NRLF 
 

 


 
 
LIFE OF ARISTOTLE; 
 
 A CRITICAL DISCUSSION 
 
 QUESTIONS OF LITERARY HISTORY 
 
 CONNECTED WITH 
 
 HIS WORKS. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH WILLIAMS BLAKESLEY, M.A. 
 
 ft t 
 FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 J. AND J. J. DEIGHTON. 
 
 LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER. 
 
 M.DCCC.XXX1X. 
 

ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE following Essay is intended by the author 
 to be preliminary to a few others in which he hopes 
 to give an account of the several systems of Ancient 
 Philosophy which converged in those of Plato and 
 Aristotle, to pursue some of the more important 
 branches of speculation in the course which they took 
 after leaving the hands of the latter, and to examine 
 the success which has attended their cultivation up to 
 the present time. Before this task could be attempted 
 with any advantage, it was necessary to enter upon some 
 points relative to the history of philosophical literature, 
 and, from the nature of these, no mode of discussing 
 them appeared preferable to interweaving them in a cri- 
 tical biography of the founder of the Peripatetic School. 
 The present treatise, however, although the first of a 
 series, is complete in itself, and it is the intention 
 of the writer to preserve a similar independence to 
 each of the others. 
 

 
CHAPTER 
 
 INTRODUC W J I 7 E E SI f T! 
 
 &1 
 
 IF the acquaintance we possessed with the private 
 life of individuals were at all proportioned to the in- 
 fluence exerted by them on the destinies of mankind, 
 the biography of Aristotle would fill a library; for 
 without attempting here to discuss the merits of his 
 philosophy as compared with that of others, it_may 
 safely be asserted that no man has ever yet lived \vho 
 exerted so much influence upon the world. Absorbing 
 into his capacious mind the whole existing philosophy 
 of his age, he reproduced it, digested and transmuted, 
 in a form of which the main outlines are recognised at 
 the present day, and of which the language has pene- 
 trated into the inmost recesses of our daily life. Trans- 
 lated in the fifth century of the Christian^ era into 
 the Syriac language by the Nestorians who fled to 
 Persia, and from Syriac into Arabic four hundred years 
 later, his writings furnished the Mohammedan con- 
 querors of the East with a germ of science which, but 
 for the effect of their religious and political insti- 
 tutions, might have shot up into as tall a tree as it 
 did produce in the West ; while his logical works, 
 in the Latin translation which Boethius, " the last of the 
 Romans," bequeathed as a legacy to posterity, formed 
 the basis of that extraordinary phenomenon, the Philo- 
 sophy jrfthe Schoolmen. An empire like this, extending 
 over nearly twenty centuries of time, sometimes more 
 sometimes less despotically, but always with great force, 
 recognised in Bagdad and in Cordova, in Egypt and in 
 1 
 
2 SCANTY MATERIALS. 
 
 Britain, and leaving abundan't traces of itself in the 
 language and modes of thought of every European nation, 
 is assuredly without a parallel. Yet of its founder's perso- 
 nal history all that we can learn is to be gathered from 
 meager compilations, scattered anecdotes, and accidental 
 notices, which contain much that is obviously false and 
 even contradictory, and from which a systematic account, 
 in which tolerable confidence may be placed, can only 
 be deduced by a careful and critical investigation. \J 
 
 It is not, however, to the indifference of his con- 
 temporaries, or to that of their immediate successors, 
 that the paucity of details relating to Aristotle's life 
 is due. If we may trust the account of a commenta- 
 tor, Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second of the Mace- 
 donian dynasty in Egypt, not only bestowed a great 
 deal of study upon the writings of the illustrious philoso- 
 pher, but also wrote a biography of him 1 . At any 
 rate, about the same time, Hermippus of Smyrna, one 
 of the Alexandrine school of learned men, whose re- 
 search and accuracy is highly praised by Josephus 2 , 
 composed a work extending to some length, On the 
 Lives of Distinguished Philosophers and Orators, in 
 which Aristotle appears to have occupied a consider- 
 able space 3 . Another author, whose date there is no 
 
 1 David the Armenian, in a commentary on the Categories, cited 
 by Brandis in the Rheinisches Museum, Vol. i. p. 250, and since 
 published by him from two Vatican MSS., says, Twi/ 'Apio-roTeAiKwi/ 
 (Tvyypa/jifjidTutv TroAA&H' owrmv ^i\i(av TOV apid/jLov, OK (ptjcri IlToAe//a?O9 
 o OiAa3eA<o?, dvaypcKprjv CIVTWV Troitja-n/jievo^ KCU TOV fliov avTov KCCI Trjv 
 Siddea-iv. K. T. A. (p. 22. ed. Bekk.) an important passage if not cor- 
 rupt, as showing who the Ptolemy was that is elsewhere cited in 
 connection with Aristotle's works. 
 
 2 Contr. Aplon. lib. i. dvrjp 7rep\ trdffav IffToplav eVi/ueA*;?. 
 
 3 Athenseus (xiii. p. 589. xv. p. 696.) cites him, ei/ T 
 
EARLY LITERATURE ON THE SUBJECT. 
 
 direct means of ascertaining, but who probably is to 
 be placed somewhere about the end of the third cen- 
 tury before the Christian era 4 , Timotheus of Athens, 
 is also to be added to the number of his early bio- 
 graphers. But independently of such works as these, 
 antiquity abounded in others which contained informa- 
 tion on this subject in a less direct form. Aristoxenus 
 of Tarentum, who during a part of his life was him- 
 self a pupil of Aristotle, in his biographies of Socrates 
 and Plato had frequent occasion to speak of the great 
 Stagirite. Epicurus, in a treatise which is cited under 
 the title of A Letter on the Pursuits and Habits 
 of former Philosophers, related several stories to his 
 disparagement 5 . The same, perhaps, was the case with 
 Aristippus (apparently the grandson of the founder of 
 the Cyrenean school) in his work On the Luxury 
 of Antiquity*. And yet more valuable materials than 
 were furnished by the two last-mentioned works, of 
 which at least the former appears to have been com- 
 posed in that vulgar spirit which delights in finding 
 something to degrade to its own level all that is above 
 it 7 , seem to have been contained in the treatises of 
 Demetrius the Magnesian and Apollodorus the Athe- 
 nian. The first of these was a contemporary of Cicero 
 
 4 This seems to follow from the fact that Diogenes only 
 quotes him in the lives of Plato, Speusippus, Aristotle, and Zeno 
 of Cittium. He is therefore no authority for any thing later 
 than the time of the last. Zeno was an old man B. c. 260. 
 (Diog. Laert. vii. 6.) Timotheus's work is quoted under the title 
 Flept B<wi/. 
 
 5 Ap. Athen. p. 354. 
 
 Q Diog. Laert. ii. 23. v. 3. 
 
 7 See the stories which were related in it of Protagoras, also 
 mentioned by Athenaeus, loc. cit. 
 
 12 
 
4 ALEXANDRINE WRITERS. 
 
 and his celebrated friend Atticus 1 , and appears to have 
 exercised his acumen in detecting such erroneous 
 stories prevalent in his time as arose from the con- 
 fusion of different poets and philosophers who had 
 borne the same name 2 ; a cause which formerly in the 
 absence of hereditary surnames, and under the ope- 
 ration of many motives for falsification, was much 
 more fertile in its results than can now be easily 
 imagined 3 . The second is an authority which for the 
 purposes of the modern biographer of Aristotle is 
 the most important of all. He, like Hermippus, was 
 an Alexandrine scholar, and pupil of the celebrated 
 commentator and editor of the Homeric poems, Ari- 
 starchus 4 . Among his voluminous works was one On 
 the Sects of Philosophers, which no doubt contained 
 much that was interesting on our subject; but what 
 renders him valuable above any other of these lost 
 writers, and makes us treasure up with avidity the 
 slightest notices by him which have come down to us, 
 is his celebrated Chronology, a composition in iambic 
 verse, often cited under the title of Xpovwd, or Xpo- 
 VIKIJ cnWafis, by that compiler whose treatise is unfor- 
 tunately the most ancient systematic account of Aris- 
 totle's life which has escaped the ravages of time. 
 These citations are invaluable, not merely for the 
 positive information which we gain from them, but 
 because they serve also, as we shall have occasion to 
 
 1 Cicero, Brut. 91. He is alluded to in Epp. ad. Attic, iv. 11. 
 but in viii. 11. ix. 9. xiii. 6. it is Demetrius the Syrian, a rhetori- 
 cian, who is referred to. This latter is also spoken of in Brut. 91. 
 
 2 Diog. Laert. v. 3. 
 
 3 See Galen, Comment, in Hippocr. de nat. Horn. ii. p. 105, 
 109, and in Hippocr. de Humor, i. p. 5, ed. Kuehn. 
 
 4 Suidas, sub v. ' 
 
SMALL CIRCULATION OF THEIR BOOKS. 5 
 
 observe in the sequel, for a touchstone of anecdotes 
 whose authority is otherwise uncertain 5 . 
 
 The foregoing list of authors, which might be yet 
 further enlarged, abundantly shows that in the be- 
 ginning of the first century before Christ there were 
 materials for compiling a biography of Aristotle as de- 
 tailed as one of Newton or Young could be in the 
 present day. This, however, soon afterwards ceased to 
 be the case. When the only means of obtaining the 
 copy of a book was by the laborious process of tran- 
 scription, the expense necessarily confined its acquisi- 
 tion to comparatively few persons, and when to this 
 drawback we add those arising from voluminous size 
 and but partially interesting subject, the circulation 
 would be very limited indeed. It may be questioned, 
 perhaps, whether some of the works we have noticed 
 ever found their way beyond the walls of the royal 
 library at Alexandria, except in the shape of extracts. 
 If this were the case, the destruction of the whole 
 or a great part of that library 6 in the siege of the city 
 by Julius Caesar (B. c. 48) would very probably cause 
 their annihilation. At all events, in subsequent times, 
 when Rome was the centre of civilization as well as 
 of empire, works of such a description became totally 
 unfit to satisfy the wants of the age. A certain ac- 
 quaintance with Greek literature, Greek philosophy, and 
 Greek history, became an essential accomplishment for 
 the fashionable Roman, but this acquaintance was 
 
 5 See with reference to Apollodorus and his works, Voss. DC 
 Historicis Greeds, p 132, et seq. Heyne, ad Apollodori Bibli- 
 othec. Vol. i. p. 385, 457, and Brandis in the Rhemisches Museum, 
 Vol. iii. p. no. in whose opinion the chronology of Apollodorus 
 is founded on that of Eratosthenes. 
 
 6 Aulus Gellius, Nodes Atticce, vi. 17. 
 
6 GREEK LITERATURE FASHIONABLE AT ROME. 
 
 nothing like the one which Cato and Scipio, which 
 Atticus and Cicero possessed. It was expected to be 
 extremely comprehensive 1 , and, as all comprehensive 
 knowledge must he when popularized, it was propor- 
 tionally superficial. To feed this appetite for general 
 information was the work of the needy men of letters 
 under the Empire. In the time of the early Ptolemies 
 and of the Kings of Pergamus their energies had been 
 directed by the munificence of those monarch s to the 
 accumulation of vast stores of erudition on particu- 
 lar subjects. The number of monographies, and the 
 minute subdivision of intellectual labour which pre- 
 vailed under their patronage, is scarcely paralleled by 
 the somewhat similar case of Germany at the present 
 day. Homer, a sacred book for the Greeks, was the 
 principal subject of their labours; but indeed there 
 
 1 See Juvenal, Sat. vii. 229 236, of the qualifications required 
 from the masters of his time: 
 
 Vos scevas imponite leges, 
 Ut prceceptori verborum regula constet, 
 Ut legal historias, auctores noverit omnes 
 Tanquam ungues digitosque suos ut forte rogatus 
 Dum petit aut tkermas aut Phcebi balnea, dicat 
 Nutricem Anchisaz, nomen patriamque novercce 
 Anchemori: dicat, quot Acestes vixerit annos, 
 Quot Siculus Phrygibus vini donaverit urnas. 
 
 The work of Ptolemy the son of Hephaestion, which we shall 
 notice afterwards, is quite in accordance with this satirical de- 
 scription. The censorship which was established in the time of Ti- 
 berius accelerated the degeneracy of the national taste ; its opera- 
 tion being fatal to an acquaintance with all healthy literature, no 
 less than to its production. Thus Caligula wished to destroy 
 the writings of Homer,, Virgil, and Livy. (Sueton. Vit. 34.) 
 Of Nero we are told "Liberates disciplinas omnes fere puer atti- 
 git; sed a philosophia eum mater avertit, monens imperaturo con- 
 trariam esse, a cognitione veterum oratorum Seneca praeceptor, 
 quo diutius in admiratione sui detineret" (Sueton. Vit. 52.) 
 
COMPILATIONS. 
 
 was no classical author and no literary or scientif 
 question which did not employ the abilities of a crowd 
 of antiquarians or commentators. The prodigious stores 
 thus accumulated 2 formed the stock from which the 
 litterateurs of Rome derived materials for the new spe- 
 cies of intellectual repast demanded by the taste of 
 their times. In the first generation of compilations 
 which were composed for this purpose, the writers of 
 course made use of the existing sources of information, 
 and fortified their statements by citations of their au- 
 thority in each particular instance. But as the real 
 love for literature declined before the debilitating in- 
 
 2 The number of volumes at Alexandria in the time of Callima- 
 chus (about 259 B.C.) amounted to five hundred and thirty-two 
 thousand, or according to the explanation of Ritschl, (Die Alex- 
 andrinischen Bibliotheken, p. 28,) four hundred and thirty-two 
 thousand. At the time of the destruction of the great part of 
 them by fire, they had reached seven hundred thousand. The dif- 
 ference was caused in no small measure by the accumulation of 
 commentatorial or antiquarian works. Thus Aristarchus is said to 
 have written more than eight hundred volumes of commentaries 
 alone. (Suidas, sub v.) Some are said to have spent their whole lives 
 on the elucidation of single questions relative to Homer. (See Wolf, 
 Prolegomena in Homerum, sec. 45. 51.) Under Ptolemy Philadel- 
 phus an immense number of original works were collected, and 
 the arrangement, description, and illustration of these became 
 the principal business of men of letters under his successors. 
 Under Ptolemy the accumulation was so rapid that there was no 
 time for this. Galen relates that when any merchant-vessels put 
 into the harbours of Egypt, all manuscripts which happened to 
 be on board were taken to the royal library and transcripts of 
 them sent back to the owners. In default of time to classify 
 the originals, they were laid up in the collection under the title 
 of TO ex Tr\oi<av, "the books taken out of ships." (Galen, cited 
 by Wolf, Proleg. sec. 42.) It is hardly necessary to remark that 
 the word " volume," in reference to this time, applies to the papyrus 
 rolls, of which none perhaps contained more than a couple of 
 closely printed octavo sheets, while some were very much less. 
 
8 MISCELLANIES PAMPHILA PHAVORINUS. 
 
 fluence of luxury, while at the same time the fashion 
 of literary accomplishments remained, it became neces- 
 sary that information should be furnished in a more 
 generally palatable form. Hence out of the first crop 
 of compilations, a new generation of writers composed 
 a sort of Omniana, (TravroSairai uFTop'uu,) a species of 
 composition which became exceedingly popular, as it 
 combined a loose kind of information on those points 
 of which everybody was expected to possess some know- 
 ledge, with the piquancy of memoirs, and the variety 
 of subject which is so pleasant to a frivolous and in- 
 dolent reader. It very soon overlaid and destroyed the 
 learned labours of the preceding ages, and from the 
 time at which it began to prevail, it becomes very 
 questionable whether a writer, when he quotes an au- 
 thority of a date earlier than the Empire, ever has cast 
 eyes upon him, or even wishes his readers to believe 
 that he has done so. One of the earliest as well as 
 most original works of this description was the produc- 
 tion of a female hand. Pamphila, a lady of Egyptian 
 extraction in the time of Nero, had married at a very 
 early age a person of considerable literary tastes and 
 attainments, whose house was the resort of many per- 
 sons distinguished for the same, either for the purposes 
 of education or of social intercourse. During thirteen 
 years she states that she was never separated from her 
 husband's side for an hour, and that it was her habit 
 to take notes of any thing which she might learn 
 either from him or from any of his literary circle, 
 which appeared worth recording. Out of these mate- 
 rials, together with extracts made by herself from au- 
 thors which she had read, she composed eight books 
 of miscellaneous historical memoirs, (uvfLtuKTa IcrTopiKa 
 purposely abstaining from any thing like 
 
LATER COMPILATIONS. 9 
 
 an arrangement according to subjects, that her readers 
 might enjoy the pleasure arising from the variety. 
 This work Photius, from whom we have taken our 
 notice of it, describes as being "a most useful one for 
 the acquirement of general information 1 ." 
 
 Phavorinus, a native of Aries, who flourished in the 
 reign of the Emperor Hadrian, was the compiler of 
 another work of the same description, but not com- 
 posed under such interesting circumstances. His Mis- 
 cellaneous Historical Questions (Trai/rocWjj vXrj to-ro- 
 piKtj, or TravToScLTTYi \cTTopia) were, as well as the works of 
 Pamphila, a mine much worked by subsequent writers. 
 But the degenerate taste which had caused the pro- 
 duction of such works as these, or at any rate as the 
 latter, did not stop here. Still declining, it called for 
 yet more meager and worthless compilations, which 
 were furnished by drawing from the confused and tur- 
 bid Miscellanies such parts as referred to any particu- 
 lar subject on which the writer thought proper to make 
 collections. To this stage belongs the work of Dioge- 
 nes Laertius, a part of which forms the nucleus of all 
 modern biographies of Aristotle, as well as of Plato 
 and most of the early Greek philosophers ; and to a 
 yet later period, after the processes which we have been 
 describing had been again and again repeated, the Lives 
 by the Pseudo-Ammonius and his anonymous Latin 
 translator and interpolater. 
 
 If we were to estimate the relative importance of 
 these later authorities by the quantity of critical dis- 
 cernment or sound erudition which they display, there 
 would be little to choose between the contemporary of 
 Severus, and his followers of some centuries later. But 
 
 1 Photius, Biblioth. p. 119- ed. Bekker. 
 
10 RELATIVE VALUE OF LATER WRITERS. 
 
 Diogenes, although devoid of all historical or philosophi- 
 cal discrimination, although sometimes contradicting 
 himself within the limits of a single biography, and 
 confusing the tenets of Peripatetics and Epicureans 
 without the least consciousness of his own indistinct 
 views, 1 is yet distinguished hy the circumstance that in 
 his narrative the names of the earliest authorities still 
 appear, while from the rest they have in most cases 
 dropped out. With the use, therefore, of due caution 
 and diligence, we are frequently enabled to arrive at 
 the views entertained on a given point by individuals 
 of four centuries earlier date, who possessed both the 
 wish and the means to ascertain truth where the later 
 writers were deficient in both. This is particularly the 
 case with certain classes of facts. Anecdotes illustra- 
 tive of individual character or habits of life readily 
 spring up and have a rapid growth, if the smallest 
 nucleus of truth exist as a foundation for them. But 
 dry and uninteresting statements, such as the date of 
 an insulated event, will very rarely be falsified except 
 by accidents attending transcription, unless their de- 
 termination is distinctly felt to affect the decision of 
 some more obviously important question. When, there- 
 fore, such statements coupled with the name of an 
 early authority have been preserved, there is a fair 
 presumption that we have firm standing ground, and 
 other notices of uncertain origin will possess a greater 
 or less claim to our consideration, as they appear more 
 or less adapted to make parts of that body of which, 
 as it were, a few fossil bones have been preserved. 
 These we shall first present collectively to the view of 
 our readers, and then proceed step by step in the pro- 
 cess of redintegration. 
 
 1 See Casaubon's note on Diog. Laert. v. 29. 
 
APOLLODORUS. 1 1 
 
 On the authority then of Apollodorus 2 we may fix 
 the birth of Aristotle in the first year of the ninety- 
 ninth Olympiad, (B. c. 384 3,) and his arrival at 
 Athens as a scholar of Plato when seventeen years 
 old. After remaining there twenty years, he visited 
 the court of Hermias (a prince of Asia Minor of whom 
 we shall say more in the sequel,) in the year after 
 his master's death, Theophilus being then archon, (i.e. 
 B. c. 348 7,) and staid there for three years. In the 
 archonship of Eubulus, the fourth year of the hundred 
 and eighth Olympiad, (B. c. 345 4,) he passed over 
 to Mytilene. In that of Pythodotus, the second year 
 of the hundred and ninth, (B. c. 343 2,) he commenced 
 the education of Alexander the Great at his father's 
 court ; and in the second year of the hundred and 
 eleventh, returned to Athens and taught philosophy in 
 the school of the Lyceum for the space of thirteen 
 years; at the expiration of which time he crossed over 
 to Chalcis in Euboea, and there died from a disease 
 in the archonship of Philocles, the third year of the 
 hundred and fourteenth Olympiad, (B. c. 322 1,) at 
 the age of about sixty-three, and at the same time 
 that Demosthenes ended his life in Calauria. 
 
 2 Ap. Diog. Laert. Fit. Arist. sec. 9. Compare Dionysius of 
 Halicarnassus, EpisL i. ad Ammceum, p. 727, 728, whose account 
 agrees with that of Diogenes, and is itself probably based on the 
 chronology of Apollodorus. See Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, ii. a. 320 
 col. 3. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 BIRTHPLACE OF ARISTOTLE. 
 
 VlTAGiRUS, (or, as it was later called, Stagira,) 
 the birthplace of one of the most extraordinary men, 
 if not the very most, that the world has ever pro- 
 duced, was a petty town in the north of Greece,/ 
 situated on the western side of the Strymonic gulf, 
 just where the general line of coast takes a southerly 
 direction. It lay in the midst of a picturesque country, 
 both in soil and appearance resembling the southern 
 part of the bay of Naples. Immediately south a 
 promontory, like the Punta della Campanella and 
 nearly in the same latitude, ran out in an easterly di- 
 rection, effectually screening the town and its little 
 harbour Capros, formed by the island of the same 
 name, from the violence of the squalls coming up the 
 JEgean, a similar service to that rendered by the Ita- 
 lian headland to the town of Sorrento. In the ter- 
 raced windings, too, by which the visitor climbs through 
 the orange groves of the latter place, he may without 
 any great violence imagine the "narrow and steep 
 paths" by which an ancient historian and chorogra- 
 pher describes those who crossed the mountains out of 
 Macedonia as descending into the valley of Arethusa, 
 where was seen the tomb of Euripides, and the town 
 of Stagirus'.V The inhabitants possessed all the ad- 
 
 1 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvii. 4. The similarity in the name 
 of the island Capri, (the ancient Capreae) which lies off Sorrento, 
 is curious, and seems to favour the account of Frontinus, that Sur- 
 rentum was originally colonized by Greeks. 
 
HIS FAMILY. 13 
 
 vantages of civilization which Grecian blood and Gre- 
 cian intercourse could give, the city having been 
 originally built by a colony of Andrians, and its popu- 
 ulation subsequently replenished by one from Chalcis 
 in Eubcea. 2 \fThe mouth of the Strymon and the im- 
 portant city of Amphipolis was within three hours' 
 sail to the north ; and every part of the Chalcidic 
 peninsula, a district full of Greek towns 3 , among which 
 were Olynthus and Potidaea, was readily accessible. 
 With the former of these Stagirus appears to have 
 been leagued as a humble ally 4 in that resistance to 
 the ambitious designs of Philip which terminated so 
 calamitously. In the year 348 B. c. it was destroyed by 
 him 5 , and the inhabitants sold as slaves. 
 
