FORE:The alliance between Neo-Pythagoreanism and Stoicism did not last long. Their fundamental principles were too radically opposed to admit of any reconciliation, except what could be effected by the absorption of both into a more comprehensive system. And Roman Stoicism, at least, was too practical, too scientific, too sane, to assimilate what must have seemed a curious amalgam of mathematical jugglery and dreamy asceticism; while the reputation of belonging to248 what passed for a secret society would be regarded with particular dread in the vicinity of the imperial court,it was, in fact, for this particular reason that the elder Seneca persuaded his son to renounce the vegetarian diet which Sotion had induced him to adopt,and the suspicious hostility of the public authorities may have had something to do with the speedy disappearance of Neo-Pythagoreanism from Rome.388 On the other hand, so coarsely materialistic and utilitarian a doctrine as that of the Porch, must have been equally repulsive to the spiritualism which, while it discerned a deep kinship permeating all forms of animal existence, saw in the outward conditions of that existence only the prison or the tomb where a heaven-born exile lay immured in expiation of the guilt that had driven him from his former and well-nigh forgotten abode. Hence, after Seneca, we find the two schools pursuing divergent directions, the naturalism of the one becoming more and more contrasted with the spiritualism of the other. It has been mentioned how emphatically Marcus Aurelius rejected the doctrine of a future life, which, perhaps, had been brought under his notice as a tenet of the Neo-Pythagoreans. The latter, on their side, abandoned the Stoic cosmology for the more congenial metaphysics of Plato, which they enriched with some elements from Aristotles system, but without in the least acknowledging their obligations to those two illustrious masters. On the contrary, they professed to derive their hidden wisdom from certain alleged writings of Pythagoras and his earlier disciples, which, with the disregard for veracity not uncommon among mystics, they did not scruple to forge wholesale. As a consequence of their unfortunate activity, literature was encumbered with a mass of worthless productions, of which many fragments still survive, mixed, perhaps, with some genuine relics of old Italiote speculation, the extrication of which is, however, a task of almost insuperable difficulty.Skill, in the sense employed here, consists not only in preparing plans and in various processes for converting and shaping material, but also in the general conduct of an establishment, including estimates, records, system, and so on, which will be noticed in their regular order. The amount of labour involved, and consequently the first cost of machinery, is in a large degree as the number of mechanical processes required, and the time consumed in each operation; to reduce the number of these processes or operations, shorten the time in which they may be performed, [27] and improve the quality of what is produced, is the business of the mechanical engineer. A careful study of shop operations or processes, including designing, draughting, moulding, forging, and fitting, is the secret of success in engineering practice, or in the management of manufactures. The advantages of an economical design, and the most carefully-prepared drawings, are easily neutralised and lost by careless or improper manipulation in the workshop; an incompetent manager may waste ten pounds in shop processes, while the commercial department of a work saves one pound by careful buying and selling.
Sed ultricies
