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matters. Her astronomy for example was derived from
Babylon; but the Pythagorean astronomy was
entirely different. Astrology came from
Babylon; but the Pythagoreans, inclined as
they were to such mystical doctrines, were
never astrologers. Babylonian weights and measures,
the Babylonian division of the circle, became naturalized
in Greece; but in the cities where Pythagorean
ideas prevail we find nothing of these.
The theory of some writers that Pythagoras
contributed to their introduction into Greece is perfectly gratuitous. Much
secrecy hangs over the Pythagorean arithmetic,
which was partly scientific and partly
mystical. But no such ideas came from
Babylon. The Pythagoreans held to metempsychosis,
but the Babylonians knew nothing
of it. The Hebrew scriptures are full of Babylonian