 Aristotle, however, did not share the misfortunes of 
 his native town, to which it is probable he had been 
 for many years a stranger. His father, Nicomachus, 
 one of the family or guild of the Asclepiads, in 
 which the practice of medicine was hereditary, had 
 taken up his residence at the court of Philip's father 
 Amyntas, to whom he was body surgeon, and whose 
 confidence he appears to have possessed in a high 
 degree. 6 He did not confine himself to the empi- 
 rical practice of his art, for he is related to have 
 written six books on medical and one on physical sub- 
 
 2 Thucyd. iv. 88. Dionys. Halic. Ep. i. ad Amm. p. 727. 
 
 3 Demosthenes (Philipp. iii. p. 11 7-) says that Philip destroyed 
 thirty-two there. Some of these were doubtless mere hamlets. 
 
 4 Dio Chrysost. Or. ii. p. 36. 
 
 5 ara<rTaToi/. Plutarch, Fit. Alex. sec. 7 If Aristotle's will, 
 however, preserved by Diogenes Laertius, be genuine, this term 
 must be considerably qualified ; for in it he speaks of his irctTptpa 
 oiKia in Stagirus. One naturally expects the description of De- 
 mosthenes (he. cit.) to be overcharged. 
 
 8 laTpov Ka\ </>t'Aov xpe<a, is the expression of Diogenes. 
 
14 HIS EARLY EDUCATION. 
 
 jects 1 , which latter head would in that age include 
 every department of natural history and physiology, no 
 less than those investigations of the properties of un or- 
 ganic matter to which the term is appropriated in the 
 present day. Now this circumstance is much more im- 
 portant in its hearing upon the intellectual character 
 of Aristotle than may at first appear. In his writings 
 appears such a fondness for these pursuits as it seems 
 impossible not to believe must have been imbibed in his 
 very earliest years, and most probably under the imme- 
 diate superintendence of this parent. For although he 
 was an orphan at the age of seventeen, (and how much 
 earlier we cannot say,) yet it is well known that instruc- 
 tion in the " art and maistery of healing," and such 
 subjects as were connected therewith, was commenced 
 by the Asclepiads at a very early age. " I do not blame 
 the ancients," says Galen 2 , " for not writing books on 
 anatomical manipulation ; though I commend Marinus, 
 who did. For it was superfluous for them to compose 
 such records for themselves or others, while they were 
 from their childhood exercised by their parents in dis- 
 secting just as familiarly as in writing and reading ; 
 so that there was no more fear of their forgetting their 
 anatomy than of their forgetting their alphabet. But 
 when grown men as well as children were taught, this 
 thorough discipline fell off; and the art being carried 
 out of the family of the Asclepiads, and declining by 
 repeated transmission, books became necessary for the 
 student." And we have another, although slighter, 
 
 presumptive evidence thatfthe childhood of the great 
 
 ^^r- 
 
 1 Suidas, sub v. NIKO'JUUXXOS. 
 
 2 Cited and translated by Whewell, History of the Inductive 
 Sciences, Vol. iii. p. 385. See also Plutarch, Fit. Alex. sec. 8. 
 
ORPHAN WHEN YOUNG COMES TO ATHENS. 15 
 
 philosopher was spent with his father at the Macedonian 
 court, in the circumstance of his being selected hy Philip, 
 at a period long subsequent, to conduct the education of 
 Alexander.^ This we shall find an opportunity of re- 
 verting to in the sequel. 
 
 '^Whatever influence, however, was exercised by Ni- 
 comachus over the future fortunes of his son, he had not 
 the happiness of living to be a witness of its effects. 
 He, as well as his wife Phaestis, a descendant of one of 
 the Chalcidian colonists of Stagirus, died while Aristotle 
 was yet a minor, leaving him under the guardianship of 
 Proxenus, a citizen of Atarneus in Asia, who appears to 
 have been settled in the native town of his ward. How 
 long this person continued in the discharge of his trust, 
 we have no means of determining more than that it was 
 sufficiently long to imbue the object of it with a respect 
 and gratitude which endured through life. At the age 
 of seventeen, however, it terminated, and Aristotle, 
 master of himself and probably of a considerable for- 
 tune, came to Athens, the centre of the civilization of 
 the world, and the focus of every thing that was brilliant 
 in action or in thought 3 . It is not probable that any 
 thing but the thirst for knowledge which distinguished 
 his residence there, was the cause of its commencement. 
 Plato was at that time in the height of his reputation, 
 and the desire to see and enjoy the intercourse of such 
 a man would have been an adequate motive to minds of 
 much less capacity and taste for philosophy than Aris- 
 totle's to resort to a spot, where, besides, every enjoy- 
 
 3 Hippias in Plato's Protagoras 69, calls Athens r^ 'E\\a'Bo? 
 auro x TO vrpvTave'iov T/9 <ro<<as. ' Where/ asks the Sicilian 
 orator in Diodorus (xiii. 27) < shall foreigners go for instruction, if 
 Athens be destroyed?' 
 
16 CALUMNY OF EPICURUS. 
 
 ment which even an Epicurean could desire was to be 
 found '.V It was reserved for the foolish ingenuity of 
 later times, when all real knowledge of this period 
 had faded away, to invent the absurd motive of " a 
 Delphic oracle, which commanded him to devote him- 
 self to philosophy 2 . For another account, scarcely less 
 absurd, .the excuse of ignorance cannot be so easily 
 made. Epicurus, in the work we have before spoken 
 of, related that Aristotle, after squandering his paternal 
 property, adopted the profession of a mercenary soldier, 
 and failing in this, afterwards that of a vender of 
 medicines ; that he then took advantage of the free 
 manner in which Plato's instructions were given to 
 pick up a knowledge of philosophy, for which he was 
 not without talent, and thus gradually arrived at his 
 views 3 . It is at once manifest that this story is in- 
 compatible with the account of Apollodorus, according 
 to which Aristotle attached himself to the study of 
 philosophy under Plato, before he had completed his 
 eighteenth year. Independently of the difficulty of 
 conceiving that a mere boy should have already passed 
 through so many vicissitudes of fortune, it is obvious 
 that he could not before that time have squandered 
 his property, except through the culpable negligence 
 of his guardian, Proxenus ; and any supposition of this 
 sort is precluded by the singular respect testified for 
 that individual in his ward's will, the substance of 
 which or rather perhaps a codicil to it has been 
 
 1 See Xenophon, Rep. Ath. cap. ii. sec. 7, 8. 
 
 2 Pseudo-Ammonius, Fit. Arist. 
 
 3 Athenaeus, viii. p. 354. Julian, Var. Hist. v. 9. That these 
 two accounts are derived from the same source appears no less 
 from their similarity of phrase than from the remark of Athe- 
 nseus, "that Epicurus was the only authority for this story against 
 Aristotle." 
 
AFFECTION FOR HIS GUARDIAN. 17 
 
 preserved to us by Diogenes Laertius 3 . In it he di- 
 rects the erection of a statue of Proxenus and of his wife, 
 he appoints their son Nicanor (whom he had pre- 
 viously adopted) to he joint guardian with Antipa- 
 ter of his own son Nicomachus, and also bestows his 
 daughter upon him in marriage. It is impossible to 
 conceive that such feelings could have been aroused 
 in the ward by a negligent or indiscreetly indulgent 
 guardian; and we should hardly have reverted to the 
 story in question, except to remark how the very form 
 of the calumny seems to indicate that the favourite 
 studies of Aristotle, in the early part of his life, were 
 such as his father's profession would naturally have 
 led him to, Physiology and Natural History 4 . Indeed, 
 nothing is more probable than that he might have 
 given advice to the sick; theoretical knowledge and 
 practical skill being in those times so inseparably con- 
 nected, that the Greek language possesses no terms 
 
 3 Vit. Arist. sec. 11 16. The genuineness of this document is 
 confirmed by the notice which Athenaeus (xiii. p. 589) gives from 
 Hermippus, relative to the provision for Herpyllis, which quite 
 agrees with what we find in it. Compare, too, the author of the 
 Latin Life, (ad Jin.) from whom it appears that Ptolemy and An- 
 dronicus had each of them inserted a testament of Aristotle in 
 their works. 
 
 4 Athenaeus tells the story, after mentioning several tenets of 
 Aristotle on matters of Natural History, in reference to which he 
 calls him "the medicine- vender," (o ^a^juaKo-n-wX*/?). There is a 
 curious passage, too, in a work of Aristotle's, the Politics (p. 1258, 
 line 12. ed. Bekker), which seems to have some bearing upon 
 this matter. It may almost be taken as an explanation of his 
 conduct, if it was such as we have supposed. Timaeus of Tau- 
 romenium related that at a late period of his life (o'\^e T^ I/'AHCIO?) 
 he served an obscure physician in a menial capacity. (Aristocles, 
 ap. Euseb. xv. 2.) For the character of Timaeus, see Casaubon on 
 Diog. Laert. x. 8. 
 
 2 
 
18 DISCREPANT ACCOUNTS. 
 
 which formally distinguish them, and from this cir- 
 cumstance the report may have arisen, that he at- 
 tempted medicine as a profession. 
 
 There are some other accounts equally discrepant 
 with the chronology of Apollodorus, which we have 
 taken as our standard. One of these is, that Aristotle 
 did not attach himself to Plato until he was thirty 
 years of age: another, that on his first arrival at 
 Athens he was for three years the pupil of Socrates 1 . 
 The first of these, which rests on the sole authority 
 of one Eumelus 2 , a writer of whom nothing more 
 whatever is known, may perhaps be a feature of the 
 story of Epicurus which we have just discussed : it 
 has been conjectured, however, with great appearance 
 of probability, that its sole foundation is the well-known 
 maxim of Plato, that the study of the higher philoso- 
 phy should not be commenced before the thirtieth year. 
 The second, as it stands, is absolutely unintelligible, 
 Socrates having been put to death in the archonship 
 of Laches, (B. c. 400 399,) that is, fifteen years be- 
 fore the birth of Aristotle. But it has been ingeni- 
 ously remarked 3 , that at the time when Aristotle first 
 came to Athens, Plato was absent in Sicily, from whence 
 he did not return till Olymp. ciii. 4, the third year 
 afterwards 4 ; so that if Aristotle was then introduced 
 
 1 Pseudo- Ammonias. Vita Latina. 
 
 2 Ap. Diog. Laert. Vit. Arist. sec. 6. All other accounts are 
 unanimous in representing him as becoming Plato's disciple while 
 very young. 
 
 3 Stahr. Aristotelia, i. p. 43. 
 
 4 Corsini (De die n. Platonis) cited by Aste. Platons Leben und 
 Schriften, p. SO. Heraclides of Pontus presided in the school of 
 Plato during his absence. But Xenocrates, who is known to have 
 been an intimate associate of Aristotle in after life, may possibly 
 
HIS FIRST STAY IN ATHENS. 19 
 
 to the philosophy of the Academy, it must have been 
 under the auspices of some other of the Socratic school, 
 whom the foolish compilers of later times mistook for 
 its founder. Under this natural explanation, the ab- 
 surd story becomes a confirmation of the account of 
 Apollodorus, which we have followed a coincidence 
 the more satisfactory as it is quite undesigned, 
 V We shall now proceed, as well as the scanty infor- 
 mation which has come down to us will allow, to 
 sketch the course of Aristotle's life during the ensuing 
 period of nearly twenty years which he spent at Athens, 
 It appears to have been mainly, although not entirely, 
 occupied in the acquisition of his almost encyclopaedic 
 knowledge, in collecting, criticising, and digesting. fOf 
 his extraordinary diligence in mastering the doctrines 
 of the earlier schools of philosophy we may form some 
 estimate from the notices of them which are preserved 
 in his works, which indeed constitute the principal 
 source of our whole knowledge upon this subject. That 
 this information should have been acquired by him 
 during this part of his life is rendered likely both by 
 the nature of the case and by the scattered anecdotes 
 which relate that his industry no less than his intel- 
 ligence elicited the strongest expressions of admiration 
 from Plato, who is said by Pseudo-Ammonius to have 
 called Aristotle's house "the house of the reader'' 
 The Latin translator adds, that in his absence his 
 master would exclaim, "that the intelligence of the 
 
 have been the means of drawing his attention to intellectual phi- 
 losophy ; the social intercourse in which this might be effected 
 would to later ages appear in the light of formal instruction ; and 
 when this was the case, the name Xenocrates would readily by 
 the carelessness ' or meddling criticism of a transcriber be altered 
 into that of Socrates. 
 
 22 
 
20 HIS INDUSTRY WORKS OF THIS TIME. 
 
 school was away, and his audience but a deaf one 1 !" 
 A treatise on Rhetoric, not that which has come down 
 to us, but one which, as we shall have occasion to 
 show in the sequel, was probably written during this 
 period of his life, is described by Cicero 2 as contain- 
 ing an account of the theories of all his predecessors 
 upon this subject, from the time of Tisias, the first who 
 wrote upon it, so admirably and perspicuously set 
 forth, that all persons in his time who wished to gain 
 a knowledge of them, preferred Aristotle's description 
 to their own. We may take occasion to remark by 
 the way that this taste for reading could not have been 
 gratified without very ample means. A collection of 
 books was a luxury which lay within the reach of as 
 small a portion of the readers of that day, as a gal- 
 lery of pictures would of the amateurs of this 3 . This 
 
 1 Intellectus abest ; surdum est auditorium. This story is pro- 
 bably only an expansion of a saying of Plato's, recorded by Philopo- 
 nus, (De JEternitate Mundi, vi. 27.) that Aristotle was " the soul 
 of his school," (o i/o us T;<? BtaT|0</37?.) 
 
 2 De Oratore, ii. 38. compared with De Inventione, ii. 2. 
 
 3 The facilities for obtaining the copy of a book were very 
 much increased after the extensive manufacture of papyrus at 
 Alexandria under the Ptolemies, and when transcription had be- 
 come a profitable and widely practised profession. Yet we find 
 Polybius (iii. 32.) at some pains to take off the objection to his 
 work arising from its costliness. But in the time of Aristotle's 
 youth, the expense must have been far greater. He, probably in 
 the latter part of his life, possessed a very large library, (Athe- 
 ncei Epitom. p. 3.) which he left to his successor, Theophrastus. 
 (Strabo, xiii. p. 608.) The philosophers after him appear likewise 
 to have made collections. We know this for certain of Theo- 
 phrastus, Strato, and Lycon ; (Diog. Laert. v. 52, 62, 73.) and such 
 were probably used under greater or less restrictions by their re- 
 spective scholars. But nothing of this sort is related of the 
 earlier philosophers, whose systems indeed did not require (at least 
 to any thing like the extent of Aristotle's) any previous histori- 
 
RHETORIC PROVERBS CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. 21 
 
 circumstance, then, is calculated to throw additional 
 discredit on the story told by Epicurus of Aristotle's 
 youth. A bankrupt apothecary could never have been 
 a book collector. Another work of Aristotle's, which 
 is unfortunately lost, was compiled during this same 
 time. It was a collection of Proverbs (Trapo'i/miai,) a 
 species of literature to which he, like most other men 
 of reflection, attached great value. Two other most 
 important works, both of which are likewise lost, we 
 may, from what we know of their nature, probably re- 
 fer to the same period, at least as far as their plan 
 and commencement are concerned. The first of these 
 was a work on the fundamental principles on which 
 the codes of law in the States of his time were seve- 
 rally based 4 . The second was an account of no less 
 
 cal investigation. And Plato, if he really did purchase the work 
 of Philolaus, as he was said by Satyrus and Timon the Sillo- 
 grapher (Aulus Gellius, iii. 17- Diogenes Laert. iii. Q, viii. 15. 85.) 
 to have done, and reproduced the philosophy of it in his Timceus, 
 certainly had no intention of communicating it to his scholars. 
 Hence it appears unlikely that Aristotle could have obtained the 
 use of the greater part of the works which the plan of his 
 studies required by other means than purchase. 
 
 4 The title of the treatise was AtKajco/xara TroXewi/. (See Casau- 
 bon and Menage on Diog. Laert. v. 26.) Grotius, deceived by the 
 corrupt reading, TroXeynav for TroAewi/, in Ammonius (sub v. vrjes.) 
 and Sir James Macintosh (Discourse on the Law of Nature and 
 Nations, p. 16.) implicitly following him, conceived that the work 
 was " a treatise on the laws of war." But any one who will peruse 
 attentively the third book of the Politics will see that it would 
 be much more accurately described by calling it "a treatise on 
 the spirit of laws." In the small states of Greece it was not 
 difficult to reduce all the existing laws, or at any rate those which 
 related to the political constitution, to some one axiom, which 
 was regarded as the generative principle, the idee-mere of the 
 whole code. For this axiom, whether explicitly stated, or only 
 to be gathered from the common and statute law, the technical 
 
22 HISTORY OF SEVERAL STATES. 
 
 than one hundred and fifty -eight (according to others 
 one hundred and seventy-one or two hundred and fifty- 
 five) States, which, judging from some fragments which 
 have heen preserved, involved their history from the 
 earliest known times to his own. 1 Of this invaluable 
 collection a great many scraps remain. Those which re- 
 late to Athens, Sigonius is said to have made the basis 
 of his account of that commonwealth. 2 And another 
 work for which these apparently formed the foundation, 
 the Politics, has come down to us in all probability 
 in the unfinished draught in which it was left at 
 the moment of the author's death. We may con- 
 clude the evidence which these productions afford of 
 their writer's activity and industry with an anecdote 
 preserved by Diogenes (Tit. Arist. sec. 16). Appa- 
 rently to prevent the remission of attention which re- 
 sults from nature insensibly giving way under the 
 
 term in Aristotle's time was TO Skatoi/, "the rule of right." This 
 was different in different States: he speaks of TO Sinaiov d\i- 
 jap^iKOv, TO SLKCIIOV apiffTOKpariKov, and TO Stfcatoi/ ^^OKpaTiKOv, " the 
 oligarchal, aristocratic, and democratic rules of right." Such as- 
 sertions of political claims as might be considered obvious appli- 
 cations of these fundamental axioms were called by the name 
 SiKaioa/jLctTa, "prerogatives," or "pleas of right." Thus in our 
 own country, the right of the Crown to dissolve parliament, that 
 of the subject to be tried by jury and to be held innocent of 
 any charge till found guilty, that of the peers to demand an au- 
 dience of the sovereign, and to be the ultimate court of appeal 
 in civil cases, are so many ^iKai^/jLara. They are not referible to 
 one standard of political justice, because our constitution contains 
 monarchical, aristocratic, oligarchal, and democratic elements. 
 But the Greek states were almost always pure oligarchies or pure 
 democracies. 
 
 1 Diog. Laert. Fit. Pseudo-Ammon. and Fit. Lat. Compare 
 Cicero, De Fin. v. 4. 10. Varro, De L. L. vii, 3. 
 
 2 Nunnez, ad Fit. Pseudo-Ammon. p. 59. 
 
HIS GENIALITY. 
 
 pressure of extremely laborious study, he was acci 
 tomed to read holding a ball in one hand, under which 
 was placed a brazen basin. On the slightest involun- 
 tary relaxation of the muscles, the ball would fall, and 
 by the sudden noise which it made, at once dissipate 
 the incipient drowsiness of the student. 
 
 But this intense love of knowledge had not the 
 common effect of converting him into a mere bookworm. 
 In his works we see nothing like an undue depreciation 
 of the active forms of life, or even of its pleasures. And 
 this is the more remarkable, as we know that his frame 
 was delicate, and his constitution weakly, and that in 
 the latter part of his life he suffered much from bad 
 health 3 , circumstances which in general lead to an 
 under estimate of those pursuits for which a certain 
 robustness of body is a necessary condition. His at- 
 tention to neatness of person and dress was remark- 
 able; indeed it is said that he carried it to an extent 
 which Plato considered unworthy of a philosopher 4 . 
 Whether this account be true or not, it is certain 
 that his habits and principles were the reverse of cy- 
 nical, that he enjoyed life, and was above any un- 
 necessary affectation of severity. "Not apathy, but 
 moderation," is a maxim ascribed to him by Dio- 
 genes 5 . 
 
 We have seen that Plato felt and testified the 
 highest admiration for the talents of his pupil. But 
 
 3 Censorinus, De die natali, cap. xiv. Aristotelem ferunt natu- 
 ralem stomachi injirmitatem crebrasque morbidi corporis offensiones, 
 adeo virtute animi diu sustentasse, ut magis mirum sit ad annos 
 Ixiii. eum vitam protulisse, quam ultro non pertulisse. Compare 
 Gellius, xiii. 5. 
 
 4 jElian, Varia Hixtoria, iii. 19. Diog. Laert. Vit. Arist, mil. 
 :> Vit. sec. 31. 
 
24 IS SAID TO HAVE DISPLEASED PLATO. 
 
 it appears that in spite of this there was by no means 
 a perfect congeniality in their feelings. Aristotle is 
 said to have offended his master not only by the 
 carefulness respecting his personal appearance which 
 we have just spoken of, but by a certain sarcastic 
 habit (juto/act) 1 , which showed itself in the expression 
 of his countenance. It is difficult to imagine that he 
 should have indulged this humour in a greater degree 
 than Socrates is represented to have done by Plato 
 himself. However, a vein of irony which would ap- 
 pear very graceful in the master whom he reverenced, 
 and whose views he enthusiastically embraced, might 
 seem quite the reverse in a youthful pupil who pro- 
 mised speedily to become a rival. An anecdote is 
 related by Julian 2 , from which we should infer that 
 overt hostility broke out between them. Aristotle, it 
 is said, taking advantage of the absence of Xenocrates 
 from Athens, and of the temporary confinement of 
 Speusippus by illness, attacked Plato in the presence 
 of his disciples with a series of subtle sophisms, which, 
 his powers being impaired by extreme old age, had 
 the effect of perplexing him and obliging him to retire in 
 confusion and shame from the walks of the Academy. Xe- 
 nocrates, however, returning three months after, drove 
 Aristotle away, and restored his master to his old 
 haunts. On this or some other occasion it is said that 
 Plato compared his pupil's conduct to that of the young 
 foals who kick at their dam as soon as dropped 3 . And 
 the opinion that Aristotle had in some way or other 
 behaved with ingratitude to his master, certainly had 
 obtained considerable currency in antiquity; but it is 
 
 1 JElisan, he. cit. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 * Mian, Var. Hist. iv. 9. 
 
PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE STORY. 25 
 
 probable that this in a great measure arose from the 
 false interpretation of a passage in the biography of 
 Plato by Aristoxenus the musician, whom we have 
 noticed in the last chapter. This writer had related 
 that "while Plato was absent from Athens on his tra- 
 vels, certain individuals, who were foreigners, established 
 a school in opposition to him." "Some," adds Aristo- 
 cles, the Peripatetic philosopher 4 , after quoting this 
 passage, " have imagined that Aristotle was the per- 
 son here alluded to, but they forget that Aristoxenus, 
 throughout the whole of his work, speaks of Aristotle 
 in terms of praise." Every one who is conversant 
 with the productive power of Greek imagination, and 
 the rapidity with which in that fertile soil anecdotes 
 sprang up and assumed a more and more circumstan- 
 tial character on repetition, will not wonder that in 
 the course of five centuries which intervened between 
 Aristoxenus and ^Elian, the vague statement of the 
 first should have bourgeoned into the circumstantial 
 narrative of the second 5 . 
 
