"The School of Pythagoras, in our opinion, represents the main current of that mystical tradition which we have set in contrast with the scientific tendency. The terms 'mystical' and 'scientific,' ...are ...not to be understood as if ...all the philosophers we class as mystic were unscientific. The fact that we regard Parmenides, the discoverer of Logic, as an offshoot of Pythagoreanism, and Plato... as finding in the Italian philosophy the chief source of his inspiration, will be enough to refute such a misunderstanding. Moreover, the Pythagorean School... developed a scientific doctrine closely resembling the Milesian Atomism; and Empedocles, again, attempted to combine the two types of philosophy."