himself acquainted with the science of the Chaldæans and the Magi: some traditions even state that he visited India and the Gymnosophists. But though these traditions may have some historical foundation, thus much is certain, that his philosophical system was not derived from any foreign source, or even materially influenced by anything that he saw and learned in the countries which he visited. All that he derived from foreign countries cannot have been more than general impressions which their political and religious institutions

measures.

From the moment of his favourable reception by the senate of Croton, whose object seems to have been to use him as an instrument for their own ends, a new era in the life of Pythagoras commences; but before we proceed to consider the manner in which he endeavoured to put his theory into practice, we shall attempt to give a brief outlme of his philosophical principles, which will serve to throw some light upon his institution, which we shall describe hereafter. The philosophic school of which Pythagoras was the founder, is sometimes called the Italian or the Doric school. The latter name seems to have been given to it. not so much because it was peculiar to the Doric race, cr because its object was to establish the ideal of a Dorian state (Müller, Dor., iii. 9, § 15), but because it was neither connected with the Ionian nor the Attic school; though, on the other hand, it must be admitted that the institutions which Pythagoras established at Croton, in many respects bore great analogy to the Doric institutions which he had seen in Crete and Sparta. It is the more difficult to give a clear idea of the philosophy of Pythagoras, as it is almost certain that he himself never committed it to writing, an that it has been disfigured by the fantastic dreams and chimæras of later Pythagoreans. In modern times great light has been thrown upon the subject by the careful examination and analysis of the fragments of Philolaus by Boeckh (Philolaus des Pythagoreers Lehren nebst de Bruchstücken seines Werkes, Berlin, 1819). Philolaus of Tarentum, a disciple of Pythagoras himself, was in all probability the first Pythagorean who wrote an exposition of the system of his master, and his fragments must therefre be considered as the most genuine source of informatın. The results at which Boeckh arrived, are on the whole the same as those which Ritter, in his Geschichte der Pytha gorischen Philosophie' (Hamb., 1826) subsequently reached, though by a different mode of inquiry. Pythagoras considered numbers as the essence and the principle of all things, and attributed to them a real and distinct existence. so that in his view they were the elements out of which the universe was constructed. How he conceived this process. has never yet been satisfactorily explained; but he was probably led to the supposition by observing that the periodical occurrences in nature, and almost all institutions and religious regulations and observances in Greece, were founded on numerical relations. Pythagoras thus traced the various forms and phenomena of the world to numbers as their basis ar! essence. But he did not stop here: he ascended st.ll further to the principles of numbers themselves: these princ.ples he conceived in the form of contrasting pairs, such as straight and curve, limited and unlimited, one and many, odd and even, and others. (Aristot., Metaph, i. 5 1 Further, he traced these contrasts to one first principle ari element, the unit (povác), which included both the even ami

the odd, &c., and thus the even was odd. This unit he considered as the formal as well as material basis of all things, and as identical with the one supreme being, or God. The decad and tetractys or the quadrate, are likewise described as perfect numbers and first principles; the triad was called the number of the whole, because it had a beginning, middle, and end. Pythagoras conceived the vital process of the world as a process of breathing, and the first principle was therefore likewise a breathing being, which inhaled the infinite atmosphere of the world (åñeiρov pa), and thus partook of its infinity and became capable of developing itself into a multiplicity of numbers or things. The perfect development of the original unit is represented in our actual world, which consists of small and large wholes in the greatest variety. The special principle of every single whole or organization is again a unit, or a point separating itself from the rest; and as it is a living germ, it develops itself by breathing the repov veμa into a distinct body of peculiar form and properties. Every abstract idea was thus in reality a number, and physical objects were symbolical representations of numbers. In the world which had thus arisen out of a union between the even and odd, &c., the Pythagoreans distinguished five elements,-fire, air, water, earth, and the so-called fifth element (rò TEμRTOV Troxelor), which was probably the ather. In the centre of the universe they placed the central fire (ioría тou navróg, as it were, the altar of the universe), the principle of life in the world. The central fire is surrounded by the earth, the moon, the sun, the five planets, and the firmament, all of which were either gods themselves or inhabited by gods inferior to the supreme God who ruled the whole. The universe was divided, according to Philolaus, into three regions (diákoμot). The first was the sublunary region, between the earth and the moon, the scene of change and passing events, where beings come into existence and perish again; it was called the heaven (oupavóc). The second region was the region from the moon upwards to the firmament, and bore the name of kosmos (kóoμoç). The third, or the firmament itself, called Olympus, was probably, in accordance with the national and traditional belief of the Greeks, considered as the abode of the gods. The heavenly bodies, together with the gods themselves, were conceived as performing a choral dance round the central fire, whence the music or the harmony of the spheres.

