"Now that you are leaving, I shall be really indispensable to our friends
here. Amasis is old; when Psamtik comes to the throne we shall have
infinitely greater difficulties to contend with than heretofore. I must
remain and fight on in the fore-front of our battle for the freedom and
welfare of the Hellenic race. Let them call my efforts unwomanly if they
will. This is, and shall be, the purpose of my life, a purpose to which
I will remain all the more faithful, because it is one of those to which
a woman rarely dares devote her life. During this last night of tears I
have felt that much, very much of that womanly weakness still lingers in
me which forms at once the happiness and misery of our sex. To preserve
this feminine weakness in my granddaughter, united with perfect womanly
delicacy, has been my first duty; my second to free myself entirely from
it. But a war against one's own nature cannot be carried on without
occasional defeat, even if ultimately successful. When grief and pain
are gaining the upperhand and I am well nigh in despair, my only help
lies in remembering my friend Pythagoras, that noblest among men, and his
words: 'Observe a due proportion in all things, avoid excessive joy as
well as complaining grief, and seek to keep thy soul in tune and harmony
like a well-toned harp.'"

[There is no question that Pythagoras visited Egypt during the reign
of Amasis, probably towards the middle of the 6th century (according
to our reckoning, about 536 B. C.) Herod. II. 81-123. Diod. I. 98.
Rich information about Pythagoras is to be found in the works of the
very learned scholar Roeth, who is however occasionally much too
bold in his conjectures. Pythagoras was the first among Greek
thinkers (speculators). He would not take the name of a wise man or
"sage," but called himself "Philosophos," or a "friend of wisdom."]