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-obtained a patent from the king to be his printer, in 1503, or before. He appears to have resided in the vicinity of Temple-bar, for some time on the city side, and for some time on the Westminster side of that ancient boundary. If he was made king's printer so early as 1503, as asserted by Ames, he did not assume the title till 1508, when he first added it to his colophon. This honour seems to have been accompanied with some small salary, and the title of Esquire. Soon after his commencement in business, he employed one William Tailleur, a printer of Roan, to print Littleton's Tenures, and some other law pieces for him : because our laws being all made in the Norman French till the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. and the printers of that country understanding the language better, were certainly more capable of printing them correct. Afterwards he, as well as others, had such helps, that the statutes and other law books were all printed at home. About 1525 he began his controversy with Redman, who had stolen one of his principal devices, and affixed it, without apology, to a number of the books printed by him. Redman he abuses in very gross terms, and even quibbles upon his name Redman quasi Rudeman. Yet, notwithstanding this dispute, Redman succeeded Pynson, by removing into the very parish and house of Pynson.

Pynson was the first who introduced the Roman letter into this country. He appears to have had patrons who contributed to the expense of some of his undertakings. When he died is uncertain, nor is it ascertained what was the date of the last book printed by him. Some think he died before 1529, others later. Bertholet succeeded him as king's printer in 1529, but it has been conjectured that Pynson only retired from business at that time. Pynson is esteemed inferior, upon the whole, as a printer, to Wynkyn de Worde; but, says Mr. Dibdin, "in the choice and intrinsic worth of his publications, has a manifest superiority." This is very high praise, and appears to be just. Symptoms of true, useful learning appear on Pynson's list, which cannot be said of his predecessors, whatever value collectors may fix upon their productions.1

PYRRHO, the founder of the sect of Pyrrhonists, or sceptics, was the son of Plistarchus of the city of Elea, in the Peloponnesus. He flourished about the 110th olympiad,

1 Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, vol. II.

or 340 B. C. He applied himself first to painting, and several of his pieces, in which he succeeded well, were long preserved at Elea; but, aspiring to philosophy, he became the disciple of Anaxarchus, whom he accompanied to India. Here he conversed with the Brachmans and Gymnosophists, imbibing from their doctrine whatever might seem favourable to his natural disposition towards doubting, but in general very little satisfied with them. As every advance he afterwards made involved him in more unçertainty, he determined on establishing a new school, in which he taught, that every object of human inquiry is involved in uncertainty, so that it is impossible ever to arrive at the knowledge of truth.

Some of his opinions and some of his oddities tend to remind the reader of certain affectations of wisdom and philosophy in our own days. "All men," he said, "regulate their conduct by received opinions. Every thing is done by habit; every thing is examined with reference to the laws and customs of a particular country; but whether these laws be good or bad, it is impossible to determine." In this may be found the germ of those principles advanced by modern sceptics, in order to subvert all morality. At first Pyrrho lived in indigence and obscurity, courting retirement, and seldom appearing in public. He frequently travelled; but never told to what country he intended to go. Every species of suffering he endured with apparent insensibility. He never turned aside to avoid a rock or precipice, and would rather be hurt than get out of the way of a chariot, and his friends were therefore obliged to accompany him wherever he went. If this be true, says Brucker, it was not without reason that he was ranked among those whose intellects were disturbed by intense study; and this excellent historian seems to think that many such reports were calumnies invented by the dogmatists whom he opposed, and he is inclined to be of this opinion on account of the respect with which he is mentioned by ancient writers. There appears, however, upon the whole, no great reason to think that his life was much more consistent than his opinions, and the respect paid to either in his age seems entitled to little regard as evidence of excellence.

His reputation certainly spread soon over all Greece, and his opinions were embraced by many. The inhabitants of Elea created him sovereign pontiff of their religion,

although his leading opinion was that there is no certainty in any thing. The Athenians presented him with the freedom of their city. Epicurus liked his conversation, because, as he thought, Pyrrho recommended and practised that self-command which produces undisturbed tranquillity. The highest degree of perfection to which, in Pyrrho's opinion, men can arrive, is, never to pass a decision upon any thing. His disciples were all agreed in one point, that they knew nothing. Some of them, however, sought truth, in hopes of finding it: others despaired of ever discovering it. Some were disposed to affirm one thing, namely, that they knew nothing for certain; but others hesitated whether it might not be unsafe to affirm even this. His opinions had existed partially prior to his own times; but, as no one before him professed absolute doubt about every thing, he has always been considered as the author and founder of scepticism.

Pyrrho died about the ninetieth year of his age, probably in the 123d olympiad, or B. C. 288. After his death, the Athenians honoured his memory with a statue, and a monument to him was erected in his own country.