Advancing from the consideration of the universe to man, the Pythagoreans represented the souls of men as light particles of the universal soul diffused through the whole world (Cic., De Nat. Deor., i. 11); the souls of the gods were considered as proceeding directly from the central fire, which was on this account designated mother of the gods,' while the souls of men proceeded from the sun, which was a mere reflex of the central fire. The soul of man was divided into three parts, vouc, ppέves, and Svμóc: the two former were considered as the rational half of the soul, and had their seat in the brain; the last, or Suuós, was the animal half, and its seat was in the heart. (Diog. Laert., viii. 19, 30; Plut., De Plac. Phil., iv. 5.)

The doctrine of the transmigration of souls does not seem to have originated among the antient Greeks, for they describe the souls of the departed as dwelling in the lower world, from which there was generally no return. Pythagoras may have derived it from some of the mysteries, for he is said to have been initiated in all the existing mysteries both of Greece and other countries. He and his followers considered the transmigration of souls as a kind of purifying process. The souls, previous to their entering into human bodies, floated in the air, from whence they were inhaled by the process of breathing at the moment of birth. At the moment of death, they descended into the lower world, where they were probably supposed to dwell a certain number of years, after which they again rose into the upper world, and floated in the air, until they entered into new bodies. When by this process their purification had become complete, the souls were raised to higher regions, where they continued to exist, and to enjoy the presence and company of the gods.

The Pythagoreans, according to Aristotle (Eth. Magn., i. 1), were the first who determined anything in moral philosophy. Their ethics are of the loftiest and most spiritual description. Virtue was with them a harmony, unity, and an endeavour to resemble the deity. The whole life of nan should be an attempt to represent on earth the beauty and harmony displayed in the order of the universe. The

mind should have the body and the passions under perfect control; the gods should be worshipped by simple purifications, offerings, and, above all, by sincerity and purity of the heart. Besides the works of Ritter and Boeckh referred to above, compare Ritter's History of Antient Philosophy,' i., p. 327, 420, Engl. transl.

After this brief sketch of the philosophy of Pythagoras, we shall proceed to consider the manner in which he endeavoured to apply it, or at least its ethical part, to the affairs of ordinary life, which will at the same time show the onesidedness of a view which might be derived from a statement of Cicero and Diogenes Laertius. Both of these authors say that Pythagoras was the first Greek who assumed the title of philosopher, and that he compared his vocation to that of a spectator at the public games. The definition implied in this comparison is only applicable to a small portion of the philosophy of Pythagoras, for he manifestly did not consider mere contemplation as the sole and highest object of man, but it was his doctrine that by action as well as by thought the individual as well as the state should represent in themselves an image of the order and harmony by which the world was sustained and regulated.

The precise objects of his institutions at Croton are not quite clear, though we cannot suppose that they were either exclusively philosophical, religious, or political. The perfect state of society, such as he conceived it, depended as much on sound religious and philosophical, as on political principles. It was not his intention to bring about his reforms at once by force or by the introduction of a new code of laws, but by gradually diffusing his enlightened ideas. He seems never to have filled any public office at Croton, and perhaps he may have declined such places in order that he might not be checked in his designs by any of the existing institutions, which he could only have overthrown by force. His scheme, though in its objects similar to some of modern times, was not near so visionary and as extravagant; for that it was by no means impossible to give a new form to society is clear from the reforms wrought by Lycurgus at Sparta, of Zaleucus at Locri, and of Charondas at Catana. Pythagoras established at Croton a society or an order, of which he himself was the head, and which was to be the centre from whence his reforms were to emanate. It consisted of three hundred young men, selected from the most distinguished families of Croton and other Italian cities. The society was, as a modern historian expresses it, 'at once a philosophical school, a religious brotherhood, and a political association.' The earnestness and honesty with which Pythagoras went to work are apparent from the fact that he admitted none but the ablest men into his society, and that he bestowed the most anxious care on the cultivation of their minds and hearts, in order to render them alive to the highest objects that can engage the human mind, and to make them clearly understand the place which they occupied in the world. The proceedings of the society were transacted in the greatest secrecy, but perhaps more on account of the religious doctrines there inculcated than on account of either philosophical or political principles. Religion indeed seems to have been the foundation of the society, and that his religious principles greatly differed from those generally received is clear from the tenour of his system, and it is expressly stated that he censured Homer and Hesiod for their profane descriptions of the gods. (Diog. Laert., viii. 19.) Outwardly however he showed great respect for the objects of the popular worship-a prudence which, together with his dignified and priestly appearance, was well calculated to win the affections and the admiration of the people, while the purer doctrines which he imparted to his disciples secured their most perfect submission. He instituted among his disciples a secret worship, or mysteries, which are sometimes called Pythagorean orgies, and the science of numbers, geometry, and music; and even medicine and gymnastics, including dancing, were closely connected with the sacred rites. Women seem also to have been admitted, if not into the society, at least to some of the lessons of the philosopher. (Diog. Laert., viii. 21.)

