preaching frugality to a people of this description; but Pythagoras, who, exclusive of his great wisdom and other uncommon accomplishments, was also endued with extraordinary personal beauty and majesty of deportment, succeeded in engaging a serious attention, and relaxed not in his endeavours, till he had brought about such a great and general moral reformation in that rich and voluptuous city, as made it almost doubtful whether the Crotonians of his time could have been such abandoned voluptuaries as history asserts they were when he first came amongst them. This apostle of wisdom and virtue facilitated the execution of his great and difficult task very much by imparting his doctrine to the young people of either sex separately, and inculcating the peculiar virtues of each with so much energy as produced in both a noble and most salutary emulation. The young men became patterns of modesty, and studied philosophy and the belles lettres with a diligence which was unexampled at Croto: and the young women (if we may believe the honest TROGUS POMPEIUS) carried all their embroidered gowns, jewels, necklaces, &c. to the temple of Juno, laying them at the feet of the goddess as sacrifices to domestic virtue, and confessed that modesty and chastity, not splendour and gaiety of apparel, were the true ornaments of their

sex.

Though we cannot, in justice, believe that the influence of Pythagorean principles over the minds of the Crotonians was quite so powerful as Justin relates, nevertheless this anecdote remains one of the most honourable monuments of the great influence of wisdom over the tender minds of the gentler half of mankind.

Pythagoras, it seems, had also female pupils, and amongst them several who were admitted to his secret instruction, and who are mentioned by the ancients as Pythagoreans in the stricter sense of the word. I know not how much we have lost by the catalogue, which PHILOCHORUS, the Athenian historian, is said to have composed of the heroines, or Pythagorean women; little, if it was really no more than a dry catalogue, and much if it contained anecdotes of their lives, which justified that honourable denomination. JAMBLICHUS, another romantic biographer of Pythagoras, who mentions fifteen female philosophers of the school of that great man, relates such an heroic anecdote of only one of them, whom he calls TYMICHA; but his tale is too irrelevant and unconnected to deserve credit, even if it had been related by a more faithful historian than Jamblichus. It is recorded in the 31st chapter of his Life of Pythagoras, to which we refer the curious reader.

Numerous instances of uncommon energy of mind, of

temperance,

temperance, self-denial, patience, and firmness, in social and domestic life, which have done honour to the Pythagorean women, would, at all events, have been recorded in it, and served as patterns for imitation. Many a woman, unknown to the world, practises, within the narrow circle of her domestic life, humble virtues, which frequently require a greater degree of firmness of mind than is exerted on the great theatre of the world to perform deeds which excite the admiration of the multitude, and employ the pens of many historians! And does not frequently the happiness of whole families, and, consequently, the welfare of the state, depend upon these humble virtues? Indeed, Pythagoras appears to me, as far as I can judge by the few genuine remains of his philosophy, to have thought of all this as a man must think who feels that he is called to be a moral physician of corrupted men and states; and although the little which Justin tells us of the moral reformation of the inhabitants of Croto, were all that we know of him; yet that would be sufficient to convince us, his philosophy was not founded on enthusiasm or delusive artifices, but upon a just and true estimation of the value of sublunary things.

THEANO, the wife of Pythagoras, seems to have been the first and most remarkable of the Pythagorean women, more on account of her personal accomplishments, than of any authority she might have derived from her connection with the chief of the society. But the same fate which befel the whole Pythagorean order, along with its founder, has also deprived us of the means of becoming better acquainted with that remarkable woman: a few letters to friends, which go under her name, and have been preserved by several ancient authors, are all that is left of her.

THEANO Was probably the daughter of a Crotonian; and I think I am not mistaken in considering her union with our amiable philosopher as an effect of the enthusiastic veneration which the inhabitants of Croto paid him. For it is nowise probable, that he was married before he settled in Magna Græcia, i. e. in the first half of his life, the greater part of which he spent in travelling, and in Egypt. The person whom Pythagoras acknowledged as his better half, and whom he loved with such an uncommon ardour as gave occasion to a certain erotic poet, HERMESIANAX, of whose amorous elegies to the famous LEONTIUM, ATHENEUS has preserved a considerable part, of accusing him of a passion for her that bordered on madness; that person must have distinguished herself by uncommon virtues and accomplishments, as it was of essential importance to the success

of

of his institution, that the wife of a man who aimed at the reformation of a whole corrupt nation should be deserving of being held up as a pattern to all wives, mothers, and matrons, of being a sharer in all his most secret plans and thoughts, and of assisting him in the execution of them.

We are, with regard to this woman, in the situation of an artist, who is to restore the statue of a Juno, or a Venus, by Polycletes, out of the fragment of a foot, an arm, or a mutilated head. The few fragments which are left of the writings of the beautiful and wise Theano would be sufficient for that purpose, were we to represent her character in a drama, or in a work like the Travels of Anacharsis; but we must content ourselves with laying these fragments before our readers as we have found them, and leave it to their imagination to form an idea of the original beauties of the lovely picture, which has been destroyed by the ravages of all-devouring

Time.

