Select Works of Porphyry (On Abstinence, Cave of the Nymphs, Auxiliaries)

original of many of the Sentences of the celebrated Sextus Pythagoricus m, which have been

^m See the Latin translation of these Sentences by Rufinus in the Opuscula Mythologica of Gale. The Sentences found in this Epistle of Porphyry were published by me, with some criticisms, in the Classical Journal about two years ago. But because of the great importance of these Sentences, and for the sake of those who may not have this Journal, I shall here repeat what I have said on this subject.

After having premised that great praise is due to the editor for the publication of this Epistle, but that—as he has taken no notice of the sources whence most of the beautiful moral sentences with which this Epistle abounds are derived—it becomes necessary to unfold them to the reader, particularly as by this means several of the Sentences of Sextus Pythagoricus may be obtained in the original Greek; — I then observe:

“Previous, however, to this development, I shall present the reader with the emendation of the following defective sentence on page 19: ‘Το δὲ πεπαιδεῦσθαι οὐκ ἐν πολυμαθείας ἀναλήψει **** παλάξει δὲ τῶν ψυχικῶν παθῶν ἐθεωρεῖτο.’ The editor, not being an adept in the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato, conceived that ‘παλάξει’ was a genuine word; for he remarks, ‘Note the word παλάξις,’ whereas it is only a part of a word—that is, it is a part of ‘ἀπαλλάξει.’ Hence, if after ‘ἀναλήψει’ the words ‘ἐν ἀπαλλάξει’ are inserted, the sentence of Porphyry will be perfect in both construction and meaning. In English, it is: ‘Erudition does not consist in the resumption of polymathy, but is to be surveyed in a liberation from the passions pertaining to the soul.’ The editor, not perceiving the necessity of this emendation, has, by his version, totally mistaken the meaning of the sentence: ‘Bonam autem institutionem nun...’”