Brucker ascribes his scepticism to his early acquaintance with the system of Democritus. Having learned, says he, to deny the real existence of all qualities in bodies, except those which are essential to primary atoms, and to refer every thing else to the perceptions of the mind produced by external objects, that is, to appearance and opinion, he concluded, that all knowledge depended upon the fallacious report of the senses, and consequently, that there can be no such thing as certainty. He was encouraged in this notion by the general spirit of the Eleatic school, in which he was educated, which was unfavourable to science. But nothing contributed more to confirm him in scepticism, than the subtleties of the Dialectic schools, in which he was instructed by the son of Stilpo. He saw no method, by which he could so effectually overturn the cavils of sophistry, as by having recourse to the doctrine of universal uncertainty. Being strongly inclined, from his natural temper and habits of life, to look upon immoveable tranquillity as the great end of all philosophy; observing, that nothing tended so much to disturb this tranquillity, as the innumerable dissentions which agitated the schools of the dogmatists; at the same time inferring, from their endless disputes, the uncertainty of the questions upon which they debated; he determined to seek elsewhere for that peace of mind, which he despaired of finding in the dogmatic philosophy. In this manner it happened, in the case of Pyrrho, as it has often happened in other instances, that controversy became the parent of scepticism.1

PYTHAGORAS, one of the greatest men of antiquity, was born most probably about the year B. C. 586, but this date has been much contested. His father, Mnemarchus, of Samos, who was an engraver by trade, and dealt in rings and other trinkets, went with his wife to Delphi a few days after his marriage, to sell some goods during the feast; and, while he stayed there, received an oracular answer from Apollo, who told him that if he embarked for Syria, the voyage would be very fortunate to him, and that his wife would there bring forth a son, who should be renowned for beauty and wisdom, and whose life would be a blessing to posterity. Mnemarchus obeyed the god, and Pythagoras was born at Sidon; and, being brought to Samos, was educated there answerably to the great hopes that were conceived of him. He was called "the youth with the fine head of hair;" and, from the great qualities which appeared in him early, was soon regarded as a good genius sent into the world for the benefit of mankind.

Samos, in the mean time, afforded no philosophers capable of satisfying his ardent thirst after knowledge; and therefore, at eighteen, he resolved to travel in quest of them elsewhere. The fame of Pherecydes drew him first to the island of Syros; whence he went to Miletus, where he conversed with Thales. Then he went to Phœnicia, and stayed some time at Sidon, the place of his birth; and from Sidon into Egypt, where Thales and Solon had been before him. Amasis, king of Egypt, received him very kindly; and, after having kept him some time at his court, gave him letters for the priests of Heliopolis. The Egyptians were very jealous of their sciences, which they rarely imparted to strangers; nor even to their own countrymen, till they had made them pass through the severest probations. The priests of Heliopolis sent him to those of Memphis; and they directed him to the ancients of Diospolis, who, not daring to disobey the king, yet unwilling to break in upon their own laws and customs,

1 Diog. Laertius. Stanley.-Brucker. Gen. Dict. by Bayle.-Fenelon's Lives of the Philosophers by Cormack.

received Pythagoras into a kind of noviciate, hoping he would soon be deterred from farther pursuits by the rigorous rules and ceremonies which were a necessary introduction to their mysteries. But Pythagoras went through all with wonderful patience, so far as even, according to some authors, to admit of circumcision.

After having remained twenty-five years in Egypt, he went to Babylon, afterwards to Crete, and thence to Sparta, to instruct himself in the laws of Minos and Lycurgus. Then he returned to Samos, which, finding under the tyranny of Polycrates, he quitted again, and visited the countries of Greece. Going through Peloponnesus, he stopped at Phlius, where Leo then reigned; and, in his conversation with this prince, spoke with so much eloquence and wisdom, that Leo was at once delighted and surprised. He asked him at length, "what profession he followed?" Pythagoras answered "None, but that he was a philosopher." For, displeased with the lofty title of sages and wise men, which his profession had hitherto assumed, he changed it into one more modest and humble, calling himself a philosopher, that is, a lover of wisdom. Leo asked him "what it was to be a philosopher; and the difference there was between a philosopher and other men?י Pythagoras answered, that "life might well be compared to the Olympic games; for, as in that vast assembly, some come in search of glory, others in search of gain, and a third sort, more noble than the two former, neither for fame nor profit, but only to enjoy the wonderful spectacle, and to see and know what passes in it; so we, in like manner, come into the world as into a place of public meeting, where some toil after glory, others after gain, and a few, contemning riches and vanity, apply themselves to the study of nature. These last," said he, are they whom I call philosophers." And he thought them by far the noblest of the human kind, and the only part which spent their lives suitably to their nature; for he was wont to say that " man was created to know and to contemplate."

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From Peloponnesus he passed into Italy, and settled at Croton; where the inhabitants, having suffered great loss in a battle with the Locrians, degenerated from industry and courage into softness and effeminacy. Pythagoras thought it a task worthy of him to reform this city; and accordingly began to preach to the inhabitants all manner of virtues; and, though he naturally met at first with great

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