As to the political character of the institution, from which we must derive our conclusions respecting his political views in general, it is expressly stated that it was aristocratical, but in the original sense of the term, in which it means the government of the wisest and the best. His object was to establish a rational supremacy of minds enlightened by philosophy and purified by religion; and as such a state of things did not exist in Greece, we can

self. It is said to have been described in a work called Periodus or Periplus.

The motives for his undertaking such long voyages are entirely unknown, but it is generally supposed that the Massilians, a flourishing commercial republic, wishing to extend their mercantile connections, sent him out to explore the unknown regions of the north. In this case however the epithet poor, which Polybius gives to Pytheas, would be ill applied, as his personal poverty would have been no obstacle to his entering upon such bold enterprises. Pytheas also distinguished himself as a mathematician and an astronomer, and among other discoveries ascribed to him, he is said to have been the first who determined the meridian altitude of the sun at the summer solstice at Massilia, by means of a gnomon. (Hipparchus ap. Strab., ii. 5, p. 182, ed. Tauchnitz.)

His merits have been differently judged of by the antients, for while Eratosthenes and others adopted his statements in preference to those of others, Polybius (Reliq., lib. xxxiv., 10), and especially Strabo (in many passages of lib. i. and ii.), treat him with the utmost contempt, though the latter does not despise his accounts of the manners and productions of the countries which he visited. Modern geographers however have discovered reasons for judging more favourably of Pytheas, and have ascertained that he is right in several points for which he is censured by Strabo.

The few fragments of his works were collected and edited in 1824, by Andr. Arw. Arwedson, Upsala. Compare Brückner, Historia Reipublicæ Massiliensium,' Göttingen, 1826, p. 64, &c.; 'Pytheas de Marseille et la Géographie de son Temps; ouvrage publié par Jos. Straszewicz, orné de trois Cartes géographiques,' Paris, 1836 (this work has been translated into German by S. F. W. Hoffmann, Leipzig, 1838). See also Ukert, Bemerkungen über Pytheas, Geographie der Griechen und Römer.

PYTHIA. [DELPHI. ]

PYTHIAN GAMES (Pythia, or Pythici Ludi), one of the four great national festivals of the Greeks, were celebrated near Delphi, in honour of Apollo, originally every ninth year, and afterwards every fifth year, in the autumn of the third year of each Olympiad, in the second or third month of the year, according to Clinton. Corsini and others, followed by Boeckh, place them in the spring, in the month Munychion, the tenth of the year. Their origin is assigned by some to Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion, or to the Amphictyonic council; by others to Agamemnon; by Pausanias to Diomed; by Strabo to the Delphians, after the Crissæan war; but most commonly to Apollo, after he had vanquished the serpent Python. (Ovid, Met., i. 445.) There is an account that the gods and heroes contended in the first celebration of these games, when Castor conquered in the horse-race, Pollux in boxing, Calais in the foot-race, Zetes in fighting in armour, Peleus in throwing the quoit, Telamon in wrestling, and Hercules in the pancratium. But the fact seems to be, as stated by Pausanias (x. 7, 2) and Strabo (ix., p. 421), that the contest was originally in music: the songs (veuxoi vóμo) were in honour of Apollo, celebrating his victory over the Python; and the instrument used was the lyre. In the third year of the 48th Olympiad (B.C. 586), at the close of the Cirrhæan war, the Amphictyons added a contest on the flute, which was afterwards discontinued, as the music of the flute was considered too mournful for a joyous festival. In the same year the Amphictyons also introduced athletic contests and races (but not with four-horsed chariots), the foot-race being confined to boys; and the games, according to Strabo, were then for the first time called Pythia; at all events the subsequent Pythia are computed from this year by Pausanias and the Parian marble, though the scholiast on Pindar, and Eusebius, date them from the second celebration, in Ol. 49, 3: Boeckh and Clinton prefer the former date. Chariot-races were added in the time of Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon. The prize in the Pythian games was originally of silver or gold, or something else of intrinsic value; but afterwards a crown of laurel, or (according to Ovid, Met., i. 449-50) at first, of the bay-oak or beech-tree (@sculus), for which the laurel was afterwards substituted. The ceremonies observed at these games, in common with the three other great festivals, are described under OLYMPIAN GAMES.

