THE popularity of this sage at Croton offers no prob-
lem: the inhabitants had become sufficiently civilized to
appreciate the charm of being regenerated. We all do.
Renunciation has always exercised an irresistible attrac-
tion for good society; it makes us feel so comfortable, to
be told we are going to hell--and Pythagoras was very
eloquent on the subject of Tartarus as a punishment.
The Crotoniates discovered in repentance of sins a new
and subtle form of pleasure; exactly as did the Floren-
tines, when Savonarola appeared on the scene.

Next: his doctrines found a ready soil in Magna
Græcia. which was already impregnated with certain vague
notions akin to those he introduced. And then--he per-
mitted and even encouraged the emotional sex to partici-
pate in the mysteries; the same tactics that later on ma-
terially helped the triumph of Christianity over the more
exclusive and rational cult of Mithra. Lastly, he came
with a "message," like the Apostle of the Gentiles; and
in those times a preaching reformer was a novelty. That
added a zest.

We know them a little better, nowadays.

He enjoyed the specious and short-lived success that
has attended, elsewhere, such efforts to cultivate the ego
at the expense of its environment. "A type of aspiring
humanity," says Gissing, echoing the sentiments of many
of us, "a sweet and noble figure, moving as a dim radi-
ance through legendary Hellas." I fancy that the mist
of centuries of undiscriminating admiration has magni-

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