 * Ap. Eusebium, Prceparatio Evangelica, xv. 2. Aristocles, a 
 native of Messina, was the preceptor of the virtuous Emperor Alex- 
 ander Severus, not of Alexander Aphrodisiensis, and consequently 
 lived in the first half of the third century of the Christian era. 
 The work from which Eusebius extracts a passage of some length 
 relating to Aristotle, was a kind of History of Philosophy, in ten 
 books. Eusebius's extract is a part of the seventh. The learning 
 and discrimination of the writer is very great. He traces the 
 stories which he has occasion to mention up to their earliest ori- 
 gin, and refutes them in a masterly manner. There is a literary 
 notice of him in Fabricius's Bibliotkeca Grceca, iii. c. viii. where 
 see Heumann's note. It is curious that in the Latin Life Aristocles 
 is cited together with Aristoxenus as an authority for the very story 
 which he is concerned to refute. 
 
 The literary men of the declining period considered it a part 
 of their duty to supply all the details which their readers might 
 
26 DISCREPANT ACCOUNTS. 
 
 Independently of the vulgar insolence with which 
 this story invests the character of Aristotle, a quality 
 of which there is not a trace in his writings, there 
 is much which may render us extremely suspicious of 
 receiving it. In the first place, other stories of equal 
 authority represent his feelings towards his master as 
 those of ardent admiration and deep respect. His bio- 
 grapher informs us that he dedicated an altar (by 
 which he probably means a cenotaph) to Plato, and 
 put an inscription on it to the purport that Plato " was 
 a man whom it was sacrilege for the bad even to 
 praise." There is certainly not much credit to be at- 
 tached to the literal truth of this story 1 ; but its cha- 
 
 desiderate in the more general notices of the classical writers. An 
 amusing instance of this kind of writer is Ptolemy, the son of He- 
 phaestion, whose book is described by Photius (Biblioth. p. 146 153, 
 Bekker), and strongly praised by him for its utility to those who 
 were desirous of -rroXv^adia foroputij. Not to mention the secret 
 history of the death of Hercules, Achilles, and various other cele- 
 brated characters, we are informed of the name of the Delphian, whom 
 Herodotus abstains from mentioning (i. 51), and of that of the 
 Queen of Candaules, which latter it seems was Nysia. The reason 
 of Herodotus abstaining from giving it was, that a youth named 
 Plesirrhoiis, to whom he was much attached, had fallen in love 
 with a lady of that appellation, and, not succeeding in his suit, had 
 hanged himself. This Ptolemy related in his fifth book. In the 
 third he had informed his readers that this very Plesirrhoiis inhe- 
 rited Herodotus s property, and wrote the preface to his History, the 
 commencement of it as left by the author having been with the 
 words Ilepo-ewi/ ol \6jioi. He probably knew that the readers for 
 whom he wrote, even if they read both anecdotes, would have 
 forgotten the first by the time they reached the second. Yet the 
 age, whose taste could render books of this description popular, 
 was no more recent than that of Hadrian, at whose court JElian and 
 Phavorinus lived and wrote. 
 
 1 The phrase in question is found in an elegy to Eudemus, cited 
 by Olympiodorus, Comment, ad Plalon. Gorgiam. (Bekk. p. 53.} 
 
HIS OWN EXPRESSIONS XENOCRATES. 27 
 
 racter may be considered to indicate the view which the 
 authority followed hy the biographer took of Aristotle's 
 sentiments towards his master. Still better evidence 
 exists in the way in which Plato is spoken of in the 
 works of his pupil that have come down to us. His 
 opinions are often controverted, but always with fair- 
 ness, and never with discourtesy. If he is sometimes 
 misapprehended, the misapprehension never appears to 
 be wilful. In one rather remarkable instance there is 
 exhibited a singular tenderness and delicacy towards 
 him. The passage in question is near the commence- 
 ment of the Nicomachean Ethics 2 . To the doctrine of 
 Ideas or Archetypal Forms, as maintained by Plato, 
 Aristotle was opposed. It became necessary for him, 
 in the treatment of his subject, to discuss the bearing 
 of this doctrine upon it, and he complains that his task 
 is an unwelcome one, from the circumstance of persons 
 to whom he is attached (<j)i\ovs av^pas) having originated 
 the theory. " Still," he adds, " it seems our duty even 
 to slay our own flesh and blood" an allusion to such 
 cases as those of Iphigenia, Polyxena, and Macaria, 
 "where the cause of truth is at stake, especially as we 
 are philosophers: loving both parties, it is a sacred 
 duty to prefer the truth." The delicacy which prompted 
 such a preface as this would surely have restrained its 
 author from such coarseness as is attributed to him in 
 Elian's story. 
 
 The way in which Xenocrates is mixed up with 
 this affair is not to be overlooked. He is represented 
 as the vindicator of his master's honour, and the 
 punisher of the insolence and vanity of his rival. But 
 we shall see presently this same Xenocrates in the 
 character of Aristotle's travelling companion during the 
 2 P. 1096. col. i. c. 11. ed. Bekker. 
 
28 REASONS AGAINST THE STORY. 
 
 three eventful years of his life which immediately fol- 
 lowed the death of Plato, consequently at no long 
 period after the alleged insult took place and was re- 
 venged; a circumstance which certainly is very far 
 from harmonizing with that conduct of the two philo- 
 sophers towards each other which Elian's narrative 
 describes. 
 
 We must not forget either that Aristotle, although 
 probably possessed of considerable wealth, and perhaps 
 also of some influence from his Macedonian connections, 
 was still only a METIC, or resident alien. How sensi- 
 tive the pride of the Athenian citizen was to any ap- 
 pearance of pretension on the part of these, is notorious 1 . 
 In certain public festivals duties of an inferior, not 
 to say menial, character were assigned to them 2 . They 
 could hold no land; they could not intermarry with 
 citizens, nor even maintain a civil action in their own 
 persons, but were obliged for this purpose to employ a 
 citizen as their patron or sponsor, (Tr^oo-Tar^ 3 .) Plato, 
 on the contrary, was of one of the most illustrious fa- 
 milies in Athens, and, if we may judge by the anecdotes 
 of his connection with Chabrias and Timotheus, pos- 
 sessed friends among the most influential public cha- 
 racters of the day 4 . It is scarcely credible therefore, 
 
 1 Eurip. SuppL 892. 
 
 Ai/7r;po<? OVK tjv, oJB' 7ri(f)dovo<; 
 ouB' ^epi(TTtj<; TWV \oytov, oQev fiapvs 
 ULO.XKTT av eir] Bf/uoT/s T KOI e'i/<K. 
 
 Aristoph. Acharn. 58. TOUS yap /JLCTOIKOVS a-^ypa T<av dcrTtav Ae'ytu, 
 which after all, was doubtless meant and taken as a compliment. 
 
 2 They were the o-KCKpytyopoi, a-Kia^tityopoi, and v$pia(popoi. 
 
 3 See the authorities collected by Schoemann. Jus publicum 
 Grcccum, p. 190. 
 
 4 Diog. Laert. Vii. Plat. sec. 1, 23. ^lian, Var. Hist. ii. 18. 
 
PARALLEL BETWEEN HIM AND PLATO. 29 
 
 even had all better motives been wanting, that fear of 
 making a powerful enemy should not have restrained 
 Aristotle from behaving to his master in the way which 
 has been described. 
 
 It is not difficult to imagine how such stories grew 
 up. There is a most marked contrast observable in the 
 modes of thought of the two philosophers, such a dif- 
 ference indeed as seems incompatible with congeniality, 
 although quite consistent with the highest mutual ad- 
 miration and respect. It manifests itself in their very 
 style; Aristotle's being the dryest and most jejune 
 prose, while that of Plato teems with the imagery of 
 poetry. The one delights to dress his thoughts in all 
 the pomp of as high a degree of fancy as one can con- 
 ceive united to a sound judgment ; the other seems to 
 consider that the slightest garment would cramp their 
 vigour and hide their symmetry. In Aristotle we find 
 a searching and comprehensive view of things as they 
 present themselves to the understanding, but no attempt 
 to pass the limits of that faculty, no suspicion indeed 
 that such exist. Plato, on the contrary, never omits an 
 opportunity of passing from the finite to the infinite, 
 from the sensuous to the spiritual, from the domain of 
 the intellect to that of the feelings : he is ever striving 
 to body forth an ideal, and he only regards the actual 
 as it furnishes materials for it. Hence he frequently 
 forgets that he violates the conditions to which the 
 actual world is subjected ; or, perhaps we should rather 
 say, he disregards the importance of this. A striking 
 exemplification of the essential difference between the 
 two great philosophers is afforded by the Republic of 
 Plato compared with the criticism of it by Aristotle. 
 (Pol. ii.) The former seems to have grown up out of a 
 wish to embody an ideal of justice, and is the genuine 
 
30 THEIR DIFFERENCES GREAT. 
 
 offspring of a vigorous and luxuriant imagination review- 
 ing the forms of social life and seeing in all analogies to 
 the original conception which it was the aim of the artist 
 to set forth. But from this point of view it is never once 
 contemplated by its critic. Essentially a picture, it is 
 discussed by him as if it were a map 1 . The natural 
 consequence of these different bents is that Aristotle's 
 views always form parts of a system intellectually com- 
 plete, while Plato's harmonize with each other morally; 
 we rise from the study of the latter with our feelings 
 purified, from that of the former with our perceptions 
 cleared ; the one strengthens the intellect, the other ele- 
 vates the spirit. Consistently with this opposition it 
 happened that in the earlier centuries Christianity was 
 often grafted on Platonism, and even where this was not 
 the case, many persons were prepared for its reception 
 by the study of Plato ; while in the age of the School- 
 men an age when religion had become theology 
 Aristotle's works were the only food which the philoso- 
 phy of the time could assimilate. 
 
 The difference which is so strikingly marked between 
 the matured philosophical characters of these two giant 
 
 1 The sacred subjects, as they were treated by the early Italian 
 painters, indeed down to the time of Raffaelle and Correggio, 
 present an analogy to this work. There is in them a certain do- 
 minant thought, which it is the artist's problem to embody, and 
 which all the details, however incongruous they may be in all 
 other respects, assist in bringing out more fully and clearly. Thus 
 in the celebrated Vierge au Poisson there is a real unity of feeling 
 to which each of the particulars contributes its share. But a 
 spectator who misses this will at once remark on the glaring ab- 
 surdity of the evangelist, an old man, reading his gospel to the 
 subject of it, an infant in arms; and of Tobias presenting a fish 
 of the size of a mackerel, as that one which "leaped out of the 
 river and would have devoured him." Exactly on such principles 
 does Aristotle's critique on the Republic proceed. 
 
LIKELY TO BE MISINTERPRETED. 31 
 
 intellects is of a kind which must have shown itself 
 early. Neither could have entirely sympathized with 
 the other, however much he might admire his genius; 
 and this circumstance may very well have produced a 
 certain estrangement, which hy such of their followers 
 as were of too vulgar minds to understand the respect 
 which all really great men must entertain for each 
 other, would readily he misinterpreted. Difference of 
 opinion would, if proceeding from an equal, be repre- 
 sented in the light of hostility, if from a former 
 pupil, in that of ingratitude. The miserable spirit of 
 par tizan ship prevailing among the Greeks, which is so 
 strongly reprobated by Cicero 2 , rapidly gave birth to 
 tales which at first probably were meant only to illus- 
 trate the preconceived notions which they were in course 
 of time employed to confirm. And so, if Plato had 
 ever made a remark in the same sense and spirit as 
 Waller's Epigram to a lady singing one of his own 
 songs 3 , this might very easily in its passage through 
 inferior and ungenial minds have been distorted into 
 the bitter reflection we have noticed above. 
 
 Respecting the relation between Aristotle and an- 
 other celebrated contemporary of his, there can be no 
 manner of doubt. All accounts agree with the infer- 
 ence we should draw from what we find on the subject 
 in his works, that between him and Isocrates the 
 rhetorician there subsisted a most cordial dislike, ac- 
 
 2 Sit ista in Graecorum levitate perversitas, qui maledictis msec- 
 tantur eos, a quibus de veritate dissentiunt. 
 
 De Finibtts, ii. 25. 
 
 The eagle's fate and mine are one, 
 
 Who on the shaft that made him die 
 Espied a feather of his own, 
 
 Wherewith he wont to soar so high. 
 
32 HIS DISLIKE OF ISOCRATES. 
 
 companied, on the part of the former at least, with as 
 cordial a contempt. Isocrates was in fact a sophist 
 of hy no means a high order. He did not possess the 
 cleverness which enabled many of that class to put 
 forth a claim to universal knowledge, and under many 
 circumstances to maintain it successfully. He professed 
 to teach nothing but the art of oratory, and the subject- 
 matter of this he derived exclusively from the field of 
 politics. But his want of comprehensiveness was not com- 
 pensated by any superior degree of accuracy or depth, and 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1 is right in considering this 
 limitation as the characteristic which distinguishes him 
 from the more ambitious pretenders Gorgias and Protago- 
 ras. Oratory, according to his view, was the art of making 
 what was important appear trivial, and what was trivial 
 appear important, in other words, of proving black white 
 and white black 2 . He taught this accomplishment not 
 on any principles even pretending to be scientific, but 
 by mere practice in the school 3 like fencing or boxing. 
 Indignation at this miserable substitute for philosophical 
 institution, and at the undeserved reputation which its 
 author had acquired, found vent with Aristotle in the 
 application of a sentiment 4 which Euripides in his Phi- 
 loctetes, a play now lost, put into the mouth of Ulysses. 
 He resolved himself to take up the subject, and his 
 success was so great that Cicero appears to regard the 
 reputation arising from it as one of the principal motives 
 which induced Philip to intrust him with the education 
 
 1 De Isocr. jud. p. 536. 
 
 2 Isocrat. Panegyr. 8. 
 
 3 ov jueflo'Sw a'xx' d<rKij<rei. Pseudo- Plutarch, Fit. Isocr. Compare 
 Cicero, De Invent, ii. 2. Brut. 12. 
 
 4 alo-ypov (Tito-Trm/, (3ap/3dpovs ' eav Xeyetv. Aristotle substituted 
 the word 'lo-oK^aVt; for /3ap(3apov<;. 
 
HIMSELF TEACHES RHETORIC. 33 
 
 of Alexander 5 . The expressions too, which he uses in 
 describing Aristotle's treatment of his subject apply 
 rather to lectures combined with rhetorical practice and 
 historical illustration than a formal treatise 6 . And this 
 is an important point, inasmuch as it proves that he 
 assumed the functions of an instructor during this his 
 first residence at Athens. However, such part of his 
 subject as embraced the early history of the art, and 
 might be regarded in the light of an introduction to 
 the rest, would very likely appear by itself; and this is 
 exactly the character of the work so highly praised by 
 Cicero in another place, but unfortunately lost, to 
 which we have before alluded (p. 20). It was purely 
 historical and critical, and contained none of his own 
 views. These were systematically developed in another 
 work 7 , perhaps the one which we possess, which was 
 certainly not written at this early period. Apparently, 
 in the lost work the system of Isocrates was attacked 
 and severely handled. The assailed party does not 
 seem to have come forward to defend himself; but a 
 scholar of his, Cephisodorus, in a polemical treatise of 
 considerable length, did not confine himself to the de- 
 fence of his master's doctrines, but indulged in the 
 most virulent attacks upon the moral as well as intel- 
 lectual character of his rival 8 . Upon this work Dio- 
 
 6 De Orat. iii. 35. 
 
 6 Itaque ornavit et illustravit doctrinam illam omnem, rerumque 
 
 cognitionem cum orationis exercitatione conjunxit Hunc Alex- 
 
 androjilio doctorem accivit, a quo eodem ille et agendi acciperet pras- 
 cepta et eloquendi. Cicero, loc. cit. 
 
 7 Cujus \_Aristotelis~\ et ilium legi librum, in quo exposuit dicendi 
 artes omnium superiorum, et illos, in quibus ipxe sua qucedam de eddem 
 arte dixit. De Orator, ii. 38. 
 
 8 Aristodes ap. Euseb. loc. cit. Athenaeus, p. 60. 
 
 3 
 
34 HIS POLEMICS WITH CEPHISODORUS. 
 
 nysius of Halicarnassus, perhaps sympathizing with a 
 brother rhetorician, passes a high encomium 1 . But from 
 the little which we know of it, there is but scanty room 
 for believing that its author carried conviction to the 
 minds of many readers not predisposed to agree with 
 him. One of the grounds on which he holds his adver- 
 sary up to contempt is the having made a Collection 
 of Proverbs, an employment, in the opinion of Cephi- 
 sodorus, utterly unworthy of one professing to be a 
 philosopher. Such as have not, like Cephisodorus, an 
 enemy to overthrow by fair means or foul, will be 
 inclined to smile at such a charge, even if indeed they 
 do not view it in something like the contrary light. 
 " Apophthegms," says Bacon, " are not only for delight 
 and ornament, but for real businesses and civil usages ; 
 for they are, as he said, secures aut mucrones verborum, 
 which by their sharp edge cut and penetrate the knots 
 of Matters and Business; and occasions run round in 
 a ring, and what was once profitable may again be 
 practised, and again be effectual, whether a man speak 
 them as ancient or make them his own." Proverbs are 
 the apophthegms of a people, and from this point of 
 view Aristotle appears to have formed his estimate of 
 their importance. He is said to have regarded them 
 as exhibiting in a compressed form the wisdom of the 
 ages in which they severally sprang up ; and in many 
 instances to have been preserved by their compactness 
 and pregnancy through vicissitudes that had swept 
 away all other traces of the people which originated 
 them 2 . 
 
 1 De Isocratejudicium, sec. 18. He calls it TTO.VV dav/jiaa-T^v. But 
 Dionysius utterly fails where he attempts literary criticism. Witness 
 the absurd principles on which he proceeds in his comparison of 
 Herodotus and Thucydides. 
 
 a Synesius, Encom. Calvitii, p. 59, ed. Turneb. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ARISTOTLE IN ASIA, 
 
 WE now pass to another stage in the life of 
 Aristotle. After a twenty years' stay at Athens, he, 
 accompanied hy the Platonic philosopher Xenocrates, 
 passed over into Asia Minor, and took up his residence 
 at Atarneus or Assos (for the accounts vary), in Mysia, 
 at the court of Hermias 3 . Of the motives which im- 
 pelled him to this step we have, as is natural, very 
 conflicting accounts. His enemies imputed it to a 
 feeling of jealousy, arising from Speusippus having 
 been appointed by Plato, who had died just before, as 
 his successor in the school of the Academy 4 . Others 
 attributed it to a yet more vulgar motive, a taste 
 for the coarse sensualities and ostentatious luxury of 
 an oriental court 5 . But the first of these reasons will 
 
 3 Strabo, xiii. p. 126, ed. Tauchnitz. Diodorus Siculus, xvi. 
 53. 
 
 4 jElian, Var. Hist. iii. 19. Eubulides (ap. Aristocl. Euseb. 
 Prcep. Ev. xv. <2.) alleged that Aristotle refused to be present at 
 Plato's death-bed. 
 
 5 To this the Epigram of Theocritus of Chios (ap. Aristocl. loc. 
 cit.) perhaps alludes : i 
 
 Hh'i ' 
 
 'HLppiov cvvov^ov -re KCU 'Eu/?ouAou To'Se SouAoi ^\*' 
 
 Mi/tj/ia Kevov Kevofyptav drjitev 'ApurTOTeXw 
 O? Sta Tf/i/ aKpctTtj yaa-Tpos (f>va-iv e'i\TO vaieiv 
 AI/T' *AKCt$7/A6ta$ fiopfiopov ei> Tr^o^oaiV. 
 
 although Plutarch applies it to his residence in Macedonia. The 
 cenotaph spoken of in the second line is probably the foundation for 
 
 32 
 
36 REASONS FOR GOING THERE. 
 
 seem to deserve but little credit, when we consider 
 that the position which Plato had held was not recog- 
 nised in any public manner ; that there was neither 
 endowment nor dignity attached to it ; that all honour 
 or profit that could possibly arise from it was due solely 
 to the personal merits of the philosopher; that in all 
 probability Aristotle himself had occupied a similar 
 position before the death of Plato ; and, that if he felt 
 himself injured by the selection of Speusippus (Plato's 
 nephew), he had every opportunity of showing, by the 
 best of all tests, competition, how erroneous a judgment 
 had been formed of their respective merits. And with 
 regard to the second view, it will be sufficient to remark, 
 that for the twenty years preceding this epoch, as well 
 as afterwards, he possessed the option of living at the 
 court of Macedonia, where he probably had connexions, 
 and where there was equal scope for indulging the 
 tastes in question. We shall, therefore, feel no scruple 
 in referring this journey to other and more adequate 
 causes. The reader of Grecian history will not fail 
 to recollect that the suspicions which the Athenians 
 had for some time entertained of the ambitious designs 
 of Philip received a sudden confirmation just at this 
 moment by the successes of that monarch in the Chal- 
 cidian peninsula. The fall of Olynthus and the de- 
 struction of the Greek confederacy, of which that town 
 was at the head 1 , produced at Athens a feeling of in- 
 dignation mixed with fear, of which Demosthenes did 
 not fail to take advantage to kindle a strong hatred of 
 
 the " altar" to Plato, of which the latter writers speak. See above, 
 p. 7. Theocritus of Chios was a contemporary of Aristotle. The 
 Syracusah poet of the same name, in an Epigram ascribed to him, 
 protests against being identified with him. 
 
 1 Above, p. 13. 
 
STATE OF POLITICS. 37 
 
 any thing belonging to Macedon. The modern ex- 
 ample of France will enable us readily to understand 
 how dangerous must have been the position of a 
 foreigner, by birth, connexions, or feelings in the 
 slightest degree mixed up with the unpopular party, 
 especially when resident in a democratic State, in 
 which the statute laws were every day subject to be 
 violated by the extemporaneous resolutions (^Yi^ia^ara) 
 of a popular assembly. Philip indeed was accustomed 
 or at any rate by his enemies believed to make use 
 of such aliens, as from any cause were allowed free 
 ingress to the States with which he was not on good 
 terms, as his emissaries 2 . It is scarcely possible under 
 these circumstances to conceive that the jealousy of 
 party hatred should fail to view the distinguished 
 philosopher, the friend of Antipater, and the son of a 
 Macedonian court-physician, with dislike and distrust, 
 especially if, as from Cicero's description appears highly 
 probable, political affairs entered considerably into the 
 course of his public instructions. 
 
 Here, then, we have a reason, quite independent of 
 any peculiar motive, for Aristotle's quitting Athens at 
 this especial time. And others, scarcely less weighty, 
 existed to take him to the court of Hermias. Some 
 little time before, the gigantic body of the Persian 
 empire had exhibited symptoms of breaking up. Egypt 
 had for a considerable period maintained itself in a 
 state of independence, and the success of the experi- 
 ment had produced the revolt of Phoenicia. The cities 
 of Asia Minor, whose intercourse with Greece Proper 
 was constant, naturally felt an even greater desire to 
 throw off the yoke, and about the year 349 before 
 
 The case of Anaxirious (see vEschines c. Ctes. p. 85. Demosth. 
 De Cor. p. 272.) may serve as one instance among many. 
 
