Abstain from beans, was an admonition of Pythagoras to his followers; meaning by that to exhort them not to interfere in the election of magistrates, in which, it should seem, there was the same heat and contention, the same violence and confusion as too often occur among us, when persons are elected to places of honour, or profit. The electors among the Athenians were used to poll, or give their suffrages, by putting beans, instead of white or black stones as on other occasions, into a vase placed for the purpose. Pythagoras also admonishes, «when the wind rises, to worship the echo», that is in times of tumult and dissension, to retire into the country, the seat of the echo.
Fuente: Erasmo, 2 (8).