We shall begin with the largest of these fragments, namely, with the letters of THEANO, which were first published by the celebrated ALDUS MANUCIUS at Venice, in the year 1499, in his collection of letters written by several Greek philosophers, orators, poets, and other eminent persons, which he composed with the assistance of the learned MARCUS MUSURUS.

The question, what we ought to think of the authenticity of these letters? about which the learned, probably, will never agree for want of other criteria, can only be decided by their intrinsic merits. If I may trust my own feelings, I cannot discover in the three letters, which I am about to lay before the reader, any thing that could create the least suspicion of their not having been written by such a lady as I imagine the wife of Pythagoras must have been! I rather perceive in these letters such evident traces of the style of artless female simplicity as well as of the Pythagorean spirit and manner of thinking, as make me strongly believe that they cannot but be genuine, notwithstanding the unfavourable prepossession which the literati entertain against the Aldinian collection. But let us proceed to the letters themselves!

P. W.

(To be continued.)

CRITICAL

CRITICAL RETROSPECT

OF

NEW PUBLICATIONS IN GERMANY AND THE NORTH.

EDUCATION.

ART. I. Sollen wir die Kinder Schreyen lassen?-Shall we suffer Children to cry? a philanthropic Problem, answered by HORSTIG. Gotha, for Ettinger, 1798. pp. 109. 8vo.

RYING is hurtful to children, and if proper care be CRYI taken, may be almost totally prevented." These are the two main points, upon which the present tract turns. We shall extract what appears to us most important." We must begin early to prevent children from crying, lest all our subsequent exertions should prove unsuccessful. Children must never have been used to cry, if we desire that they never should." The most proper method of attaining this object rests upon the subsequent rules: 1st. "Omit what you are about to do, as soon as the child begins to complain of it."-" In washing, children must, from the first hour of their birth, be so treated that they do not utter the least expression of a disagreeable sensation. Mothers and nurses must never absolutely fix upon any particular time when an infant is to be washed, nor apply force when it does not willingly submit. Mothers and nurses certainly should make a firm resolution to inure their infants to washing, but they must also consider, that, in order to effect this, it is absolutely necessary that washing should never be rendered painful to them, but a pleasant amusement, which in process of time may become a source of pleasure to them."-" Children can amuse themselves a long time with a ball, a feather, or any other plaything of a similar nature. To interrupt them in the enjoyment of this pleasure is hurtful, because we excite thereby in their sensible minds the most painful sensations, and accustom them from their infancy to thoughtlessness, inconstancy, and levity, whereas we ought to afford them as many opportunities as possible to dwell a long while on objects which excite their attention, to examine them minutely, and to make various experiments therewith."-" Parents and nurses frequently occasion children to cry, by making them Wait too long for something they desire." "Nurseries

should

should be so arranged that children may without danger take in their hands any thing they find there."Second rule: "Whatever produces corporeal pain in children must be carefully avoided."- "Parents and nurses are apt to excite a peculiar kind of painful sensation in children, by exposing them to the apprehension of losing their equilibrium."-Third rule: "Mothers and nurses are bound in duty to procure to children, from the very hour of their birth, all possible kinds of pleasant sensations, especially by taking care that they be not left constantly in the same situation." To these rules the author adds the following two exhortations to mothers: 1. "Communicate your sentiments with regard to the education of your children to your consorts, and inspire them with a lively and effectual interest in the discharge of this important office." Second exhortation: "Take all possible pains to obtain such nurses as are willing to conform entirely with your principles of education."-Although the author's rules are very defective in many instances, and impracticable in others, yet we are bound in justice to confess, that they contain a great deal of advice highly useful to parents, and are written in a plain and perspicuous style.

ART. II. Die vier Jahrszeiten, &c. The four Seasons, for the Use of Children. With coloured Plates, by ARNOLD. Leipzig, for Leo, 1799.

THESE descriptions of the four seasons are extremely useful for children. The subjects are judiciously selected and executed, intelligible to infantine capacities, amusing, and bespeak a considerable degree of good taste. The engravings, however, are done rather negligently.

THEOLOGY.

ART. III. Predigten für Freunde der reinen Sittenlehre. Sermons for Friends of pure Morality, by Schuderoff. Vol. I. pp. xvi. and 358. crown 8vo. Jena and Leipzig,

for Gabler. 1800.

THE application of the Kantian philosophy to theological subjects has excited an uncommon fermentation in Germany. Whilst one party display a decided predilection for pulpit orators, who evince an intimate acquaintance with the critical philosophy, the other party represent the new doctrine as highly heterodox, dangerous, and totally unfit for theological purposes.

Wc