38 REVOLT OF PERSIAN DEPENDANCIES. 
 
 the Christian era, most of them were in a state of 
 open rebellion. Confederacies of greater or less extent 
 were formed among them for the purpose of maintaining 
 the common independence ; and over one of these, which 
 included Atarneus and Assos, one Eubulus, a native of 
 Bithynia, exercised a sway which Suidas represents as 
 that of an absolute prince 1 . This remarkable man, of 
 whom it is much to be regretted that we know so little, 
 is described as having carried on the trade of a banker 2 
 in one of these towns. If this be true, the train of 
 circumstances which led him to the pitch of power 
 which he seems to have reached was probably such a 
 one as, in more modern times made the son of a 
 brewer of Ghent Regent of Flanders, or the Medici 
 Dukes of Tuscany. A struggle for national existence 
 calls forth the confidence of the governed in those who 
 possess the genius which alone can preserve them, as 
 unboundedly as it stimulates that genius itself; and 
 there appears no reason why the name of tyrant or 
 dynast should have been bestowed upon Eubulus more 
 than upon Philip van Artevelde or William of Orange. 
 He was assisted in the duties of his government, and 
 afterwards succeeded by Hermias, who is termed by 
 Strabo his slave, an expression which a Greek would 
 apply no less to the Vizier than to the lowest menial 
 servant of an Asiatic potentate. He is also described 
 as an eunuch, but, whether this was the case or not, 
 he was a man of education and philosophy, and had 
 during a residence at Athens attended the instructions 
 of both Plato and Aristotle 3 . By the invitation of this 
 
 'ITOV. Strabo, xiii. vol. iii. p. 126. 
 3 Strabo, loc. cit. 
 
SUPPRESSION OF THE REVOLT. 39 
 
 individual, the latter, accompanied by Xenocrates, passed 
 over at this particular juncture into Mysia ; and it will 
 surely not seem an improbable conjecture that the 
 especial object for which their presence was desired was 
 to frame a political constitution, in order that the little 
 confederacy, of which Hermias may perhaps be regarded 
 as the general and stadtholder, might be kept together 
 and enabled to maintain its independence in spite of 
 the formidable power of the Persian empire. Ably as 
 such a task would doubtless have been executed by so 
 wise a statesman, as even the fragmentary political 
 work that has come down to us proves Aristotle to have 
 been, it was not blessed with success. Fortune for a 
 time favoured the cause of freedom, but the barbarian's 
 hour was not yet come. The treachery of a Rhodian 
 leader of condottieri in the service of the revolted 
 Egyptians enabled the Persian king, Artaxerxes Ochus, 
 rapidly to overrun Phoenicia and Egypt, and to devote 
 the whole force of his empire to the reduction of Asia 
 Minor. Yet Hermias made his ground good, until 
 at last he suffered himself to be entrapped into a per- 
 sonal conference with the Greek general Mentor, the 
 traitor whose perfidy had ruined the Egyptian cause, 
 and who now commanded the Persian army that was 
 sent against Atarneus. In spite of the assurance of a 
 solemn oath, his person was seized and sent to the 
 court of the Persian king, who ordered him to be 
 strangled ; the fortresses which commanded the coun- 
 try surrendered at the sight of his signet ; and Atar- 
 neus and Assos were occupied by Persian troops'. 
 
 The two philosophers, surprised by these sudden 
 misfortunes, were however fortunate enough to succeed 
 
 4 Strabo. loc. cit. Diodorus, xvi. sec. 52, 53, 54. 
 
40 MARRIAGE OF ARISTOTLE. 
 
 in escaping to Mytilene, whither they carried with them 
 a female named Pythias, who according to the most 
 probable accounts was the sister and adopted daughter 
 of Hermias l . It is singular that Aristotle's intercourse 
 with the Prince of Atarneus, and more especially that 
 part which related to his connection with this woman, 
 whom he married, should have brought more calumny 
 ^non him than any other event of his life ; and the 
 angest thing of all, according to our modern habits 
 ol thinking, is that he himself should have thought 
 it necessary, for the satisfaction of his own friends, to 
 give a particular explanation of his motives to the mar- 
 riage. In a letter to Antipater, which is cited by Aris- 
 tocles 2 , he relates the circumstances which induced him 
 to take this step; and they are calculated to give us 
 as high an opinion of the goodness of his heart as his 
 works do of the power of his intellect. The calamity 
 which had befallen Hermias would necessarily have 
 entailed utter misery, and in all probability death, upon 
 his adopted daughter, had she been left behind. In 
 this conjuncture, respect for the memory of his murdered 
 friend, and compassion for the defenceless situation of 
 the girl, induced him, knowing her besides, as he says, 
 to be modest and amiable 3 , to take her as his wife. It 
 is a striking proof of the utter want of sentiment in the 
 intercourse between the sexes in Greece, that this noble 
 and generous conduct, as every European will at once 
 confess it to have been, should have drawn down ob- 
 loquy upon the head of its actor ; while, if he had left 
 the helpless creature to be carried off to a Persian ha- 
 rem, or sacrificed to the lust of a brutal soldiery, not 
 
 1 Aristocles, #p. Euseb. /be. cit. 
 - Ap. Euseb. loc. cit. 
 
CALUMNIES AGAINST HIM. 41 
 
 a human being would have breathed the slightest word 
 of censure upon the atrocity. Even his apologists ap- 
 pear to have considered this as one of the most vul- 
 nerable points of his character. When Aristocles 4 dis- 
 cusses the charges which had been made against him, 
 he dismisses most of them with contempt as carrying 
 the marks of falsehood in their very front. " Two, how- 
 ever," he adds, "do appear to have obtained credit, 
 the one that he treated Plato with ingratitude, the 
 other that he married the daughter of Hermias." And 
 indeed the relation of Aristotle to the father furnished 
 a subject for many publications 5 in the second and third 
 centuries before Christ, and appears to have excited as 
 much interest among literary antiquarians of that day, 
 as the question of the Iron Mask or of who wrote the 
 Letters of Junius, might do in modern times. The 
 treatise of Apellicon of Teos, a wealthy antiquary and 
 bibliomaniac contemporary with Sylla, was regarded as 
 the classical work among them. We shall have occasion, 
 in the sequel, to say something more about this per- 
 sonage. Aristocles 6 speaks of his book as sufficient 
 to set the whole question at rest, and silence all the 
 calumniators of the philosopher for ever. Indeed, if 
 we may judge of the whole of their charges from the 
 few specimens that have come down to us, a further 
 refutation than their own extravagance was hardly 
 needful. The hand of Pythias is there represented 
 as purchased by a fulsome adulation of her adopted 
 father 7 , and a subserviency to the most loathsome 
 
 4 Ap. Euseb. loc. cit. 
 
 5 Aristocles, loc. cit. 
 
 6 Ap. Euseb. loc. cit. 
 
 7 She is in some accounts represented, not as his sister, but his 
 concubine. Others, not considering him an eunuch, call her his 
 
42 SCOLIUM TO HERMIAS. 
 
 vices which human nature in its lowest state of de- 
 pravity can engender; and the husband is said, in 
 exultation at his good fortune, to have paid to his 
 father-in-law a service appropriated to the gods alone, 
 singing his praises, like those of Apollo, in a sacred 
 paean. Fortunately this composition has come down 
 to us, and turns out to be a common scolium, or drink- 
 ing song, similar in its nature to the celebrated one, 
 so popular at Athenian banquets, which records the 
 achievement of Harmodius and Aristogiton. It pos- 
 sesses no very high degree of poetical merit, but as an 
 expression of good feeling, and as a literary curiosity, 
 being the only remaining specimen of its author's powers 
 in this branch, it perhaps deserves a place in the note *. 
 
 daughter. One, probably to reconcile all accounts, calls her his 
 daughter, j?i/ KO.\ 0Aa3<cc<? aY ea-ireipev. (Pseudo-Ammon). 
 
 * 'ApcTa TroAujiAoyfle jevei j3poTei(o 
 Bijpa/jia KCtAAt<rTOi/ (3iia ! 
 o-as Trept, 7rap0ei/, /JLoptyds 
 KCU Qaveiv ^Awros ev EAXaot TTOT/JIO?, 
 KCU TTOI/OVS T\rjvai /uaAepoJ? ctKa/jaTOi/9. 
 Toiov eir\ <f)pev epwra /2aAAet? 
 napirov (frepeis T' ddavaTov 
 
 TC Kpeffcru) Kai yovetav 
 
 To 6 UTTI/OU. 
 <rev B' ei/e' OVK Ato? 
 
 Kovpo 
 epyots <rdv dypevovres 
 <ro?? re Trodois ' 
 "Ata? T' cu'Bao BOJUO 
 crcz? T evenev (f>i\iov 
 KO\ 'Arapi/e 
 aeAiou ^rjpwtrev at-ya?. 
 Toiydp a'oi'BtjUO? epyots* 
 dOdvaTov TC fjnv av 
 
 re yepas fiefiaiov. 
 
CHARGE OF BLASPHEMY. 43 
 
 The perfection of the manly character is personified as 
 a virgin, for whose charms it is an enviable lot even to 
 die, or to endure the severest hardships. The enthu- 
 siasm with which she inspires the hearts of her lovers 
 is more precious than gold, than parents, than the lux- 
 ury of soft-eyed sleep ! For her it was that Hercules 
 and the sons of Leda toiled, and Achilles and Ajax 
 died! her fair form, too, made Hermias, the nursling 
 of Atarneus, renounce the cheerful light of the sun. 
 Hence his deeds shall become the subjects of song, 
 and the Muses, daughters of memory, shall wed him 
 to immortality when they magnify the name of Jupiter 
 Xenius (i.e. Jupiter as the protector of the laws of 
 hospitality), and bestow its meed on firm and faith- 
 ful friendship I By comparing this relic with the sco- 
 lium to Harmodius and Aristogiton, which Athenaeus 
 has preserved on the page preceding the one from which 
 this is taken, the reader will at once see that Hermias 
 is mentioned together with Achilles and Ajax, and the 
 other heroes of mythology, only in the same manner as 
 Harmodius is ; yet not only did this performance hring 
 down on its author's head the calumnies we have men- 
 tioned, but many years after it was even made the basis 
 of a prosecution of him for blasphemy : such straws will 
 envy and malice grasp at ! 
 
 The respect of the philosopher for his departed friend 
 was yet further attested by the erection of a statue, or, 
 as some say, a cenotaph, to him at Delphi, with an in- 
 scription, in which his death was recorded as wrought 
 in outrage of the sacred laws of the gods, by the mo- 
 
 This Scolium is preserved in Diogenes Laert. Vit. Arist. sec. 7 ; 
 Athenaeus, p. 696; and Stobaeus, Serm. i. p. 2. From the first, 
 sec. 27, we learn that Aristotle also composed some epic and some 
 elegiac poetry. 
 
44 ARISTOTLE IN MACEDONIA. 
 
 narch of the bow-bearing Persians, not fairly by the 
 spear in the bloody battle-field, but through the false 
 pledge of a crafty villain ! / And " the nearer view 
 of wedded life " does not seem in any respect to have 
 diminished the good opinion he had originally formed 
 of his friend's daughter. She died, how soon after 
 their marriage we cannot say, leaving one orphan 
 daughter ; and not only was her memory honoured hy 
 the widower with a respect which exposed him, as in 
 the former instance of her father, to the charge of 
 idolatry 2 , but, in his will, made some time afterwards, 
 he provides that her hones should be taken up and 
 laid by the side of his, wherever he might be buried, 
 as, says he, she herself enjoined 3 . 
 
 At this epoch of Aristotle's life, when the clouds of 
 adversity appeared to be at the thickest, his brightest 
 fortunes were about to appear. He had fled to Myti- 
 lene an exile, deprived of his powerful friend, and ap- 
 parently cut off from all present opportunity of bringing 
 his gigantic powers of mind into play. But in Myti- 
 lene he received an invitation from Philip to undertake 
 the training of one who, in the World of Action, was 
 destined to achieve an empire, which only that of his 
 master in the World of Thought has ever surpassed. 
 A conjunction of two such spirits has not been yet 
 twice recorded in the annals of mankind ; and it is 
 impossible to conceive any thing more interesting and 
 fruitful than a good contemporary account of the in- 
 tercourse between them would have been. But, although 
 such a one did exist, as we shall see below, we are not 
 
 1 Diog. Fit. sec. 6. 
 
 2 Ibid. sec. 4. 
 
 ; 7A/W. sec. 16. 
 
PREVIOUSLY KNOWN TO PHILIP. 45 
 
 fortunate enough to possess it. The destroying hand 
 of time has been most active exactly where we should 
 most desire information as to details, and almost all the 
 description we can give of this period is founded upon 
 the scanty notices on the subject furnished by Plutarch 
 in his biography of the Great Conqueror. 
 
 How much the mere personal character of Aristotle 
 contributed to procuring him the invitation from Philip, 
 it is difficult to say. Cicero represents the King as 
 mainly determined to the step by the reputation of the 
 philosopher's rhetorical lectures 4 . But a letter preserved 
 by Aulus Gellius 5 , which is well known, but can 
 scarcely be genuine, would induce us to believe that, 
 from the very birth of Alexander, he was destined by 
 his father to grow up under the superintendence of his 
 latest instructor. It is, indeed, not unlikely that, at 
 this early period, Aristotle was well known to Philip. 
 We have seen that, not improbably, his earliest years 
 were passed at the court, where his father possessed the 
 highest confidence of the father of Philip. Moreover, 
 he is said, although neither the time nor the occasion 
 is specified, to have rendered services to the Athenians 
 as ambassador to the court of Macedon 6 . But if Gel- 
 lius's letter be genuine, how are we able to account for 
 the absence of the philosopher from his charge during the 
 thirteen years which elapsed between its professed date 
 and the second year of the 109th Olympiad, in which 
 we know for certain that he first entered upon his im- 
 portant task? For that it was not because he consi- 
 dered the influences exerted upon this tender age 
 
 4 De Oratore, iii. 55. 
 
 5 ix. 3. 
 
 6 Diog. Vit. sec. 2. 
 
46 ALEXANDER'S EARLY PRECEPTORS 
 
 unimportant, is clear from the great stress he lays upon 
 their effect in the eighth book of his Politics, which 
 is entirely devoted to the details of this subject 1 . And 
 although Alexander was only thirteen years old when 
 his connection with Aristotle commenced, yet the seeds 
 of many vices had even at that early period been sown 
 by the unskilful hands of former instructors; and per- 
 haps the best means of estimating the value of Aris- 
 totle's services, is to compare what his pupil really 
 became with what he would naturally have been had 
 he been left under the care of these. Two are par- 
 ticularly noticed by Plutarch 2 , of totally opposite dis- 
 positions, and singularly calculated to produce, by their 
 combined action, that oscillation between asceticism and 
 luxury which, in the latter part of his life especially, 
 was so striking a feature in Alexander's character. The 
 first was Leonidas, a relation of his mother Olympias, 
 a rough and austere soldier, who appears to have di- 
 rected all his efforts to the production of a Spartan en- 
 durance of hardship and contempt of danger. He was 
 accustomed to ransack his pupil's trunks for the pur- 
 pose of discovering any luxurious dress or other means 
 of indulgence which might have been sent to him by his 
 mother : and, at the outset of Alexander's Asiatic expe- 
 dition, on the occasion of an entertainment by his adopted 
 mother, a Carian princess, he told her that Leonidas's 
 early discipline had made all culinary refinements a 
 matter of indifference to him ; that the only cook he had 
 ever been allowed to season his breakfast was a good 
 night's journey ; and the only one to improve his supper, 
 
 1 See especially p. 1334, col. 2, line 25, et seq. ; p. 1338, col. 1, 
 line 5, et seq. ed. Bekker. 
 
 2 Fit. Alex. sec. 5. 
 
LEONIDAS LYSIMACHUS. 47 
 
 a scanty breakfast 3 . An education of which these traits 
 are characteristic might very well produce the personal 
 hardiness and animal courage for which Alexander was 
 distinguished; it might enable him to tame a Buce- 
 phalus, to surpass all his contemporaries in swiftness 
 of foot, to leap down alone amidst a crowd of enemies 
 from the ramparts of a besieged town, to kill a lion in 
 single combat 4 ; it might even inspire the passion for 
 military glory which vented itself in tears when there 
 was nothing left to conquer 5 ; but it would be almost 
 as favourable to the growth of the coarser vices as to the 
 developement of these ruder virtues, and we learn that, 
 to the day of his death, the ruffianly and intemperate 
 dispositions which belong to barbarian blood, and which 
 the influences of Leonidas had tended rather to increase 
 than diminish, were never entirely subdued by Alex- 
 ander 6 . 
 
 The character of Lysimachus, the other instructor 
 especially noticed by Plutarch, was very different, but 
 hardly likely to have produced a much more beneficial 
 effect. He was by birth an Acarnanian, and an expert 
 flatterer, by which means he is said to have gained 
 great favour. His favourite thought appears to have 
 been to compare Alexander to Achilles, Philip to Pe- 
 
 3 Plutarch, Vit. sec. 22. 
 
 4 Ibid. 640, &c. 
 
 5 Unus Pellceo juueni non sufficit orbis. Juv. Sat. x. 168. 
 
 6 Leonidas Alexandri pcedagogus, ut a Babylonia Diogene traditur, 
 quibusdam cum vitiis imbuit, quce robustum quoque et jam maximum 
 regem ab ilia institutione puerili sunt prosecuta. Quintilian, Inst. 
 Or. i. 1. 8. Is it not probable that Aristotle, in the seventh book 
 of his Politics, (p. 1324, col. 1, line 23, et seq., and p. 1333, col. 2, 
 line 10, et seq.) has a particular reference to the views of Leonidas? 
 See also above, p. 4-6. note 1 . 
 
48 LITTLE GAIN FROM THEM. 
 
 leus, and himself to Phoenix, as the characters were 
 described in the epic poetry of Greece, and this insipid 
 stuff it was his delight to act out in the ordinary busi- 
 ness of life. At a later period, this passion for scene- 
 making nearly cost poor Phcenix and his master their 
 lives ' ; and to it is probably due, in a great measure, 
 the cormorant appetite for adulation which is the most 
 disgusting feature in the history of the latter. 
 
 To neither then of these two individuals, and if 
 not to these, of course much less to the crowd of mas- 
 ters in reading, writing, horsemanship, harp-playing, 
 and the other accomplishments included by ancient 
 education in its two branches of HOUVIKJ and yvfjivofrriKri, 
 can we ascribe a share in the production of that cha- 
 racter which distinguishes Alexander from any successful 
 military leader. But to Aristotle some of the ancients 
 attribute a degree and kind of merit in this respect 
 which is perfectly absurd. Plutarch says that his pupil 
 received from him more towards the accomplishment of 
 his schemes than from Philip 2 . Alexander himself was 
 accustomed to say, that he honoured Aristotle no less 
 than his own father, that to the one he owed life, but 
 to the other all that made life valuable 3 ; and it is 
 very likely that the misinterpretation of such phrases 
 as these led to the belief that the Conqueror had re- 
 ceived from his instructor direct advice for the accom- 
 
 1 Plutarch, Fit. sec. 24. 
 
 2 Plutarch, De Fortun. Alexandri. p. 327- See Ste. Croix, 
 Examen critique des historiens d' Alexandre-le-grand, p. 84. Such 
 expressions as these led later writers to yet more extravagant ones, 
 such as Roger Bacon's, per vias sapientice mundum Alexandra 
 tradidit Aristoteles ; and probably to the same source is to be traced 
 the romance of the philosopher having personally attended his 
 pupil in his expedition. 
 
 3 Plutarch, Vit. Alex. sec. 8. 
 
EFFECTS PRODUCED BY ARISTOTLE. 49 
 
 plishment of the great exploit which has made him 
 known to posterity.ViBut the obligations to which he 
 really alluded were probably of a totally different 
 kind. Philip is said to have perceived at a very early 
 age that his son's disposition was a most peculiar one, 
 sensible in the highest degree of kindness, and tract- 
 able by gentle measures, but absolutely ungovernable 
 by force, and consequently requiring, instead of the 
 austerity of a Leonidas, or the flattery- of a Lysi- 
 machus, the influence of one who could by his cha- 
 racter and abilities command respect, and by his tact 
 and judgment preserve it. Such qualifications he found 
 in Aristotle, and the good effects seem to have speedily 
 shown themselves. From a rude and intemperate bar- 
 barian's his nature expanded and exhibited itself in an 
 attachment to philosophy, a desire of mental eultiva- / 
 tion, and a fondness for study. Klo completely did he 
 acquire higher and more civilized tastes, that while 
 at the extremity of Asia, in a letter to Harpalus he 
 desires that the works of Philistus the historian, the 
 tragedies of ^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and 
 the dithyrambs of Telestes and Philoxenus, should be 
 sent to him. Homer was his constant travelling com- \ 
 panion. A copy, corrected by Aristotle, was deposited 
 by the side of his dagger, under the pillow of the couch 
 on which he slept 4 ; and on the occasion of a magnifi- 
 cent casket being found among the spoils of Darius's 
 eamp, when a discussion arose as to how it should be 
 employed, the King declared that it should be appro- 
 priated to the use of containing this copy 5 . But his 
 education had not been confined to the lighter species 
 
 4 Plutarch, Vit. sec. 7, 8. 
 
 3 Plutarch, Vit. sec. 26. Strabo, xiii. Plin. Nat. Hist. v. SO. 
 
 4 
 
50 HIS RAPID EDUCATION. 
 
 of literature ; on the contrary, he appears to have been 
 introduced to the gravest and most abstruse parts of 
 philosophy, to which the term of acroamatic was specifi- 
 cally applied. We shall in the sequel examine more 
 fully what exact notion is to be attached to this term: 
 in the mean time, it will be sufficient to observe that it 
 included the highest branches of the science of that day. 
 In a letter, then, preserved by Plutarch and Aulus 
 Gellius 1 , Alexander complains that his preceptor had 
 published those of his works to which this phrase was 
 applied. "How," he asks, "now that this is the case, 
 will he be able to maintain his superiority to others in 
 mental accomplishments, a superiority which he valued 
 more than the distinction he had won by his conquests?" 
 Gellius likewise gives us Aristotle's answer, in which he 
 excuses himself by saying, " that although the works in 
 question were published, they would be useless to all 
 who had not previously enjoyed the benefit of his oral 
 instructions." Whatever may be our opinion as to the 
 genuineness of these letters, which Gellius says he took 
 from the book of the philosopher Andronicus, (a contem- 
 porary of Cicero's, to whom we shall in the sequel 
 again revert,) it is quite clear that if they are forgeries, 
 they were forged in accordance with a general belief of 
 the time, that there was no department of knowledge 
 however recondite to which Aristotle had not taken 
 pains to introduce his pupil. 
 
