IAMBLICHUS’ LIFE OF PYTHAGORAS, PYTHAGORIC LIFE / Ιάμβλιχου, Περί του πυθαγορικού βίου.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BY THOMAS TAYLOR.

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INTRODUCTION.
When it is considered that Pythagoras was the father of philosophy, authentic memoirs of his life cannot fail to be uncommonly interesting to every lover of wisdom, and particularly io those w6o reverdnce the doctrines of Plato, the most genuine and the best of all his disciples. And that the following memoirs of Pythagoras by Iamblichus are authentic; is acknowledged by all the critics, as they are for the most part obviously derived from sources of very high a&iquity; and where the sources are unknown, there is every reason to believe, from the great worth and respectability of the biographer, that the information is perfectly accurate
and true.
Of the biographer, indeed, Iamblichus, it is well known to everv tvro in Platonism that he was dignified d d by all the Platonists that succeeded him with the epithet of divine ; and after the encomium passed on him by the acute Emperor Julian, “that he was osterios indeed in time, but not in genius, to Plato,” a1 Pf urther praise of him would be as unnecessary, as the defamation of him by certain modern critics is contemptible and idle.
For these homonculi looking solely to his deficiency in point of style, and not to the magnitude of his intellect, perceive only his little blemishes, but have not even a glimpse of his surpassing excellence…

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