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The truth and certainty of numbers, when thus disengaged from

phenomena, gave them a kind of sacredness in the eyes of an

ancient philosopher. Nor is it easy to say how far ideas of order

and fixedness may have had a moral and elevating influence on the

minds of men, 'who,' in the words of the Timaeus, 'might learn to

regulate their erring lives according to them.' It is worthy of

remark that the old Pythagorean ethical symbols still exist as

figures of speech among ourselves. And those who in modern times

see the world pervaded by universal law, may also see an

anticipation of this last word of modern philosophy in the

Platonic idea of good, which is the source and measure of all

things, and yet only an abstraction (Philebus).