 But the most extraordinary feature in the education 
 of Alexander is the short space of time which it occupied. 
 From the time of Aristotle's arrival in Macedonia to 
 the expedition of his pupil into Asia there elapsed eight 
 years, (i. e. from Olymp. cix. 2. to Olymp. cxi. 2.) But 
 
 1 Plutarch, Fit. Alex. sec. 7- Gellius, Noc. Ait. xx. 5. 
 
BOOKS WRITTEN FOR HIM. 51 
 
 of this only a part, less than the half, can have been de- 
 voted to the purpose of systematic instruction. For in 
 the fourth year of this period 2 , we find Philip during an 
 expedition to Byzantium leaving his son sole and abso- 
 lute regent of the kingdom. Some barbarian subjects 
 having revolted, Alexander undertook an expedition in 
 person against them, and took their city, which he called 
 after his own name, Alexandropolis. From this time 
 he was continually engaged in business, now leading 
 the decisive charge at Chseronea, and now involved in 
 court intrigues against a party who endeavoured to gain 
 Philip's confidence and induce him to alter the succes- 
 sion 3 . It is clear therefore that all instruction, in the 
 stricter sense of the word, must have terminated. Yet 
 that a very considerable influence may have been still 
 exerted by Aristotle upon the mind of Alexander, is not 
 only in itself probable, but is confirmed by the titles of 
 some of his writings which are now lost. Ammonius, 
 in his division of the works of the philosopher, mentions 
 a certain class 4 as consisting of treatises written for the 
 behoof of particular individuals, and specifies among 
 them those books " which he composed at the request 
 of Alexander of Macedon, that On Monarchy, and In- 
 structions on the Mode of establishing Colonies." The 
 
 2 Plutarch, Fit. sec. 9- Diodorus, xvi. 77. See Clinton, Fast. 
 Hell a. 340, 339- 
 
 3 Plutarch, Vit. sec. 9, 10. 
 
 4 TO. MojOiKct. Ammon. Hermeneut. ad Aristot. Categor. p. 7- ed. 
 Aid. The two works alluded to are cited by the anonymous au- 
 thor of the Life printed by Buhle in his edition of Aristotle, p. 60 
 67, under the titles irep\ jSaa-tXeias and 'AAe'ai/fyjo<?, 17 wVep diroiKioiv. 
 Diogenes mentions the latter by the same name, and Pseudo- 
 Ammonius the former. The anonymous writer adds a third QTepi] 
 'A\eai/Bpou, 17 TTp\ ptJTopos 17 TroXiTiKou, by which he probably means 
 the ptfTopiKri 7rpo\ 'AXefrti/Spo*', which we have. 
 
 42 
 
52 HIS POLICY AS A CONQUEROR. 
 
 titles of these works may lead us to conjecture that 
 the distinguishing characteristics of Alexander's sub- 
 sequent policy, the attempt to fuse into one mass his 
 old subjects and the people he had conquered, the as- 
 similation of their manners, especially by education and 
 intermarriages, the connection of remote regions by 
 building cities, making roads, and establishing com- 
 mercial enterprises, may be in no small measure due to 
 the counsels of his preceptor. A modern writer indeed 
 has imagined an analogy between this assimilative 
 policy of the conqueror, and the generalizing genius 
 of the philosopher 1 . And there really does seem some 
 ground for this belief, in spite of an observation of 
 Plutarch's 2 , which is at first sight diametrically oppo- 
 sed to it. After speaking of the Stoical notions of an 
 universal republic, he says, that magnificent as the 
 scheme was, it was never realized, but remained a mere 
 speculation of that school of philosophy; and he adds 
 that Alexander, who nearly realized it, did so in op- 
 position to the advice of Aristotle, who had recom- 
 mended him to treat the Greeks as a general, 
 vtKwsy) but the barbarians as a master, (^ 
 the one as friends, the other as instruments. But 
 there is no other authority than Plutarch for this 
 story; and it seems far from improbable that it is en- 
 tirely built upon certain expressions used by Aristotle 
 in the first book of his Politics. In that place he 
 recognises the relation between master and slave as a 
 natural one; and he also maintains the superiority 
 of Greeks over barbarians to be so decided and per- 
 manent as to justify the supremacy of the one over 
 the other. Of the latter he argues that they have not 
 
 1 Joh. von Mueller, Allgemeine Geschickte, i. p. 160. 
 
 2 De Virt. et Fort. Alexandri. p. 329- 
 
ARISTOTLE'S DOCTRINE OF SLAVERY. 53 
 
 the faculty of governing in them, and that therefore 
 the state of slavery is for them the natural and pro- 
 per form of the social relation 3 . But it should not 
 be overlooked, as by some modern writers it has been 4 , 
 that Aristotle explicitly distinguishes between a slave 
 de facto and a slave de jure, and that he grounds his 
 vindication of slavery entirely on the principle that such 
 a relation shall be the most beneficial one possible to 
 both the parties concerned in it. Where this condition 
 is wanting, wherever the party governed is susceptible 
 of a higher order of government, he distinctly main- 
 tains that the relation is a false and unnatural one 5 - 
 If therefore his experience had made him acquainted 
 with the highly cultivated and generous races of upper 
 Asia to which Alexander penetrated, he must in 
 consistency with his own principle, that every man's 
 nature is to be developed to the highest point of which 
 it is capable, have advised that these should be treat- 
 ed on the same footing as the Greeks, and Alexander's 
 conduct would only appear a natural deduction from 
 the general principles inculcated by his master. As 
 far as concerned the barbarians with whom alone the 
 Greeks previously to Alexander's expedition had been 
 brought into contact, the neighbours of the Greek 
 
 3 P. 1252, col. 1, lin. 34, et seq. 
 
 * Paley, Moral and Political Philosophy, ch. v. p. 12. " Aristo- 
 tle lays down, as a fundamental and self-evident maxim, that nature 
 intended barbarians to be slaves; and proceeds to deduce from 
 this maxim a train of conclusions, calculated to justify the policy 
 which then prevailed. And I question whether the same maxim 
 be not still self-evident to the company of merchants trading to 
 the coast of Africa." 
 
 * See p. 1255, col. 1, line 5 ct scq. and col. 2, line 4. et seq, also 
 p. 1259, col. 2, line 21, ft seq. 
 
54 STAGIRUS REBUILT. 
 
 cities in Asia Minor and the Propontis, the savage 
 hordes of Thrace, or the Nomad tribes inhabiting the 
 African Syrtis, Aristotle's position was a most reason- 
 able one. Christianity seems the only possible means 
 for the mutual pacification of races so different from 
 one another in every thought, feeling, and habit, as 
 these and the polished Greeks were : and Christianity 
 itself solves the problem not by those modifications of 
 social life through which alone the statesman acts, or 
 can act ; but by awakening all to the consciousness 
 that there exists a common bond higher than all so- 
 cial relations ; it does not aim at obliterating national 
 distinctions 1 9 but it dwarfs their importance in compa- 
 rison with the universal religious faith. If we would 
 really understand the opinions of a writer of antiquity, 
 we ought to understand the ground on which he rests, 
 and must rest. We have no right to require of a 
 pagan philosopher three centuries before Christ, that 
 in his system he should take account of the influ- 
 ences of Christianity; and they who scoff at the im- 
 portance which he attaches to the differences of race, 
 would do well to point out any instance in the his- 
 tory of the world where a barbarous people has be- 
 come amalgamated with a highly civilised one by any 
 other agency. 
 
 If Aristotle might reasonably feel proud of the 
 talents and acquirements of his pupil, his gratification 
 would be yet more enhanced by the nature of the 
 reward which his services received. We have men- 
 
 1 This was the essence of the Stoic theory, of which Plutarch 
 gives the substance, loc. cit. Ivn [iq Kara 9t<\eic, utj$e wrd 
 
 Bmt? 6Kao"rot duapur/nevoi BtKaio/c, aX\a iravra^ a 
 ^tj/jLOTas KO.\ ?roArra<?, eis 6e pios y Ka\ 
 <rvvvofjLOV i'0/jiw Koivta (rvvr pe(po[jit I/JJT. 
 
INHABITED BY ARISTOTLE. 55 
 
 tioned above the unhappy fate of Stagirus, Aristotle's 
 birthplace. Although his own fortunes were little af- 
 fected by this calamity, his patriotism, if we may 
 believe the account in Plutarch, induced him to de- 
 mand as the price of his instructions, the restoration 
 of his native town. It was accordingly rebuilt, such 
 of the inhabitants as were living in exile were re- 
 stored to the home of their infancy, such as had been 
 sold for slaves were redeemed, and in the days of Plu- 
 tarch strangers were shown the shady groves in which 
 the philosopher had walked, and the stone benches 
 whereon he used to repose 2 . The constitution under 
 which the new citizens lived was said to be drawn up 
 by him 3 , and long afterwards his memory was celebra- 
 ted by the Stagirites in a solemn festival, and, it is 
 said, one month of the year (perhaps the one in 
 which he was born) called by his name 4 . There is 
 every reason to believe that during the latter part of 
 his connection with Alexander, when the more direct 
 instruction had ceased, the newly built town furnished 
 
 2 Plutarch, Vit. Alex. sec. 7- In this matter the accounts are con- 
 fused. Julian, (Far. Hist. iii. 1?. xii. 54.) Diogenes, (v. 4.) and Pliny 
 (vii. 29.) attribute the restoration to Alexander. If it took place 
 at the commencement of the regency these may be reconciled 
 with Plutarch. But the testimony of Valerius Maximus (v. &) 
 would refer both the destruction and rebuilding of Stagirus to 
 Alexander, and that too at a time when Aristotle was very old 
 and residing in Athens. The gentlest mode of reconciling this 
 inaccurate epitomizer with possibilities, is to suppose that he has 
 confounded Stagirus with Eressus, the birthplace of Theophrastus, 
 of whom Diogenes and Pseudo-Ammonius relate a somewhat simi- 
 lar story. 
 
 3 Plutarch adv. Colot. extr. 
 
 4 Pseudo-Ammon. and Vit. Lat. The name " Stagirites " shows 
 the very late growth of this feature of the story. It may be built, 
 however, on a true foundation. 
 
56 FELLOW PUPILS OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 him with a quiet retreat, and that he then and there 
 composed the treatises we have mentioned ahove, for 
 the use of his absent pupil. While their personal com- 
 munication lasted, Pella, the capital of Macedonia, was 
 perhaps his residence 1 , as it is scarcely prohahle that 
 Philip would have liked to trust the person of the 
 heir apparent out of his dominions. 
 
 We shall conclude the account of this portion of 
 Aristotle's life hy the mention of three other remark- 
 able persons who probably all shared with Alexander 
 in the benefit of his instructions, although this is only 
 positively stated of the last of them 2 . The first of 
 these was Callisthenes, a son of Aristotle's cousin, who 
 afterwards attended Alexander in his Asiatic expedition, 
 and to whom we shall have occasion to revert in the 
 sequel. The second was Theophrastus, Aristotle's suc- 
 cessor in the school of the Lyceum some years after- 
 wards; and the third was one Marsyas, a native 
 of Pella,. brother to the Antigonus who, after the 
 
 1 This has been by Stahr, Aristotelia, i. p. 104, inferred from the 
 expression fio'pftopov ev irpo-^om^ in Theocritus's Epigram quoted 
 above p. 35. note. The Macedonians, Plutarch says> called the river, 
 on whose banks Pella stood, by the name Bo'jo/3opo?. 
 
 2 Suidas, v. Ma^o-Ja?. That Callisthenes and Theophrastus 
 were together pupils of Aristotle appears from Diogenes, Vit. 
 Theoph. sec. 3$. And the Macedonian connections of both would 
 incline us to believe that it was in that country that this rela- 
 tion existed. Theophrastus was personally known to Philip and 
 treated with distinction by him. (/Elian, War. Hist. iv. 19.) And 
 if Callisthenes had been Aristotle's pupil at Athens, his character 
 would surely have been sufficiently developed eleven years after- 
 wards to exhibit his unfitness as an adviser of Alexander to 
 any eye, certainly to the sharp- sighted one of Aristotle. Besides, 
 it is not likely that Alexander would have chosen one whom he was 
 not already acquainted with, to attend him* in such a capacity as 
 Callisthenes did. 
 
THEOPHRASTUS CALLISTHENES MARSYAS. 57 
 
 death of Alexander, when the generals of the monarch 
 divided their master's conquests among them, became 
 King of Lycia and Pamphylia. He was a soldier 
 and a man of letters ; and one work of his On the 
 Education of Alexander is perhaps as great a loss 
 to us as any composition of antiquity which could be 
 named. 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ARISTOTLE RETURNS TO ATHENS. 
 
 ON Alexander commencing his eastern expedition, 
 Aristotle, leaving his relation and pupil Callisthenes to 
 supply his own place as a friendly adviser to the youthful 
 monarch, whom he accompanied in the ostensible cha- 
 racter of historiographer 1 , returned to Athens. ^Whe- 
 ther this step was the consequence of any specific in- 
 vitation or not, it is difficult to say. Some accounts 
 state that he received a public request from the Athe- 
 nians to come, and conjointly with Xenocrates to suc- 
 ceed Speusippus 2 . But these views appear to proceed 
 upon the essentially false opinion that the position of 
 teacher was already a publicly recognised one, and be- 
 sides to imply the belief that Xenocrates and Aristotle 
 were at the time on their travels together; whereas we 
 know that the latter was in Macedonia till B.C. 335, 
 and that the former had four years before this time 
 succeeded Speusippus, not by virtue of any public ap- 
 pointment, but in consequence of his private wish 3 . 
 If any more precise reason be required for the philo- 
 sopher's change of residence than the one which pro- 
 bably determined him at first to visit Athens, namely 
 the superior attractions which that city possessed for 
 cultivated and refined minds, uve should incline to 
 believe that the greater mildness of climate was the 
 
 1 Arrhian, iv. 10. 
 
 2 Pseudo-Ammon. Vit. Lat. 
 
 3 Diog. Laert. iv. 3. 
 
TEACHES TN THE LYCEUM. 59 
 
 influencing cause 1 . His health was unquestionably 
 delicate ; and perhaps it was a regard for this, com- 
 bined with the wish to economize time, that induced 
 him to deliver his instructions (or at least a part of 
 them) not sitting or standing, but walking backwards 
 and forwards in the open air. u-The extent to which 
 he carried this practice, although the example of Pro- 
 tagoras 5 in Plato's Dialogue is enough to show that 
 he did not originate it, procured for his scholars, who 
 of course were obliged to conform to this habit, the 
 soubriquet of Peripatetics, or Walkers backwards and 
 forwards 6 .]^ From the neighbouring temple and grove of 
 Apollo Lyceus, his school was commonly known by the 
 name of the Lyceum 7 ; and here every morning and even- 
 ing he delivered lectures to a numerous body of scholars. 
 Among these he appears to have made a division. The 
 morning course, or, as he called it from the place where 
 it was delivered, the morning walk, (ewdti/o? Tre^/Traros), 
 was attended only by the more highly disciplined part 
 of his auditory, the subjects of it belonging to the higher 
 branches of philosophy, and requiring a systematic at- 
 tention as well as a previously cultivated understanding 
 
 4 This seems to be the true interpretation of the expression of 
 Aristotle cited by Demetrius. De Elocut. sec. 29, 155: ejta CK ^eV 
 a rj\0ov /a TOV j3a<ri\ea TOV 
 
 5 P. 314. E. 315. C. 
 
 6 Cicero, Academ. Post. i. 4. Cicero translates the word 
 
 by inambulare. Hermipptis explained it by 
 Diogenes Laertius (v. 2.) attributes the origin of this practice 
 with Aristotle to a regard not for his own health but for that of 
 Alexander. 
 
 7 Before the Peloponnesian War it had been used as a gymna- 
 sium, and was said to have been built by Pisistratus. See Aristoph. 
 Pac. 355, and the Scholiast. 
 
60 DIVISION OF HIS SCHOLARS. 
 
 on the part of the scholar. In the evening course (<5a~ 
 \ivo<? 7re/o/7raTos) the subjects as well as the manner of 
 treating them were of a more popujar cast, and more 
 appreciable by a mixed assembly, ^^ulus Gellius 1 who 
 is our sole authority on this matter, affirms that the 
 expressions acroatic discourses and exoteric discourses 
 (\oyoi aKpwaTiKoi and \oyoi e^curepiKoi) were the appro- 
 priate technical terms for these instructions; and he 
 further says that the former comprised Theological, 
 Physical, and Dialectical investigations, the latter Rhe- 
 toric, Sophistic, (or the art of disputing,) and Politics.- 
 We shall in another place examine thoroughly into 
 the precise meaning of these celebrated phrases, a 
 task which would here too much break the thread 
 of the narrative. We may, however, remark that the 
 morning discourses were called acroatic or subjects of 
 lectures, not because they belonged to this or that 
 branch, but because they were treated in a technical 
 and systematic manner ; and so the evening discourses 
 obtained the name of exoteric or separate, because each 
 of them was insulated, and not forming an integral 
 part of a system. It is obvious that some subjects 
 are more suitable to the one of these methods, and 
 others to the other; and the division which Gellius 
 makes is, generally speaking, a good one. But that 
 it does not hold universally is plain, not to mention 
 other arguments, from the fact that the work on Rhe- 
 toric which has come down to us is an acroatic work, 
 and that on Politics apparently the unfinished draught 
 of one ; while on the contrary, a fragment of an exo- 
 teric work preserved by Cicero in a Latin dress is upon 
 a theological subject. 
 
 1 Noct. Alt. xx. 5. 
 
PHILOSOPHICAL SYMPOSIA. 61 
 
 The more select circle of his scholars Aristotle used 
 to assemble at stated times on a footing, which without 
 any straining of analogy we may compare to the periodi- 
 cal dinners held by some of the literary clubs of modern 
 times. The object of this obviously was to combine 
 the advantages of high intellectual cultivation with the 
 charms of social intercourse ; to make men feel that 
 philosophy was not a thing separate from the daily uses 
 of life, but one which entered into all its charities and 
 was mixed up with its real pleasures. '--'These reunions 
 were regulated by a code of rules 2 , of which we know 
 enough to see that the cynicism or pedantry, which fre- 
 quently induces such as would be accounted deep thinkers 
 to despise the elegancies or even the decencies of life, 
 was strongly discountenanced 3 . In these days, espe- 
 cially in England, where so many different elements 
 combine to produce social intercourse in its highest per- 
 fection, it is difficult to estimate the important effect 
 which must have been brought about by a custom such 
 as that just mentioned. k^To enjoy leisure gracefully 
 and creditably 4 ," is not easy for any one at any time, 
 but for the Athenian in the days of Aristotle was a 
 task of the greatest difficulty. ^-"Deprived of that kind 
 of female intercourse which in modern social life is the 
 great instrument for humanizing the other sex, soften- 
 ing, as it does, through the affections, the disposition 
 to ferocity and rudeness, and checking the licentious 
 passions by the dignity of matronly or maidenly purity, 
 
 8 Athenseus, p. 186. 
 
 Apio-TOTeAf/s 3e U\OVTOV KCLI KOVIOOTOV 'jrXtjprj r/Wti/ TIVU eTri TO <rv/Ji- 
 yro<riov air penes elvai (prj<riv. Athenseus, p. 186. E. 
 
 4 a"^o\a'(eiv KaAws. Polit. viii. p. 1337, col. 2, line 34. Compare 
 also Nicom. Ethic, p. 1177, col. 2, line 4>, and Polit. vii. p. 1334, col. 
 1, line 1834. 
 
62 STATE OF SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 
 
 the youth of ancient Greece almost universally fell either 
 into a ruffianly asceticism, or a low and vulgar profli- 
 gacy. Some affected the austere manner and sordid 
 garb of the Lacadaemonians L , regarding as effeminate 
 all geniality of disposition, all taste for the refinements 
 of life, every thing in short which did not directly tend 
 to the production of mere energy : while others entirely 
 quenched the moral will and the higher mental facul- 
 ties in a debauchery of the coarsest kind 2 . To open 
 a new region of enjoyment to the choicer spirits of the 
 time and thus save them from the distortion or corrup- 
 tion to which they otherwise seemed doomed, was a 
 highly important service to the cause of civilization. 
 The pleasure and utility resulting from the institution 
 was very generally recognised. Xenocrates, the friend 
 of Aristotle, adopted it. Theophrastus, his successor, 
 left a sum of money in his will to be applied to defray- 
 ing the expenses of these meetings ; and there were 
 in after times similar periodical gatherings of the fol- 
 lowers of the Stoic philosophers, Diogenes* Antipater, 
 and Panaetius 3 . If some of these, or others of similar 
 nature, in the course of time degenerated into mere 
 excuses for sensual indulgence, as Athenseus seems to 
 hint, no argument can be thence derived against their 
 
 1 That the AaKowoucma so admirably hit off by Aristophanes (Av. 
 1729; e * se( l') tasted long after his time, is clear, not to mention other 
 arguments, from the evident prevalence of the views which Aristotle 
 (Politic, vii. p. 1324, col. 1, line 23, et seq., also p. 1332, col. 2, 
 line 20, p. 1334, col. 2, line 28) takes so much pains to controvert. 
 
 TTfcK yap ov 
 
 "ffivfi-v oi$> Koi fiiveiv /JLOVOV j Aristoph. Ran. 751. 
 The manners of the latter comedy, as preserved in Terence's 
 plays, are a sufficient evidence that this sarcasm was little less 
 applicable at Athens throughout the fourth century before the 
 Christian era. 
 
 3 Athenseus, p. 186. 
 
DISCIPLINE OF THE SCHOLARS. 63 
 
 great utility while the spirit of the institution was pre- 
 served. 
 
 ^Another arrangement made by Aristotle in the ma- 
 nagement of his instructions appears particularly wor- 
 thy of notice. In imitation, as some say, of a practice 
 of Xenocrates, he appointed one of his scholars to play 
 the part of a sort of president in his school, holding 
 the office for the space of ten days, after which another 
 took his place V^This peculiarity seems to derive illus- 
 tration from the practice of the universities of Europe 
 in the middle ages, in which, as is well known, it 
 was the custom for individuals on various occasions to 
 maintain certain theses against all who chose to con- 
 trovert them. A remnant of this practice remains to 
 this day in the Acts (as they are termed) which are 
 kept in the University of Cambridge by candidates 
 for a degree in either of the Faculties. It is an 
 
 * a\\ct KCU i/ 
 
 %Ka rjpepcK; ap-^ovra -rroieiv. Diog. Laert. Fit. sec. 4. The follow- 
 ing passages from Cicero seem to furnish a kind of commentary 
 on these obscure expressions. Itaque mihi semper Peripateticorum 
 Academiasque consuetude de omnibus rebus in contrarias paries dis- 
 serendi non ob earn causam solum placuit, quod aliter non posset, quid 
 in qudque re veri smile esset, inveniri ; sed etiam quod esset ea 
 maxima dicendi exercitatio: qua princeps usus est Aristoteles, deinde, 
 eum qui secuti sunt. Tusc. Qu. ii. 3. 
 
 Sin aliquis extiterit aliquando, qui Aristotelio more de omnibus 
 rebus in utramque partem posset dicere, et in omni causa duas con- 
 trarias orationes, prceceptis illius cognitis, explicare ; aut hoc Arcesilce 
 modo ei Carneadi, contra omne quod propositum sit disserat; 
 quique ad earn rationem adjungat hunc rhetoricum usum mo- 
 remque dicendi, is sit verus, is perfectus, is solus orator. De 
 Oral. iii. 21. 
 
 The passage from Quintilian, (i. 2. 23.) quoted by Menage in 
 his note on Diogenes, (loc. cit.) refers to an essentially different 
 kind of discipline, arising out of other grounds and directed to 
 other, ends. 
 
