Page 45 - STOLEN LEGACY By George G. M. James

(c) The Process of Purification: the harmony and purification of the soul is attained, not only by
virtue, but also by other means, the most important among them being the cultivation of the
intellect through the pursuit of scientific knowledge and strict bodily discipline. In this process,
music also held an important place. The Pythagoreans believed and taught that just as medicine
is used to cure the body, so music must be used to cure the soul.

Here it might be appropriate to insert the doctrine of the "Three Lives", since it is also a method
and means of purification: "Mankind is divided into three classes: Lovers of wealth; lovers of
honour, and lovers of wisdom (i.e. philosophers); this last, being highest." According to
Pythagoras, philosophy determined the purification, which led to the final salvation of the soul.

(iii) The Cosmological Doctrine

All things are numbers, that is to say not only every object, but the entire universe is an
arrangement of numbers. This means that the characteristic of any object is the number by which
it is represented.

(a) Since the universe consists of ten bodies, namely, the five stars, the earth and the counter
earth, then the universe must be represented by the perfect number ten.

(b) Applied to the space around us, but called by Pythagoreans the Boundless or Unlimited, it
must be taken to mean, the measuring out of this Boundless, into a balanced and harmonious
universe, so that everything might receive its proper proportion of it. No more, no less.

(c) This arrangement seems to suggest the notion of forms capable of receiving a mathematical
expression, i.e., a doctrine which later appeared in Plato, as the theory of Ideas.

(d) In the centre of the universe there is a central fire around which the heavenly bodies fixed in
their spheres, revolve from West to East, while around all there is the peripheral fire. This
motion of the heavenly bodies is regulated in the velocity, and produces the harmony of the
spheres. (Roger's Students' History of Philosophy p. 14–22). (Bakewell's Source Book of
Philosophy) (Life and Tenets of Pythagoras). (Ruddick's History of Philosophy) (Life and Tenets
of Pythagoras). (Fuller's History of Philosophy) (Life and Tenets of Pythagoras). (Turner's
History of Philosophy: p. 40–43). (History of Ancient Egypt by John Kendrick vol. I p. 401-402)
(Plato's Phaedo, 85E). (Aristotle's Metaphysics I 5; 985b, 24; and I 5; 986a, 23).

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Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy by George G. M. James
The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook