roeder suggests that the
name may be a corruption of the Sanscrit name for aether, the
all-embracing element, akaca. I venture to recall here the curious
fact that, in ancient Mexico, the symbol, enclosing the four
elements, is always designated as the ollin, a word associated with
the idea of "movement" and of life=yoli.

In his work on the "Pythagorean Triangle," the Rev. G. Oliver gives
an extremely clear account of the Pythagorean philosophy and tells
us that its central thought is the idea of number, the recognition
of the "numerical and mathematical relations of things...." "The
Pythagoreans seem," says Aristotle, "to have looked upon number as
the principle and, so to speak, the matter of which existences
consist;" and again "they supposed the elements of number to be the
elements of existence, and pronounced the whole heaven to be harmony
and number."

Concerning the universe, like many early thinkers, as a sphere, they
placed in the heart of it the central fire to which they gave the
name of Hestia, the hearth or altar of the universe, the citadel or
throne of Zeus. Around this move the ten heavenly bodies ... the
earth revolved on its own axis....

They developed a list of ten fundamental oppositions: 1, limited and
unlimited; 2, odd and even; 3, one and many; 4, right and left; 5,
masculine and feminine; 6, rest and motion; 7, straight and crooked;
8, light and darkness; 9, good and evil.... The union of opposites
in which consists the existence of things is harmony; hence the
expression that the whole heaven or the whole universe is harmony.
Pointing out that it is only by a combination of odd and even
numbers that a harmonious cycle is created, I continue to cite from
Mr. Oliver's work: "The decade, as the basis of the numerical
system, appeared to them to comprehend all other numbers in itself,
and to it are applied, therefore, the epithets quoted above of
number in general. Similar language is held of the number 'four'
because it is the first square number and is also the potential
decade (1+2+3+4=10). Pythagoras is celebrated as the discoverer of
the holy 'Tetraktos' the fountain and root of ever-living nature, or
the Cosmos consisting of Fire, Air, Earth, Water, the four roots of
all exist