64 ANALOGOUS MODERN PRACTICES. 
 
 M~ ** & for$e */ '**-*- &J++0U+&, Ytfon.< 
 
 arrangement which results necessarily from the scarcity 
 of books of instruction, and is dropped or degenerates 
 into a mere form when this deficiency is removed. 
 While information on any given subject must be 
 derived entirely or mainly from the mouth of the 
 teacher, as was the case in the time of Aristotle no 
 less than that of Scotus and Aquinas, the most satis- 
 factory test of the learner's proficiency is his ability to 
 maintain the theory which he 'has received against all 
 arguments which may be brought against it. We 
 shall probably be right in supposing that this was the 
 duty of the president (ap-^wv) spoken of by Diogenes. 
 He was, in the language of the sixteenth century, 
 keeping an act. ^Re had for the space of ten days to 
 defend his own theory and to refute the objections, 
 (a.7ropiai) which his brother disciples might either en- 
 tertain or invent,Vthe master in the mean time taking 
 the place of a moderator, occasionally interposing to 
 show where issue must be joined, to prevent either party 
 from drawing illogical conclusions from acknowledged 
 premises, and, probably, after the discussion had been 
 continued for a sufficient time, to point out the ground 
 of the fallacy. This explanation will also serve to 
 account for a phenomenon, which cannot fail to strike 
 a reader on the perusal of any one of Aristotle's wri- 
 tings that have come down to us. The systematic 
 treatment of a subject is continually broken by an ap- 
 parently needless discussion of objections which may 
 be brought against some particular part. These are 
 stated more or less fully, and are likewise taken off; 
 or it sometimes happens that merely the principle on 
 which the solution must proceed is indicated, and it 
 is left to the ingenuity of the reader to fill up the 
 details. To return to our subject, it is quite obvious 
 
EFFECT OF THE DISCIPLINE. 65 
 
 that such a discipline as we have described must have 
 had a wonderful effect in sharpening the dialectical 
 talent of the student, and in producing perhaps at 
 the expense of the more valuable faculty of deep 
 and systematic thought extraordinary astuteness and 
 agility in argumentation. Indeed, if we make ab- 
 straction of the subject-matter of the discussions, we 
 may very well regard the exercise as simply a practi- 
 cal instruction in the art of disputation, that which 
 formed the staple of the education of the Sophists. 
 And now we may understand how Gellius 1 , writing in 
 the second century after Christ, should place this art 
 among the branches which Aristotle's evening course 
 embraced, although in the sense in which the Sophists 
 taught it, he would have scorned to make any such 
 profession 2 . In what other light could this compiler 
 have viewed the fact, that insulated topics arising out 
 of a subject which they had heard fiystematicaUy 
 treated by their master in his lectures (d/f/ooaVets) of 
 the morning, were debated by Aristotle's more advanced 
 scholars, in the presence of the entire body, in the 
 evening, the master being himself present and regulat- 
 ing the whole discussion. 
 
 It is evident that in this species of exercise it is 
 not the faculty of comprehending philosophic truth 
 that plays the most prominent part. As regards the 
 subject-matter of such debates, nothing which is at all 
 incomplete, nothing unsusceptible of rigid definition 
 is available. Consequently the whole of that extensive 
 
 1 Noct. Alt. xx. 5. See above, p. 60. 
 
 2 See, for instance, the contempt with which he speaks of the 
 Sophistical principle, the one on which Isocrates taught rhetoric. 
 Rhetoric, i. inil. 
 
 5 
 
66 ITS EFFECT ON PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 region, where knowledge exists in a state of growth 
 and gradual consolidation, the domain of half-evolved 
 truths, of observations and theories blended together 
 in varying proportions, of approximately ascertained 
 laws, in the main true, but still apparently irreconcil- 
 able with some phenomena, all this fertile soil, out 
 of which every particle of real knowledge has sprung 
 and must spring, will be neglected as barren and unpro- 
 fitable. Where public discussion is the only test to be 
 applied, an impregnable paradox will be more valued than 
 an imperfectly established truth 1 . And it is not only by 
 diverting the attention of the student away from the pro- 
 fitable fields of knowledge that a pernicious effect will be 
 produced. He will further be tempted to give, perhaps 
 unconsciously, an artificial roundness to established facts 
 by means of arbitrary definitions. In Nature every thing 
 is shaded off by imperceptible gradations into something 
 entirely different. Who can define the exact line which 
 separates the animal from the vegetable kingdom, or the 
 family of birds from that of animals ? Who can say ex- 
 actly where disinterestedness in the individual character 
 joins on to a well-regulated self-love ? or where fanati- 
 cism ends and hypocrisy begins? But on the other hand 
 the intellect refuses to apprehend what is not clear and 
 distinct. Hence a continual tendency to stretch Na- 
 ture on the Procrustes-bed of Logical Definition, where, 
 with more or less gentle truncation or extension, a 
 plausible theory will be formed. Should one weak point 
 after another be discovered in this, a new bulwark of 
 
 1 Sapientis hanc censet Arcesilas vim esse maximam, Zenoni 
 assentiens, cavere ne capiatur ; ne fallatur, videre. Cicero, Aca- 
 dem. Prior, ii. 21. Who can fail to recognise the disputatious habit 
 of mind which gave birth to this principle? Compare sec. 21. 
 Si ulli rei sapiens assentietur unquam, aliquando etiam opinabitur : 
 nunquam autem opinabitur ; nulli igitur rei assentietur. 
 
ITS EFFECT ON PHILOSOPHERS. 67 
 
 hypothesis will be thrown up to protect it, and at last 
 the fort be made impregnable, but alas ! in the mean 
 time it has become a castle in the air. Should however 
 the genius of the disputant lie less in the power of 
 distinguishing and refining, than in that of presenting 
 his views in a broad and striking manner, should his 
 fancy be rich and his feelings strong, above all, should 
 he be one of a nation where eloquence is at once the 
 most common gift and the most envied attainment, 
 he will call in rhetoric to the aid of his cause; and, 
 in this event, as the accessory gradually encroaches and 
 elbows out that interest to aid which it was originally 
 introduced, as the handling of the question becomes 
 more important, and the question itself less so, there 
 will result, not, as in the former case, a Scholastic 
 Philosophy, but an arena for closet orators, who will 2 
 abandon the systematic study of philosophy, and var- 
 nish up declamations on set subjects. Such results 
 doubtless did not follow in the time of Aristotle and 
 Xenocrates. Under them, unquestionably, the original 
 purpose of this discipline was kept steadily in sight ; 
 and it was not suffered to pass from being the test 
 of clear and systematic thought to a mere substitute 
 for it. But the transition must have been to a con- 
 siderable extent effected when an Arcesilaus or a Car- 
 neades could deliver formal dissertations in opposition 
 to any question indifferently, and when Cicero could 
 regard the rhetorical practice as co-ordinate in import- 
 ance with the other advantages resulting to the stu- 
 dent 3 , In the very excellence and reputation then of 
 
 (j)i\oa'o(p6Tv TTjoay/jiaTJKto?, a'AAa dfcrets \r}Kvdifeiv, Strabo, 
 xiii. p. 124. ed Tauchnitz. 
 
 3 See the passages cited above p. 63. not. Compare also Acad. 
 Prior, ii. 18. Quis enim ista tarn aperte perspicueque et perversa et 
 
68 RESOURCES OF ARISTOTLE. 
 
 this peculiar discipline of the founder of the Peripa- 
 tetic school, we have a germ adequate to produce a 
 rapid decay of his philosophy, and we have no occa- 
 sion to look either to external accidents or to the 
 internal nature of his doctrines for a reason of the 
 degeneracy of the Peripatetics after Theophrastus. The 
 importance of this remark will be seen in the sequel. 
 y It was probably in the course of this sojourn at 
 Athens, which lasted for the space of thirteen years, 
 that the greater number of Aristotle's works were pro- 
 duced. His external circumstances were at this time 
 most favourable. The Macedonian party was the pre- 
 valent one at Athens, so that he needed be under no 
 fears for his personal quiet; and the countenance and 
 assistance he received from Alexander enabled him to 
 prosecute his investigations without any interruption 
 from the scantiness of pecuniary means. The Con- 
 queror is said in Athenseus to have presented his 
 master with the sum of eight hundred talents (about 
 two hundred thousand pounds sterling), to meet the 
 expenses of his History of Anima&}aud enormous as 
 this sum is, it is only in proportion to the accounts 
 we have of the vast wealth acquired by the plunder 
 of the Persian treasures 2 . Pliny also relates that some 
 thousands of men were placed at his disposal for the 
 purpose of procuring zoological specimens which served 
 as materials for this celebrated treatise. The under- 
 
 falsa secutus esset, nisi tanta in Arcesila, multo etiam major in 
 Carneade, et copia rerum, et dicendi vis fuisset. Yet the eloquent 
 Arcesilaus and Carneades left nothing behind them in writing. (Plu- 
 tarch, Defort. Alex. p. 323. ed. Paris.) 
 
 1 Athenaeus, p. 3p8. E. 
 
 2 See the authorities on this subject collected by Ste. Croix. Eza- 
 men Hisiorique, pp. 428 430. 
 
HIS NATURAL HISTORY. 69 
 
 taking, he says, originated in the express desire of 
 Alexander, who took a singular interest in the study 
 of Natural History 3 . For this particular object indeed, i 
 he is said to have received a considerable sum from i 
 Philip, so that we must probably regard the assistance 
 afforded him by Alexander, (no doubt after conquest 
 had enlarged his means), as having effected the ex- 
 tension and completion of a work begun at an earlier 
 period, previous to his second visit to Athens 4 . Inde- 
 pendently too of this princely liberality, the profits of 
 his occupation may have been very great 5 , and we 
 have before seen reason to suppose that his private for- 
 tune was not inconsiderable. *^It is likely therefore 
 that not only all the means and appliances of know- 
 ledge, but the luxuries and refinements of private life 
 were within his reach, and having as little of the cynic 
 as of the sensualist in his character, there is every pro- 
 bability that he availed himself of them.t-'Indeed the 
 charges of luxury which his enemies brought against 
 him after his death, absurd as they are in the form 
 in which they were put, appear to indicate a man that 
 could enjoy riches when possessing them as well as in 
 case of necessity he could endure poverty. 
 
 3 Hist. Nat. viii. 17- 
 
 4 &lia.n, Var. Hist. iv. 12. 
 
 5 See the beginning of the Hippias Major of Plato for the profits 
 of the sophists, which there is no reason to suppose were greater 
 than those of their more respectable successors. Hippias professes 
 to have made during a short circuit in Sicily more than six 
 hundred pounds, although the celebrated Protagoras was there as 
 a competitor. (5.) Hyperbolus's instructions in oratory cost him 
 a talent, or two hundred and fifty pounds. (Aristoph. Nub. 874.) 
 But there is nothing to enable us to determine whether Aristotle's 
 teaching was or was not gratuitous. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 TURBULENT POLITICS AT ATHENS. 
 
 FORTUNE, proverbially inconstant, was even more 
 fickle in the days of Aristotle than our own. At an 
 earlier period of his life, we have seen the virulence 
 of political partizanship rendering it desirable for him 
 to quit Athens. The same spirit it was which again, 
 in his old age, forced him to seek refuge in a less 
 agreeable but safer spot. The death of Alexander had 
 infused new courage into the anti-Macedonian party at 
 Athens, and a persecution of such as entertained con- 
 trary views naturally followed. Against Aristotle, the 
 intimate friend and correspondent of Antipater, (whom 
 Alexander on leaving Greece had left regent,) a pro- 
 secution was either instituted or threatened for an 
 alleged offence against religion 1 . The flimsiness of 
 this pretext for crushing a political opponent, or ra- 
 ther a wise and inoffensive man, whose very imparti- 
 ality was a tacit censure of the violent party-spirit of 
 his time, will appear at first sight of the particulars, 
 of the charge. Eurymedon the Hierophant, assisted by 
 Demophilus, accused him of the blasphemy of paying 
 divine honours to mortals. He had composed, it was 
 said, a paean and offered sacrifices to his father in law 
 Hermias, and also honoured the memory of his deceased 
 wife Pythias with libations such as were used in the 
 worship of Ceres. This p&an is the scolium 'Aperd 
 
 1 Phavorinus ap. Diog. Laert. Fit. 5. -flSlian, Far. Hist. iii. 36. 
 Athenaeus, p. 696. Origen c. Celsum, i. p. 51. ed. Spencer. Demo- 
 chares cited by Aristocles, (ap. Euseb. Prcep. Ev. xv. 2.) 
 
ARISTOTLE GOES TO EUBO3A. 71 
 
 e, &c., which we have described above (p. 42.) 
 and although we cannot tell what the circumstance 
 was which gave rise to the latter half of the charge, 
 we may reasonably presume that it as little justified the 
 interpretation given to it as the ode does. That igno- 
 rance and bigotry stimulated by party hatred should find 
 matter in his writings to confirm a charge of impiety 
 founded on such a basis, was to be expected; and he 
 is related to have said to his friends, in allusion to 
 the fate of Socrates, "Let us leave Athens, and not 
 give the Athenians a second opportunity of committing 
 sacrilege against Philosophy." He was too well ac- 
 quainted with the character of "the many-headed 
 monster" to consider the absurdity of a charge as a 
 sufficient guarantee for security under such circumstan- 
 ces, and he retired with his property to Chalcis in 
 Euboea 2 , where at that time Macedonian influence pre- 
 vailed. In a letter to Antipater he expresses his regret 
 at leaving his old haunts, but applies a verse from 
 Homer in a way to intimate that the disposition that 
 prevailed there to vexatious and malignant calumnies 
 was incorrigible 3 . It is not impossible that his new 
 asylum had before this time afforded him an occasional 
 retreat from the noise and bustle of Athens 4 . Now 
 however he owed to it a greater obligation. He was 
 out of the reach of his enemies, and enabled to justify 
 himself in the opinion of all whose judgement was 
 
 2 Apollodorus, ap. Diog. Vit. 10. Lycon the Pythagorean cited 
 by Aristocles ap. Euseb. Prcep. Ev. xv. 2, grounds a charge of lux- 
 ury on the number of culinary utensils which were passed at the 
 custom-house in Chalcis. 
 
 3 Pseudo-Ammon. ^lian, V. H. iii. 36. (compare xii. 52.) Pha- 
 vorinus (ap. Diog. Fit. 9.) 
 
 4 Diog. Vii. Epicuri, 1. Strabo, x. p. 325. 
 
72 IS PERSECUTED. 
 
 valuable by a written defence of his conduct 1 , and an 
 exposure of the absurdities which the accusation in- 
 volved. " Was it likely," he asks, " that if he had 
 contemplated Hermias in the light of a deity, he should 
 have set up a cenotaph to his memory as to that of a 
 dead man? Were funeral rites a natural step to apo- 
 theosis?" Arguments like these, reasonable as they are, 
 were not likely to produce much effect upon the minds 
 of his enemies. The person of their victim was beyond 
 their reach ; but such means of annoyance as still re- 
 mained were not neglected. Some mark of honour at 
 Delphi, probably a statue, had been on a former occa- 
 sion (perhaps the embassy alluded to above) decreed 
 him by a vote of the people. This vote seems to have 
 been at this time rescinded, an insult the more mor- 
 tifying, if, as appears likely, it was inflicted on the 
 pretext that he had acted the part of a spy in the 
 Macedonian interest 2 . In a letter to Antipater he 
 speaks of this proceeding in a tone of real greatness, 
 perfectly free from the least affectation of indifference. 
 He alleges 3 that it does not occasion him great uneasi- 
 
 1 Athenaeus, (p. 697.) quotes a passage from this work, to which 
 he gives the title of aVoAoyi'a aVe/Je/a?, but at the same time men- 
 tions a suspicion that it was not genuine. It might very well be 
 written by one of his scholars in his name, and embody his senti- 
 ments, just as the Apology of Plato does those of Socrates. This 
 is the more likely, as Aristotle at this time appears to have been 
 in a very weak state of health. It seems to be identical with the 
 \oyos ZLKUVIKOS mentioned by Phavorinus, (ap. Diog. Fit. 9.) and to 
 be so called because written in that form, although probably never 
 intended to be recited in court. 
 
 8 Demochares cited by Aristocles, (Euseb. Prcep. Ev. xv. 2.) 
 3 .ZElian, Var. Hist. xix. 1. OU'TW? e'}a>, cos nt'/re /not <r<po%pa fjieXeiv 
 vircp avTiov, jufjre /uty^eV /xc/Xeiv. Pausanias (vi. 4. 8.) speaks of a statue 
 at Olympia said to be his; but it had no name, nor was it known 
 who had placed it there. 
 
ESTRANGEMENT OF ALEXANDER. 73 
 
 ness, but that he still feels hurt by it. It is impos- 
 sible to find expressions more characteristic of an un- 
 affectedly magnanimous nature, or which better illustrate 
 the description of that disposition given by himself in 
 one of his works 4 . 
 
 A subject which it is likely occasioned him during 
 the latter years of his life far greater pain than any 
 thing which the fickle public of Athens could think 
 or do, was the coolness which had arisen between him- 
 self and his illustrious pupil. It seems to have been 
 closely connected with the conduct of Callisthenes, 
 whom we have mentioned above (p. 56.) who had ac- 
 companied Alexander into Asia by his particular re- 
 commendation. This individual possessed a cultivated 
 mind, a vigorous understanding, and a bold and fear- 
 less integrity, combined with a strong attachment to 
 the homely virtues and energetic character of the Ma- 
 cedonians, and a corresponding hatred and contempt 
 for the Persian manners which had been adopted by 
 Alexander after his successes. Unfortunately no less 
 for those whom it was his desire to reform than for 
 himself, the sterling qualities of his mind were obscured 
 by a singular want of tact and discretion 5 . He had no 
 talent for seizing the proper moment to tell an un- 
 welcome truth, and so far from being able to sweeten 
 a reproof by an appearance of interest and affection 
 for the party reproved, he often contrived to give his 
 real zeal the colouring of offended vanity or personal 
 malice. Aristotle is said to have dreaded from the 
 very first that evil would follow from these defects in 
 
 4 Nicom. Ethic, iv. pp. 1123. col. i. 1. 341125. col. i. 1. 35. 
 
 5 Aristotle himself said of him, on hearing of his behaviour at 
 court that he was \oy<i> /ieV Si/i/aroc ai fieyaSj vovv ' OVK f*X ev ' 
 mippus ap. Plutarch. Fit. Alex. 54. 
 
74 CONDUCT OF CALLISTHENES. 
 
 his character, and to have advised him to abstain from 
 frequent interviews with the king, and when he did 
 converse with him, to be careful that his conversation 
 was agreeable and goodhumoured 1 . He probably judged 
 that the character and conduct of Callisthenes would of 
 itself work an effect with a generous disposition like 
 Alexander's, and that its influence could not be in- 
 creased, and would in all probability be much dimin- 
 ished, by the irritation of personal discussion, producing, 
 almost of necessity, altercation and invective. Callis- 
 thenes however did not abide by the instructions of 
 his master; and perhaps the ambition of martyrdom 
 contributed almost as much as the love of truth to his 
 neglect of them. The description of Kent, which Shaks- 
 peare puts into the mouth of Cornwall 2 would certainly 
 not do him justice ; but it is impossible to shut our 
 eyes to the fact that he made it " his occupation to be 
 plain." Disgusted at the ceremony of the salaam, and 
 the other oriental customs, which in the eyes of many 
 were a degradation to the dignity of freeborn Greeks, he 
 did not take the proper course, namely, to withdraw 
 himself from the royal banquets, and thus by his ab- 
 sence enter a practical protest against their adoption; but, 
 
 1 Valerius Maximus, vii. 2. 
 
 -This is some fellow, 
 
 Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect 
 
 A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb 
 
 Quite from his nature : He cannot flatter, he ! 
 
 An honest mind and plain ! he must speak truth : 
 
 An they will take it, so: if not, he's plain. 
 
 These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness 
 
 Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends, 
 
 Than twenty silly ducking observants 
 
 That stretch their duties nicely ! 
 
 King Lear, Act ii sc. 2. 
 
HIS HATRED OF ANAXAKCHUS. 75 
 
 while he still did not cease to attend these, he took every 
 opportunity of testifying his disapprobation of what he 
 saw, and his contempt of the favours which were he- 
 stowed on such as were less scrupulous than himself. 
 One of them who appears to have particularly excited 
 his dislike was the sophist Anaxarchus, an unprincipled 
 flatterer, who vindicated the worst actions and encou- 
 raged the most evil tendencies of his master 3 ; and per- 
 haps the jealousy of this miscreant and an unwillingness 
 to leave him the undivided empire over Alexander's 
 mind, was one reason which prevented him from adopt- 
 ing what would have been probably the most effectual 
 as well as the most dignified line of conduct. Some 
 anecdotes are related by Plutarch, which exhibit in a 
 very striking manner both the mutual hatred of the 
 philosophers breaking out in defiance of all the de- 
 cencies of a court, and the rude bluntness of Callisthe- 
 nes's manners. On one occasion, a discussion arose at 
 supper time, as to the comparative severity of the win- 
 
 3 When Alexander, after having slain his friend Clitus in a fit of 
 drunken passion, threw himself upon the earth, overwhelmed with 
 remorse, deaf to the solicitations of his friends, and obstinately 
 refusing to touch food, Callisthenes and Anaxarchus, the philoso- 
 phers of that day standing in the place of the priests of this, were 
 sent to offer him spiritual consolations. The latter, wise in his 
 generation, determined to sear the conscience which he could not 
 heal, and entered the tent with an expression of indignation and 
 surprize. "What," he cried, " is this Alexander on whom the eyes of 
 the whole world are bent ? is this he lying weeping like a slave, in fear 
 of the reproaches and the conventional laws of men, when he ought 
 to be himself the law and the standard of right and wrong to them ? 
 Why did he conquer the world but to rule and command it ; surely 
 not to be in bondage to it and its foolish opinions ? " " Dost thou 
 not know/' he continued, addressing the unhappy prince, "that 
 Justice and Law (A/K^i/ not Qcpiv) are represented the Assessors of 
 Jupiter, as a sign to all that whatever the mighty do is lawful and 
 just ? " Plutarch, Vit. Alex. 52. 
 
76 HIS DISLIKE OF PERSIAN HABITS. 
 
 ters in Macedonia and in the part of the country where 
 they then were. Anaxarchus, is opposition to his rival, 
 strongly maintained the former to be the colder. Cal- 
 listhenes could not resist the temptation of a sneer 
 at his enemy. " You at least," said he, " should 
 hardly be of that opinion. In Greece you used to 
 get through the cold weather in a scrubby jacket, 
 (ev Tpifiwvi) ; here, I observe that you cannot sit down 
 to table with less than three thick mantels (SdiriSai) 
 on your back V* Anaxarchus, whose vulgar ostentation 
 of the wealth which his low servilities had procured him 
 was observed and ridiculed by all, could not turn off 
 this sarcasm ; but the meanest animal has its sting, 
 and he took care not to miss any opportunity for lower- 
 ing the credit of Callisthenes with Alexander, a task 
 which the unfortunate wrong-headedness 2 of the other 
 rendered only too easy. On the occasion of another 
 royal banquet, each of the guests as the cup passed 
 round, drank to the monarch from it, and then after 
 performing the salaam, received a salute from him, 
 a ceremony which was considered as an especial mark 
 of royal favour. Callisthenes, when his turn arrived, 
 omitted the salaam, but advanced towards Alexander, 
 who being busy in conversation with Hephsestion, did 
 not observe that the expected act of homage had been 
 omitted. A courtier of Anaxarchus's party, however, 
 Demetrius, the son of Pythonax, determined that their 
 enemy should not benefit by this casualty, and accord- 
 
 1 Plutarch, Vit. Alex. 52. 
 
 2 c-Kaiorrjs and vVepoK-yo? a(3e\T6pia are terms in which Arrhian, 
 who perfectly appreciates the manly spirit of Callisthenes and is 
 no idolater of Alexander, characterizes his manners. (De cxped. 
 Alex. iv. c. 12.) 
 
