Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editorIamblichus
Philosophy
Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editor
Iamblichus
Ethics, Ancient; Philosophers -- Greece -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient; Pythagoras; Pythagoras and Pythagorean school
With respect to what is called desire, these men are said to have
asserted as follows: That _desire indeed, itself, is a certain tendency,
impulse, and appetite of the soul, in order to be filled with something,
or to enjoy something present, or to be disposed according to some
sensitive energy_; but that there is also a desire of the contraries to
these, and this is a desire of the evacuation and absence, and of having
no sensible perception of certain things. That this passion likewise is
various, and is nearly the most multifarious of all those that pertain
to man. But that many human desires are adscititious, and procured by
men themselves. Hence this passion requires the greatest attention, and
no casual care and corporeal exercise. For that the body when empty
should desire food, is natural: and again, it is also natural, that when
filled, it should desire an appropriate evacuation. But to desire
superfluous nutriment, or superfluous and luxurious garments or
coverlids, or habitations, is adscititious. They also reasoned in the
same manner concerning furniture, vessels, servants, and cattle
subservient to food. And universally, with respect to human passions,
they are nearly things of such a kind, as to be nowhere permanent, but
to proceed to infinity. Hence attention should be paid to youth from the
earliest period, in order that they may aspire after such things as are
proper, may avoid vain and superfluous desires, and thus be undisturbed
by, and purified from, such-like appetites, and may despise those who
are objects of contempt, because they are bound to [all-various]
desires. But it must be especially observed, that vain, noxious,
superfluous, and insolent desires subsist with those who have the
greatest power. For there is not any thing so absurd, which the soul of
such boys, men, and women, does not incite them to perform. In short,
the variety of food which is assumed, is most manifold. For there are an
infinite number of fruits, and an infinite multitude of roots, which the
human race uses for food. It likewise uses all-various kinds of flesh;
and it is difficult to find any terrestrial, aerial, or aquatic animal,
which it does not taste. It also employs all-various contrivances in the
preparation of these, and manifold mixtures of juices. Hence it properly
follows that the human tribe is insane and multiform, according to the
motion of the soul, for each kind of food that is introduced into the
body, becomes the cause of a certain peculiar disposition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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