(Pausanias, x. 7; Strabo, ix., p. 421; Potter's Archæologia Græca, vol. i., c. 23; Wachsmuth, Hellenische Alterthumsk., i. 110; ii. 379; Clinton, Fasti Hellen., i., p. 228; i, p. 195; ii., p. 296, 612.)

PYTHON, M. Daudin's name for the great constricting serpents of the Old World.

In the article Boa will be found much relating to Python: the organization of both is so similar, that a repetition becomes needless. Like the Boa, the Pythons have processes or hooks near the anus, and narrow ventral plates, and indeed the latter can hardly be said to differ from the former except in the double plates beneath the tail. Their head has plates on the end of the muzzle, and there are fossets on their lips.

The powerful dental machinery by which a firm hold is gained as a fulcrum for the constriction; and the adaptation of the bones of the head to the dilatation necessary for swallowing the disproportioned prey, are shown in the following cuts.

of the vertebræ by shallow ginglymoid joints, which admit of their being moved forwards and backwards on an axis passing through the joints. The ligaments, independent of the articular capsule, are so disposed as to limit the motions of the ribs to these directions: they are two in number, one situated below the joint, which passes from the head of the rib to the transverse process, and thence is continued to the capsule of the intervertebral articulation; the other strengthens the upper part of the joint, and connects the neck of the rib to the transverse process. (Cat. Mus. Coll. Chir.) This illustrates the structure for creeping noticed in the article BOA.

No. 508 A of the same series is the stomach, with part of the oesophagus and intestine injected and inverted, of a large African Snake (Python). The oesophagus, as in all the Ophidian reptiles, is very capacious, smooth internally, and thin in its coats. The commencement of the stomach may be detected by the more vascular and rugous character of its lining membrane. The larger wrinkles are longitudinal, the interspaces reticulate. The stomach gradually diminishes in size, and there is a constriction, like a pylorus, about one inch and a half from the intestine. A narrow canal of uniform diameter, analogous to that in the shark, conducts to the intestine, which suddenly becomes wider, and is beset internally with small flattened scale-like processes. (Mus. Cat. Coll. Chir.)

With reference to the observations in the article Boa, relating to the mode of its taking its prey, the gradual deglutition of the victim, and the breathing of the serpent during the operation, No. 1093 A of the same series becomes a very interesting preparation. This exhibits the lungs of a Python Tigris. They have been minutely injected, and are laid open to show the extent of the vascular respiratory portion, which is nearly the same in both, but the right lung is principally prolonged to form the reservoir. A part of the trachea, the two pulmonary arteries, and single pulmonary vein, are also preserved in this beautiful preparation by Mr. Owen. (Cat. Mus. Coll. Chir.)

The size to which the Pythons grow is fully equal to that

attained by the Boa, if it does not exceed it. Thus the Ular-Sawa, or Great Python of the Sunda Isles, is said to increase till it is more than thirty feet in length, and stout in proportion. The powers of such a gigantic reptile must be enormous, and it is said that the serpent is able to manage a buffalo. Nor are there wanting horrible instances of man himself having fallen a prey to these monsters, in modern times. The story goes that a Malay prow was anchored for the night under the island of Celebes. One of the crew had gone on shore to search for betel-nut, and is supposed to have fallen asleep upon the beach from weariness on his return. In the dead of the night his companions on board were roused by dreadful screams: they immediately went ashore, but they came too late, the cries had ceased, and the wretched man had breathed his last in the folds of an enormous serpent, which they killed. They cut off the head of the snake and carried it, together with the lifeless body of their comrade, to the vessel. The right wrist of the corpse bore the marks of the serpent's teeth, and the disfigured body showed that the man had been crushed by the constriction of the reptile round the head, neck, breast, and thigh. The picture by Daniell, representing a man seized by one of these monsters, will be familiar to many of our readers. Dr. Andrew Smith, in his valuable Illustrations of South Africa, now in course of publication under the authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, gives a very beau

Python Tigris.

Python Natalensis. (Smith)