0, 
 
 POPULAR WITH THE MACEDONIA!*^ 77 
 
 ingly called out, " Do not salute that fellow, sire ; for 
 he alone has refused to salaam you." The king on 
 hearing this refused Callisthenes the customary com- 
 pliment; but the latter far from heing mortified, ex- 
 claimed contemptuously as he returned to his seat, 
 " Very well, then I am a kiss the poorer 3 ! " Such 
 gratuitous discourtesy as this could hardly fail to alien- 
 ate the kindness of a young prince, whose mere taste 
 for refinement, leaving entirely out of consideration 
 the intoxication produced by unparalleled success and 
 the flatteries which follow it, must have been revolted 
 by it 4 . It however gained him great credit with the 
 Macedonian party, who were no less jealous of the 
 favour which the Persian nobles found with the Con- 
 queror than disgusted with the adoption of the Persian 
 customs. He was considered as the mouthpiece of the 
 body, and as the representative and vindicator of that 
 manly and plain speaking spirit of liberty which they 
 regarded as their birthright 5 , and the satisfaction 
 which his vanity received from this importance, com- 
 bined with a despair of reconquering the first place in 
 Alexander's favour from the hated and despised Anaxar- 
 chus, probably determined him to relinquish all attempts 
 at pleasing the monarch, and to adopt a line which 
 might annoy and injure himself but could hardly bene- 
 fit any one. When an account was brought to Aris- 
 totle in Greece of the course pursued by his relation, 
 
 3 Plutarch, Fit. 54. Arrhian, iv. 12. 
 
 4 "Do not the Greeks seem to you," said he, to two of his friends, 
 on the occasion of Clitus's outrageous behaviour, " compared with 
 the Macedonians, like demigods among brute beasts ? " (Plutarch, 
 
 ru. 51.) 
 
 5 Plutarch, Fit. 53. Arrhian, iv. 12. 
 
78 HIS BAD TASTE AND TEMPER. 
 
 his sharp-sigh tedness led him at once to divine the re- 
 sult. In a line from the Iliad J , 
 
 Ah me! such words, my son, bode speedy death! 
 
 he prophetically hinted the fate which awaited him. In- 
 deed the latter himself appears not to have been blind 
 to the ruin preparing for him ; but this conviction did 
 not produce any alteration in his conduct, or, if any- 
 thing, it perhaps induced him to give way to his tem- 
 per even more than before. At another banquet, the 
 not unusual request was made to him, that he would 
 exhibit his talents by delivering an extemporaneous ora- 
 tion, and the subject chosen- was a Panegyric upon the 
 Macedonians. He complied, and performed his task so 
 well as to excite universal admiration and enthusiastic 
 applause on the part of the guests. This circumstance 
 appears to have nettled Alexander, whose affection for 
 his old fellow-pupil had probably quite vanished, and 
 he remarked in disparagement of the feat, in a quo- 
 tation from Euripides, that on such a subject it was 
 no great matter to be eloquent. " If Callisthenes 
 wished really to give a proof of his abilities," said he, 
 " let him take up the other side of the question, and 
 try what he can do in an invective against the Mace- 
 donians, that they may learn their faults and reform 
 them." The orator did not decline the challenge : 
 his mettle was roused, and he surpassed his former 
 performance. The Macedonian nation was held up to 
 utter scorn, and especial contempt heaped upon the 
 warlike exploits and consummate diplomacy of Alex- 
 ander's father Philip. His successes were attributed 
 to accident or low intrigue availing itself of the dis- 
 
 ttj fjiot, TKo<?, t<r<rea, ot" ayopeven. Diog. Laert. Vit. 5. 
 
HIS INTIMACY WITH THE PAGES. 79 
 
 sensions which existed at that time in Greece; and 
 the whole was wound up by the Homeric line 
 
 KO.I o TrajKctKos eAAave 
 When civil broils prevail, the vilest soar to fame ! 
 
 The effect of this course was such as might have been 
 expected. Alexander fell into a furious passion, tell- 
 ing the performer what was not far from the truth, that 
 his speech was an evidence not of skill, but of male- 
 volence, and the latter, perhaps conscious that he had 
 now struck a blow which would never be forgiven, left 
 the room repeating as he went out a verse from the 
 Iliad, which seems to be an allusion to the death of 
 Clitus, and an intimation that he expected to be made 
 the second victim to his sovereign's temper 2 . 
 
 A victim he was destined to be, although not in 
 the way in which he appears to have expected. A 
 practice had been introduced by Philip, similar to that 
 which prevailed in the courts of the feudal sovereigns 
 in the Middle Ages, that the sons of the principal no- 
 bles should be brought up at court in attendance on 
 the person of the king. Of these pages, esquires, or 
 grooms of the bed-chamber, (for their office appears to 
 have included all these duties 3 ), who attended on Alex- 
 ander, there was one named Hermolaus, a youth of 
 high spirit and generous disposition, who was much 
 attached to Callisthenes and took great pleasure in his 
 society and conversation. The philosopher appears to 
 have considered his mind as a fit depository for the 
 manly principles of Grecian liberty, which the tenets 
 of Anaxarchus and the corrupt example of the monarch 
 
 2 KCtT0ai/e KCII OaTpoKAo?, oirep ceo troXXov a/ue'ji/a>i/. Plutarch, 
 Fit. 54. 
 
 3 Arrhian, iv. c. 13. 
 
80 HIS RHETORICAL COMMONPLACES. 
 
 threatened utterly to extinguish, and, in the inculca- 
 tion of these, to have made use of language and of 
 illustrations, which considering the circumstances of 
 the case were certainly dangerous, although in refer- 
 ence to the then prevailing tone of morality we shall 
 scarcely he justified in censuring them. Harmodius and 
 Aristogiton having with the sacrifice of their own lives 
 been fortunate enough to bring about the freedom of 
 their country, had been canonized as political saints, 
 and were held up to all the youth of the free states of 
 Greece for admiration and imitation; and Callisthenes 
 can hardly deserve especial blame for participating in 
 this general idolatry, or for representing the glory of a 
 tyrannicide as surpassing that of a tyrant, however bril- 
 liant the fortunes of the latter might be. Neither can 
 we at all wonder that he should delight in depreciating 
 the "pride, pomp and circumstance" of greatness in 
 comparison with dignity of character and manly energy, 
 and in exposing the impotence of externals to avert 
 any of "the ills to which flesh is heir." Such con- 
 siderations have been in all ages and ever will be the 
 staple both of Philosophy and of the sciolism which is 
 its counterfeit, and the necessity for dwelling upon 
 them might to Callisthenes appear the greater in order 
 to counterbalance the habits of feeling which Persian 
 manners and sophistry like that of Anaxarchus were 
 calculated to spread among the Macedonian youth. He 
 is said indeed to have continually professed that the 
 only motive which induced him to accompany Alex- 
 ander into Asia was that he might be the means of 
 restoring his countrymen to their father-land, as true 
 Greeks as they went out, uncorrupted by the manners 
 or the luxury of the Barbarians 1 , and he seems un- 
 
 * l Plutarch, Fit. 53. 
 
CONSPIRACY OF THE PAGES. 81 
 
 questionably to have succeeded in putting a stop, at 
 least for a time, to the ceremony of the salaam, of all 
 Eastern customs the one most galling to Macedonian 
 pride 8 . In an evil day however to Callisthenes, it hap- 
 pened, that Hermolaus was out boar-hunting with Alex- 
 ander, when the animal charged directly towards the king. 
 The page, influenced probably more by the ardour of 
 the chase, and his own youthful spirits, than by any just 
 apprehension for his sovereign's safety, struck the crea- 
 ture a mortal wound before it came up to him. Alex- 
 ander, the keenest of huntsmen, baulked of his ex- 
 pected sport, in the passion of the moment, ordered 
 Hermolaus to be flogged in the presence of his brother- 
 pages, and deprived him of his horse, (apparently the 
 sign of summarily degrading him from his employment.) 
 Such an insult to a Greek could only be washed out in 
 the blood of the aggressor, and Hermolaus found ready 
 sympathy among his compeers. It was agreed by them 
 that Alexander should be assassinated while asleep, and 
 the execution of the design was fixed for a night on which 
 Antipater, the son of Asclepiodorus, (whom Alexander 
 had made lord-lieutenant of Syria,) was to be the groom 
 in waiting. It so happened, that on that night Alex- 
 ander did not retire to bed at all, but sat at table 
 carousing until the very morning, whether by acci- 
 dent, or in consequence of the advice of a Syrian fe- 
 male, to whom in the character of a soothsayer he paid 
 great respect, is not agreed by the contemporary histo- 
 rians. But this circumstance, whatever was the cause 
 of it, saved the king and led to the detection of the 
 plot. The next day, Epimenes, one of the conspira- 
 
 2 Plutarch, Vit. 54. Compare Arrhian, iv. 14, where Hermo- 
 laus is said to have complained of TYJV Trpo^Kvutja-iv TVJV 
 
 Bt'ia'Ctv KCti ovirta 
 
 6 
 
82 CALL1STHENES INCULPATED. 
 
 tors, mentioned the matter to an individual who was 
 strongly attached to him. This person communicated it 
 to Eurylochus, the brother of Epimenes, perhaps consider- 
 ing that his relationship was a sufficient guarantee for 
 secrecy. Eurylochus, however, at once laid an informa- 
 tion before Ptolemy the son of Lagus, subsequently the 
 first of the Greek dynasty in Egypt, and then one of the 
 guard of honour in attendance on Alexander. He re- 
 ported to the king the names of those who he had 
 been told were concerned in the affair : they were ar- 
 rested, and on being put to the torture confessed their 
 crime and gave up the names of others who were par- 
 ticipators 1 . So far all accounts agree as to the sub- 
 stantial facts of this story, but here a great discrepancy 
 commences. Ptolemy and Aristobulus 2 both asserted that 
 the pages named Callisthenes as the instigator of their 
 design. This however was denied by the majority of 
 contemporary writers on the subject, who related that 
 the ill will towards Callisthenes previously existing in 
 the mind of Alexander, combined with the intimacy that 
 subsisted between Hermolaus and the former, furnished 
 
 1 Arrhian, iv. 13, 14. 
 
 8 Aristobulus was one of Alexander's generals, and wrote an 
 account of his campaigns. He did not however commence this 
 work till his 84th year, (Lucian, De Macrob. 22) long enough 
 therefore after the transaction in question, to allow us to sup- 
 pose that by a slip of the memory he may have confused circum- 
 stantial with direct evidence. Moreover as there was no act 
 which made Alexander so unpopular as the execution of Callis- 
 thenes, (Quintus Curtius, De rebus gestis Alex. viii. c. 8), so there 
 was nothing which his biographers took so much pains to exte- 
 nuate. See Ste Croix, p. 360, seqq. Arrhian (iv. 14,^.) at the same 
 time that he speaks of the opportunities of knowledge possessed 
 by Ptolemy and Aristobulus, and of their general fidelity, yet 
 remarks that their accounts of the details of this affair differ from 
 one another. 
 
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE. 83 
 
 ample means to his enemies to raise a strong suspicion 
 against him 3 . They alleged, that to a question from 
 Hermolaus, " how a man might make himself the most 
 illustrious of his species"? he replied, " Bij slaying him 
 that is most illustrious": and that to incite the youth 
 to the rash act, he hade him "not be in awe of the 
 couch of gold, but remember that such a one often 
 holds a sick or a wounded man"; also, that when 
 Philotas had asked him whom the Athenians honoured 
 most of all men, he replied, " Harmodius and Aristo- 
 giton, the tyrannicides" and when the querist expressed 
 a doubt whether such a person would at the existing 
 time, find countenance and protection any where in 
 Greece, he replied, "that if every other city shut its 
 gates against him, he would certainly find a refuge in 
 Athens" and in support of this opinion quoted the in- 
 stance of the Heraclidae who there found protection 
 against the tyrant Eurystheus 4 . It requires hut little 
 penetration to see how, under circumstances of such 
 peculiar irritation, the words of Callisthenes might with 
 very little violence and with the greatest plausibility, 
 be interpreted in a treasonable sense, although they 
 were nothing more than Macedonian principles expressed 
 in a strong and antithetical manner. Indeed, the very 
 admixture of legendary history in the instance of the 
 sons of Hercules seems to betray the common places of 
 the rhetorician. And that this account of the matter, 
 to which Arrhian, following the majority of contempo- 
 rary accounts, inclines, is the true one, seems proved 
 
 3 Arrhian, loc. cit. 
 
 4 Plutarch, Vit. 55. Arrhian, iv. 10. This Philotas is not the 
 son of Parmenio, put to death together with his father on a 
 former occasion, but a page, the son of Carsis, a Thracian. See 
 Arrhian, iv. 13. 
 
 62 
 
84 ARISTOTLE INCULPATED. 
 
 beyond all doubt by two letters of Alexander himself, 
 which are cited by Plutarch. In the former of these, 
 written immediately after the event to his general, 
 Craterus, he states, " that the pages on being put to 
 the torture confessed their own treason, but denied 
 that any one else was privy to the attempt." He 
 wrote to Attains and Alcetas to the same effect. But 
 afterwards in a letter to Antipater, he says, " the 
 pages have been stoned to death by the Macedonians ; 
 but as for the sophist I intend to punish him, and 
 those too who sent him out, and also the cities which 
 harbour conspirators against me." In the latter part 
 of this phrase, according to Plutarch, he alludes to 
 Aristotle, as being the great-uncle of Callisthenes, and 
 the person by whose advice he had joined the court. It 
 seems plain that in the interval between the writing of 
 these letters, Alexander's mind had been worked upon 
 by those whose interest it was to identify the cause of 
 manliness and virtue with that of disloyalty and trea- 
 son, by Anaxarchus and the crew of court sycophants 
 whose practice he sanctioned by his example, and 
 attempted to justify by his philosophy. The tide of 
 hatred however was setting too strong against Cal- 
 listhenes for him to stem it. He was placed under 
 confinement, and according to accounts which there is 
 too much reason to fear are true, cruelly mutilated. 
 It is said to have been Alexander's intention to bring 
 him to a trial in the presence of Aristotle on his re- 
 turn to Greece ; but the unfortunate man after remain- 
 ing in his deplorable situation for a considerable time, 
 died from the effects of ill treatment. 
 
 Whatever prejudices against his old master may 
 have been raised in the mind of Alexander on the 
 score of Callisthenes, and whatever ill consequences 
 
DEATH OF ALEXANDER. 85 
 
 might perhaps have followed if the conqueror had lived 
 to revisit Europe, intoxicated with his military suc- 
 cesses, and hardened by the influence of those flat- 
 terers who after Callisthenes's death reigned supreme 
 at court, it is explicitly stated by Plutarch, that while 
 he lived his estrangement never led him to injure Aris- 
 totle in the slightest degree. Mortification therefore at 
 the degeneracy of his pupil, and sorrow at the loss of 
 an affection in which he doubtless took both pride 
 and pleasure, were the only evils which the latter 
 during his remaining days had to endure. But a few 
 years after the death of both, a story began to be 
 circulated which at last grew into a form in the highest 
 degree detrimental to his character. It is impossible 
 to doubt that Alexander died from the fever of the 
 country, caught immediately after indulgence in the 
 most extravagant excesses. At the moment no suspicion 
 to the contrary was entertained l . But some time after- 
 wards, the ambitious and intriguing Olympias, who had 
 long indulged a bitter hostility towards Antipater, (a 
 hostility which the successful establishment of the latter 
 in the government of Macedonia after her son's death 
 had inflamed into a fiendish hatred,) seized the oppor- 
 tunity which Alexander's rapid illness afforded to throw 
 the suspicion of poisoning him upon her enemy, whose 
 younger son lolaus had been his cupbearer. It was not 
 till the sixth year after the fatal event that this story 
 was set on foot; and it seems to have originated in 
 nothing] but Olympias's desire of vengeance, which 
 then first found a favourable vent. The bones of lo- 
 laus, who had died in the interim, were torn from 
 their grave, and a hundred Macedonians, selected from 
 among the most distinguished of Antipater's friends, 
 
 1 Plutarch, Vit. 77- 
 
OO SAID TO HAVE BEEN POISONED. 
 
 barbarously butchered 1 . The accusation of poisoning 
 the king seems at first to have been vaguely set on 
 foot, the only circumstantial part of the story being 
 the point necessary to justify Olympias's malignity, 
 namely, that lolaus was the agent in administering the 
 poison. But in process of time the minutest details of 
 the transaction were supplied. We give them in the 
 last form which they assumed. The fears of Antipater, 
 it was said, arising from the growing irritation of 
 Alexander incessantly stimulated against him by Olym- 
 pias, induced him, on hearing that he was superseded 
 by Craterus and ordered into Asia with new levies, 
 to plot against his master's life. A fit means for 
 this purpose was pointed out to him by his friend 
 Aristotle, who dreaded the personal consequences to 
 himself which seemed likely to follow from Alexan- 
 der's anger against Callisthenes 2 . The nature of this 
 is quite in keeping with the other features of the nar- 
 rative. It was no other than the water of the river 
 Styx, which fell from a rock near the town of Nona- 
 cris in Arcadia, and which, according to a local su- 
 perstition which is not extinct to this day 3 , possessed 
 not only the property of destroying animal life by its 
 
 1 Diodorus, xix. 11. Plutarch, loc. cit. 
 
 2 Although Callisthenes had been put to death five years before, 
 i. e. in B.C. 328 ! See Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 376. 
 
 3 See Col. Leake's Travels in the Morea, vol. iii. pp. 165 9. 
 The natives say that the water which they call TU Mavpa-vepta (the 
 black waters) and ra ApctKo-vepta (the terrible waters) is unwhole- 
 some, and also that no vessel will hold it. It is a slender perennial 
 stream falling over a very high precipice, and entering the rock 
 at the bottom, which is said to be inaccessible from the nature of 
 the ground. Col. Leake quotes the phrases of Homer KaTi{3dfj.cvov 
 STuyo? v^xap and STUYO? i/Baro? aiTrd peeOpa as exact descriptions of it. 
 See also Herod, vi. 74. Hesiod, Theog. 785805. 
 
ARISTOTLE INCULPATED. 87 
 
 cold and petrifying qualities (\l/v^pov mi Trcryera^es) but 
 also that of dissolving the hardest metals, and even 
 precious stones. One substance alone was proof against 
 its destructive influences, the hoof of a Scythian ass ! 
 In a vessel made out of this, a small portion of the 
 fluid was conveyed by Cassander, lolaus's elder brother, 
 into Asia, and, on the occasion of the debauch at which 
 Alexander was taken ill, administered to him by the 
 latter. lolaus was stimulated to the act by the desire 
 of revenging an outrage upon himself by the king, 
 and attachment to him induced Medius, a Thessalian, 
 at whose palace the debauch took place, to be an ac- 
 complice in the treason. The assassin, according to 
 the author of the Lives of the Ten Orators falsely 
 attributed to Plutarch 4 , was rewarded by a proposition 
 of the demagogue Hyperides at Athens, to confer pub- 
 lic honours upon him as a tyrannicide, and the horn 
 cup in which the fatal draught had been conveyed from 
 Greece deposited in the temple of Delphi 5 . 
 
 4 p. 849, ed. Paris. The same is stated by Photius, Biblioth. 
 p. 496. 1. 3, Bekk. 
 
 6 Epig. ap. ^Elian. De Nat. Animal, x. 40. That it should have 
 been deposited there,, as the epigram states, by Alexander himself, is 
 a circumstance scarcely necessary to increase the incredibility of the 
 story. 
 
 An almost equally great confusion of times and circumstances 
 appears in Mr Landor's Imaginary Conversations, Vol. ii. pp. 495 
 530. Callisthenes himself is represented as exciting Aristotle's fears 
 for his own personal safety by describing Alexander's jealousy of 
 every thing great; and the dialogue between them ends as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " ARISTOTELES. Now Callisthenes ! if Socrates and Anytus were 
 in the same chamber, if the wicked had mixed poison for the vir- 
 tuous, the active in evil for the active in good, and some divinity 
 had placed it in your power to present the cup to either, and touch- 
 
88 IMPROBABILITY OF THE STORY. 
 
 The absurdity of this account is glaringly manifest 
 to readers of the present day, of whom nine out of 
 every ten are probably better acquainted with the nature 
 and operation of petrifying springs than the best in- 
 formed of the Greek naturalists were. The ancients 
 were not in possession of the touchstone for the dis- 
 covery of falsehood which modern science affords ; but 
 even they were long before they attached any credence 
 to the calumny. " The greater part of the writers on 
 the subject," says Plutarch 1 , " consider the whole matter 
 of the reputed poisoning a mere fiction, and in confirma- 
 tion of this view they quote the fact, that although the 
 royal remains lay for several days unembalmed, in con- 
 sequence of the disputes of the generals, and that too 
 in a hot and close place, they exhibited no marks of 
 corruption, but remained fresh and unchanged." Arrhian 3 
 too, who as well as Plutarch derives his account of the 
 king's illness and death from the court gazettes (etyrjue- 
 piSes), and confirms the statements of these by the narra- 
 tives of Ptolemy and Aristobulus, says of the charge of 
 
 ing your head, should say, ( This head also is devoted to the Eume- 
 nides if the choice be wrong/ what would you resolve ? 
 
 CALLISTHENES. To do that by command of the god which I 
 would likewise have done without it. 
 
 ARISTOTELES. Bearing in mind that a myriad of kings and 
 conquerors is not worth the myriadth part of a wise and virtuous 
 man, return, Callisthenes, to Babylon, and see that your duty be 
 performed." 
 
 Alexander did not enter Babylon until the spring of 324. B. c., 
 consequently till four years after the death of Callisthenes. The 
 conspiracy of the pages, in which Callisthenes was, whether justly 
 or unjustly, mixed up, was detected while Alexander was in Bactra. 
 But before this conspiracy there is no reason to suppose that Alex- 
 ander entertained any coolness towards Aristotle. 
 
