ABSTRACT
The Pythagoreans are known to have favoured the view that natural numbers are the only real substances and that the existence of all things may be reduced to them. They held that all things with the exception of the natural numbers have no independent existence and they regarded these things as relations between numbers. They associated with this conception of number a mystical cult and a feeling of awe toward the mystery of existence which may be found even to-day among the metaphysically inclined.