 1 Fit. Alex. ult. 
 
 2 vii. 27- 
 
ITS GROWTH. 89 
 
 poisoning, which he afterwards mentions, that he has 
 alluded to it merely to show that he has heard of it, 
 not that he considers it to deserve any credence. In 
 fact, the sole source of the story in its details appears 
 to have heen one Hagnothemis (an individual of whom 
 nothing else is known), who is reported to have said that 
 he had heard it told by King Antigonus 3 . But its 
 piquancy was a strong recommendation to later writers, 
 and it is instructive and amusing to observe how their 
 statements of it increase in positiveness about in pro- 
 portion as they recede from the time in which the facts 
 of the case could be known. Diodorus Siculus and 
 Vitruvius, living in the time of the two first Caesars, 
 merely mention the rumour that Alexander's death was 
 occasioned by poison, through the agency of Antipater, 
 but do not pretend to assert its credibility. Quintus 
 Curtius, writing under Vespasian, considers the autho- 
 rities on that side to preponderate. The epitomizer of 
 a degenerate age, Justin, flourishing in the reign of 
 Antoninus Pius, slightly alludes to the intemperance 
 which he allows had been assigned as the cause of 
 Alexander's death, but adds that in fact he died from 
 treason, and the disgraceful truth was suppressed by the 
 influence of his successors. And finally Orosius, in 
 the fifth century, states broadly and briefly that he 
 died from poison administered by an attendant, with- 
 out so much as hinting that any different belief had 
 ever even partially obtained 4 . But it is remarkable 
 
 3 Plutarch, Vit. Alex. loc. cit. 
 
 4 Diodorus xvii. 117, Vitruvius viii. 3, Q. Curtius x. 10, Justin 
 xii. 14, Orosius iii. 20. It is possible that some readers may quote 
 Tacitus (An?ial. ii. 73), as opposing the view we have given in the 
 text of the gradual progression of credulity. But the exception is 
 only apparent. Tacitus does not give his own view, but merely 
 
90 REVIVED BY CARACALLA. 
 
 that of all these writers, not one mixes up Aristotle's 
 name with the story ; and it is probable that the foolish 
 charge against him mentioned (and discountenanced) 
 by Plutarch and Arrhian, fell into discredit very soon 
 after it arose, and perhaps was only remembered as a 
 curious piece of scandalous history, until the half-lunatic 
 Caracalla thought proper to revive it, in order to gratify 
 at once the tyrant's natural hatred for wisdom and 
 virtue, and his own morbid passion for idolizing the 
 memory of Alexander. It is recorded of him that he 
 persecuted the Aristotelean sect of philosophers with 
 singular hatred, abolishing the social meetings of their 
 body which appear to have taken place in Alexandria, 
 confiscating certain funds which they possessed, and 
 even entertaining the design of destroying their master's 
 works, on no other ground than that Aristotle was 
 thought to have aided Antipater in destroying Alex- 
 ander 1 . 
 
 that of those who chose to draw a parallel between the circumstances 
 of Germanicus's life and those of Alexander ; for which purpose this 
 version of the death of the latter was necessary, and perhaps to this 
 i,t owed much of its subsequent popularity. With respect too to 
 the silence concerning Aristotle, it is to be remarked that the ex- 
 pressions of Pliny, magna Aristotelis infamid excogitatum, (H. N. 
 xxx. ult.), if they are genuine, do not imply a belief either on his 
 own part or that of people in general, that the Philosopher was 
 guilty of abetting Antipater. But they seem more likely to be a 
 marginal note implying that "the story of the poisoning by such 
 water was a figment that had done Aristotle's character much 
 harm." 
 
 1 Xiphilinus, Epilom. Dionis. pp. 329, 30. Caracalla wore arms 
 and used drinking cups which had belonged to Alexander, erected 
 a great number of statues to him both in Rome and at the several 
 military stations, and raised a phalanx of Macedonians, armed all 
 after the manner of five centuries back, which he named after the 
 Conqueror of the East. In his wish to destroy the philosopher's 
 
ITS PROBABLE ORIGIN. 91 
 
 To attempt to account for the origin of so absurd 
 a charge as that we have been discussing may perhaps 
 appear rash. We cannot however resist the temptation of 
 hazarding a conjecture, that while the intimacy of Aris- 
 totle with Antipater undoubtedly furnished a favourable 
 soil for the growth of the story, the actual germ of it 
 is to be looked for at Delphi. The cup in the treasure 
 house there, which the epigram we have quoted above 
 represents as presented by Alexander, was probably of 
 onyx, a stone of which the coloured layers resembling 
 as they do the outer coats of a hoof, procured it the 
 name by which it goes. Now it is obvious that in the 
 time of which we are speaking, when the merchant 
 who sold the wares was for the most part himself a 
 traveller in distant countries, marvellous tales would be 
 related respecting the strange commodities which he 
 imported. The onyx might to the admiring Greek be 
 represented as the solid hoof of some strange animal, 
 with no less plausibility than in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury a cocoa nut could be sold as a griffin's egg, a 
 long univalve shell represented as the horn of a land 
 animal, or the ammonites of Malta regarded as ser- 
 pents changed into stone by St Paul 2 . And although 
 
 works (KO\ TCC f3ij3\'ia avrov KaraKav<rai edeXtjcrai) he had the pre- 
 cedent of Caligula. See above, p. 6. not. 
 
 2 Compare for instance the stories related by Herodotus, iii. 
 102 111, of the way in which gold dust and the various spices 
 brought from the East were procured. The account which he 
 gives of cinnamon is confirmed with a little variation in the de- 
 tails by Aristotle. Hist. Anim. ix. 13. p. 6l6. col. 1. Bekk. Theo- 
 phrastus (H. P. iv. 7, 8) represents various corals as plants growing 
 in the Indian Ocean. The madrepora muricata is termed by him 
 " stone thyme." The authority of Herodotus is no doubt some of 
 the travelling merchants who came by the caravans to Egypt, and 
 one of these probably furnished the egg, which Pausanias saw hang- 
 
92 RELICS IN ANCIENT TEMPLES. 
 
 the more extensive communication with the East, which 
 commenced after Alexander's expedition, would in pro- 
 cess of time spread more correct views on the subject of 
 natural productions, the old legends would linger in 
 the temples, handed down traditionally by the atten- 
 dants, who showed the curiosities to strangers, and 
 were expected to be provided with a story for every 
 relic 1 . If any one of these ciceroni (efiryirrcu), aware 
 of the intimate friendship which subsisted between 
 Aristotle and Antipater, and also of the rumour that 
 Alexander had been poisoned through the agency of 
 the latter, had either chanced to stumble himself, or 
 to be directed by a more learned visitor to a passage 
 in a work of Theophrastus, (Aristotle's favourite scholar 
 and successor,) at that time extant, which stated " that 
 in Arcadia there was a streamlet of water dropping 
 from a rock, called the water of Styx, which those who 
 wished for, collected by means of sponges fastened to 
 the end of poles ; and that not only was it a mortal 
 
 ing up in the temple of Phoebe Leucippis at Sparta, and which he 
 was informed was the production (not of an ostrich, but) of Leda. 
 (iii. 16. 1.) 
 
 1 It has been remarked by Heeren that Herodotus's account 
 of the history of Egypt is derived entirely from local narrations 
 connected with public monuments. (Manual of ancient History, 
 pp. 52, 53. Eng. transl.). This remark admits of far wider appli- 
 cation. It would not be difficult to show that almost all the early 
 events recorded by that author rest on the same basis. For in- 
 stance the history of the Lydian Kings in the first book is obvi- 
 ously entirely made up of stories connected with offerings in the 
 temples of Apollo at Delphi and Miletus. This is plain from the 
 fact that every narrative at all circumstantial of any of these mo- 
 narchs, terminates with a reference to one of these temples. The 
 historians before him, with perhaps the exception of Hellanicus, 
 made use even of the topographical form in the composition of 
 their works. 
 
ORIGIN LATER THAN ARISTOTLE. 93 
 
 poison to whoever drank it, but it possessed the pro- 
 perty of dissolving all vessels into which it was put, 
 except they were of horn 1 " he must have possessed much 
 less fancy, and a much greater regard for historical 
 accuracy than the rest of his countrymen, if he did not 
 upon the visit of the next pilgrim to the temple, ad 3. at 
 least a conjecture or two as to the connection which 
 the relic in question had with a story possessing so 
 much interest to all. It should not be forgotten, in 
 reference to that part of the account which represents 
 Aristotle as the discoverer of this peculiar property of 
 the ' Stygian water,' that Theophrastus is the earliest 
 authority for its possessing it, and that if Aristotle had 
 been aware that such a belief existed, we should hardly 
 fail to find it in the book Trepl Qavttatrkav aKovfffj.ara)v 9 in 
 the 121st Chapter of which there is an account of a 
 pestilential fountain in Thrace, the water of which was 
 said to be clear and sparkling, and to the eye like any 
 other, but fatal to all who drank of it. 
 
 1 Theophrastus ap. Antigonum Carystium, Hist. Mirab. 174. 
 Pausanias where he describes the water and its singular effects, 
 speaks of the story of Alexander having been destroyed by it as 
 one which he had heard, but not as if it had been told him at 
 the place. Beckmann (ad. Antig. Caryst. I. c.) supposes that a part 
 of the legend is due to the fact that the water contained in solu- 
 tion a volatile acid, which exercised a corrosive effect upon metallic 
 cups. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DEATH OF ARISTOTLE. 
 
 WE must now return from the discussion of the 
 imputed share of Aristotle in the death of his illustrious 
 pupil, to the narrative of his own. He did not long 
 survive his departure from the city in which he had 
 spent so large a portion of his life. He retired to 
 Chalcis in the year of Cephisodorus's archonship (B. c. 
 323 322), and early in that of his successor Philocles, 
 died (as we are justified hy Apollodorus's authority in 
 stating positively 1 ), from disease- ^t nearly the same 
 time the greatest orator that the world ever saw, the 
 leader of that party whose influence had expelled Aris- 
 totle from Athens, was driven to have recourse to poison, 
 to escape a worse fate. /There are not wanting accounts 
 that the philosopher also met a violent death. That he 
 poisoned himself to avoid falling into the hands of his 
 accusers is the view of Suidas and of the anonymous 
 author of his Life 2 . But independently of the superior 
 authority of Apollodorus, and the evidence which Aris- 
 totle's own opinions, expressed in more than one place, 
 on the subject of suicide, afford in contradiction of this 
 story, the fact of Chalcis heing then under Macedonian 
 influence, and consequently a perfectly secure refuge for 
 
 1 Ap. Diog. Laert., and Dionys. Hal. Ep. Amm. p. 728. 
 
 2 They appear to follow one Eumelus, whom Diogenes, (Fit. 
 Arist. 6,) cites and contradicts. He related that Aristotle died by 
 drinking hemlock, at the age of 70, and had become a pupil of 
 Plato at that of SO. See above, p. 18. 
 
VARIOUS ACCOUNTS. 95 
 
 any one persecuted for real or supposed participation in 
 Macedonian politics, is quite enough to induce us to 
 reject this story. A yet more absurd one is repeated by 
 some of the early Christian writers./ Mortification, ac- 
 cording to them, at being unable to discover the cause 
 of the Euripus ebbing and flowing seven times every 
 day, induced him to throw himself headlong into the 
 current^ Of this story it is scarcely necessary to say 
 more than that the phenomenon which produced such 
 fatal consequences to the philosopher does not really 
 j?xist*. The stream constantly sets through the narrow 
 channel between Eubcea and the mainland from north 
 to south, except when winds blowing very strongly in 
 an opposite direction, produce for a time the appearance 
 of a current from south to north. But instead of 
 wasting time upon the refutation of these foolish ac- 
 counts, we shall perhaps please our readers better by 
 bringing together a few circumstances which appear to 
 confirm the statement of Apollodorus, to which inde- 
 pendently of these, we should not be justified in refusing 
 belief. 
 
 Aulus Gellius 5 relates that Aristotle's scholars, when 
 their master had past his sixty-second year, and being in 
 a state of extremely bad health gave them but little 
 hopes that he would survive for any length of time, 
 
 8 Pseudo-Justin Martyr, Parcenet. ad Grcecos, p. 34, diet 
 7ro\\rjv cl%oiav a\ al<r^(yvt]v \VTrr}deis, ^ereff-rri TOV (3iov. Gregor. 
 Nazianz. Or at. i. in Julian, p. 123. Later writers go so far as to 
 put various sentiments into his mouth immediately before the per- 
 petration of this rash act. Elias Cretensis (Comm. in S. Greg. 
 Oral, iv.) attributes to him the words, Quoniam Aristoteles Euripum 
 non cepit, Aristotelem Euripus habeat. 
 
 4 Tanaquil Faber. Epp. Critic, i. Ep. xiv. 
 * Noct. Alt. xiii. 5. 
 
96 A DISEASE THE REAL CAUSE. 
 
 entreated him to appoint some one of their body as 
 his successor, to keep their party together and preserve 
 the philosophical views which he had promulgated. 
 " There were at that time," says Gellius, " many dis- 
 tinguished men among his disciples, hut two preemi- 
 nently superior to the rest, Menedemus" (or, as some 
 suppose it should be written, Eudemus), " a Rhodian, 
 and Theophrastus, a native of Eresus, a town in the 
 island of Lesbos." Aristotle, perhaps unwilling that 
 his last moments should be disturbed by the heart- 
 burnings which a selection, however judicious, might 
 produce, contrived to avoid the invidious task, and at 
 the same time to convey his own sentiments on the 
 subject. He replied, that at the proper time he would 
 satisfy their wishes, and shortly afterwards when the 
 same persons who had made the request happened to 
 be present, he took occasion to complain that the wine 
 which he usually drank did not agree with him, and to 
 beg that they would look out for some sort which might 
 suit him better, ' for instance', said he, e some Lesbian 
 or Rhodian' ; two wines which, as is notorious, were 
 beyond almost any others celebrated in antiquity. When 
 a sample of each had been brought to him, he first 
 tasted the latter and praised it for its soundness and 
 agreeable flavour. Then trying the Lesbian, he seemed 
 for a time to doubt which he should choose, but at last 
 said, 'Both are admirable wines, but the Lesbian is 
 the pleasanter of the two' He never made any further 
 allusion to the matter of a successor, and the disciples 
 universally concluded that this observation relative to 
 the Rhodian and Lesbian vintages was meant as an 
 answer to their question, Theophrastus the Lesbian 
 being a man singularly distinguished for suavity both 
 of language and manners ; and accordingly on the death 
 
PROBABLE NATURE OF THE DISEASE. 97 
 
 of Aristotle they unanimously acknowledged him as 
 the chosen successor. That this anecdote implies the 
 belief that a disease of some duration was the cause of 
 the philosopher's death is quite ohvious ; and there is 
 some ground for supposing that this disease was an 
 affection of the intestines, from which he had long 
 suffered. " This affection," says another ancient author 1 , 
 " which he bore with the greatest fortitude, was of such 
 a nature that the wonder is that he contrived to prolong 
 his life to the extent of sixty-three years, not that he 
 died when he did." For complaints of this kind warm 
 fomentations of oil applied to the stomach were recom- 
 mended in the medical practice of antiquity 2 . Now 
 Lycon the Pythagorean 3 , a bitter calumniator of Aris- 
 totle, grounded a charge of inordinate luxury against 
 him, upon the assertion that he indulged himself in 
 the habit of taking baths of warm oil ; an assertion 
 which, if we should fail at once to recognize it as a 
 misrepresentation of the medical treatment alluded to, 
 will be unquestionably explained by the more accurate 
 description of another writer 4 , who obviously alludes 
 to the same circumstance. 
 
 Diogenes Laertius, as we have mentioned in an 
 earlier part of this essay, speaks of having seen Aris- 
 totle's will, and proceeds to give the substance of it 5 . 
 That this is not an abstract of the authentic document 
 
 1 Censorinus, De die natali, cited above, p. 23. not. 3. 
 
 2 Celsus. ii. 17? iii. ult. 
 
 3 Cited by Aristocles ap. Euseb. 1. c. He adds, that his avarice 
 induced him to sell the oil after this use had been made of it. 
 
 4 Diog. Laert. Fit. 16. He adds to Ly con's account, evtot 
 e ica\ ctffKiov defjiov \aiov eiriTiBcvai avrov Tta 
 
 5 Fit. Arist. 1216. 
 
 7 
 
98 CODICIL TO HIS WILL. 
 
 is obvious, from the circumstance that no mention what- 
 ever is made in it of his literary property, which was 
 very considerable, and which we know from other sources 
 came to Theophrastus l . Neither however does there 
 appear to us any good grounds for suspicion that the 
 account of Diogenes is either a forgery or the copy of 
 a forgery. The whole document bears the stamp, in 
 our judgment, of a codicil to a previously existing will, 
 drawn up at a time when the testator was dangerously 
 ill, and had but little expectation of recovery. Thus, 
 at the very commencement, Antipater, the Regent of 
 Macedonia, is appointed the supreme arbiter and referee, 
 and four other persons besides Theophrastus, " if he be 
 willing and able,' 9 are directed to administer until Ni- 
 canor the son of Proxenus, to whom he gives his 
 orphan daughter in marriage, and the guardianship of 
 his orphan son Nicomachus, together with the whole 
 management of his property, shall take possession. 
 (e'ft>s av KCLTaXdfiri). Nicanor was apparently abroad on 
 some service of danger. If he escapes, he is directed 
 by the codicil to erect certain statues of four cubits 
 in height in Stagira, to Jupiter and Athene the Pre- 
 servers (A HioTrjpi /ecu 'AOrjva crcoTeipr}), in pursuance of 
 
 a vow which the testator had made on his account. If 
 anything should happen to Nicanor before his marriage, 
 or after his marriage before the birth of children, and 
 he should fail to leave instructions, Theophrastus is to 
 take the daughter, and stand for all purposes of ad- 
 ministration in the place of Nicanor. Should he decline 
 to do so, the four provisional trustees are to act at their 
 own discretion, guided by the advice, of Antipater, 
 Besides these arrangements, all which seem adopted to 
 
 1 Strabo, xiii. p. 124. 
 
HIS REMAINING FAMILY. 99 
 
 meet a sudden emergency, such as that of a man dying, 
 away from the person in whom he puts the most con- 
 fidence, and in doubt whether the one whom he next 
 trusted would be able to act, we find legacies to more 
 than one individual which apparently imply a former 
 bequest 2 , and a trifling want of arrangement in the 
 latter part, quite characteristic of a document drawn 
 up under the circumstances we have supposed. Thus 
 he orders statues to be erected to Nicanor, and Nica- 
 nor's father and mother; also to Arimnestus (his own 
 brother), " that there might be a memorial of him, he 
 having died childless." A statue of Ceres, vowed by 
 his mother, is to be set up at Nemea or elsewhere. 
 Then, as if the mention of one domestic relation had 
 suggested another, he commands that wherever he 
 should be buried, the bones of his deceased wife 
 should be taken up and laid by his side according 
 to her desire; and after this he again reverts to the 
 subject of statues to be set up, and gives directions 
 for the fulfilment of the vow which he had made for 
 the safety of Nicanor. 
 
 Aristotle left behind him a daughter named after 
 her mother, Pythias. She is said to have been three 
 
 " A legacy is left to Herpyllis vrpos ro?<? trporepov 
 ( 13), and one Simus is to have ^w/o? TOV irpoTepov dpyvpiov, 
 another slave, or money to buy one ( 15). The battle of Cranon 
 took place in August, B. c. 322 ; but it is very probable that it 
 could not be safely conjectured till a short time after what course 
 Greek politics would take. If now Theophrastus was in Athens, 
 and not with Aristotle at Chalcis, as seems far from improbable, 
 (see Diog. Laert. Fit. Theophrasti, 36), Aristotle might reasonably 
 fear that he perhaps would not be able to act as his executor. Thus 
 too when he directs a house and furniture to be provided for Her- 
 pyllis, he selects Chalcis and Stagira, both places where she would 
 be safe from Athenian hatred, for her to choose between as a re- 
 sidence ( 14). 
 
 72 
 
100 HERPYLLIS. 
 
 times married, first to Nicanor the son of Aristotle's 
 guardian Proxenus and his own adopted child ; se- 
 condly to Procles, a descendant apparently son or 
 grandson of Demaratus King of Lacedaemon, by whom 
 she had two sons named Procles and Demaratus, scho- 
 lars of Theophrastus ; and thirdly to Metrodorus, an 
 eminent physician, to whom she bore a son named after 
 his maternal grandfather 1 . He also left behind him an 
 infant son, named after his paternal grandfather, Nico- 
 machus, by a female of the name of Herpyllis, of whom 
 it is very difficult exactly to say in what relation she 
 stood to him. To call her his mistress would imply a 
 licentious description of intercourse which the name by 
 which she is described (TraXXa/o/) by no means warrants 
 us in supposing, and which the character of Aristotle, 
 the absence of any allusion to such a circumstance in 
 the numerous calumnies which were heaped upon him, 
 and the terms of respect in which she is spoken of in 
 his will 2 , would equally incline us to discredit. It seems 
 most probable that he was married to her by that kind 
 of left-handed marriage which alone the laws of Greece 
 and Rome permitted between persons who were not 
 both citizens of the same state. The Latin technical 
 term for the female in this relation was concubina. She 
 was recognized by the law, and her children could in- 
 herit the sixth part of their father's property. Mark 
 Antony lived in this kind of concubinage with Cleo- 
 patra, and Titus with Berenice. The two Antonines, 
 men of characters the most opposite to licentiousness, 
 
 1 Stahr, Aristotelia, p. 164. 
 
 9 He provides amply for her, and enjoins his executors, if she 
 should desire to marry, to take care that she is not disposed of in 
 a way unworthy of him, reminding them that she has deserved well 
 of him (on (nrov^aia trepi e/*e eyei/ero). Diog. Laert. 1 3. 
 
LEFT HANDED MARRIAGES. 101 
 
 were also instances of this practice, which indeed re- 
 mained for some time after Christianity became the re- 
 ligion of the state, and was regulated by two Christian 
 Emperors, Constantine and Justinian 3 . The Greek 
 term is not used so strictly in a technical sense, and 
 may be said to answer with equal propriety to either 
 of the Latin words pellex and concubina. Where 
 however the legal relation was denoted, there was no 
 other word selected in preference 4 ; and we may safely 
 say that this, in the case before us, is the probable in- 
 terpretation, although there is no positive authority 
 that it is the true one. The son of Nicomachus was 
 brought up by Theophrastus, and if we are to credit 
 Cicero's assertion that the Nicomachean Ethics which 
 
 3 Taylor, Elements of the Civil Law, p. 273. The terms Semi- 
 matrimonium and Conjugium incequale, were applied to this con- 
 nexion, which was entered into before witnesses (testatione inter- 
 posita), and with the consent of the father of the woman. Both 
 contracting parties too were obliged to be single. See Gibbon, 
 chap. 44. Vol. v. pp. 368370. 
 
 4 The author of the Oration against Nesera thus uses it in the 
 distinction which he draws (p. 1386), TCIS /xei/ yap eraipa* t/Soi/t/s 
 eveKct eyo/xei/, Tot? B Tree A \aca9 TJ/S xafl' tj/jiepav Bepctireia^ TOV <ra)juaT09 
 ra? Se 7ui/a?Ka? TOV 7raj2o7roieT(r0at yvr]<ri(i}S K.OLI Ttov evcov (f)v\a.K.a 
 TTt<rrtjv e^ei!/. It must not be concealed that Athenaeus, p. 589, (and 
 perhaps Hermippus whom he quotes), called Herpyllis by the 
 term erdipa. But possibly the word eVa'tjoa was used by him in 
 that sense which Athenaeus (p. 571. C.) speaks of. And even if 
 Herpyllis had been originally an adventurer of the same description 
 as Aspasia, we shall not necessarily think the worse of Pericles 
 for his connection with the latter, or Aristotle for his with the former, 
 when we consider that every thing which elevates marriage above 
 a faithful intercourse of this kind is due to the religious sanction and 
 the religious meaning which it derives from Christianity. In Pa- 
 ganism the superiority of the one to the other was purely legal and 
 conventional. The wife was the housekeeper and the breeder of 
 citizens, and nothing whatever more. 
 
102 NICOMACHUS. 
 
 are found among Aristotle's works, were by some attri- 
 buted to him, must have profited much by his master's 
 instructions. It seems however more likely that Aris- 
 tocles's account of him is the correct one, who relates 
 that he was killed in battle at a very early age 1 . 
 
 1 Aristocles ap. Eitseb. 1. c. Cicero, De Finibus v. 5. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 REPUTED BURIAL OF ARISTOTLE'S WRITINGS. 
 
 THE works of Aristotle are said to have met with 
 a most singular mischance. They are related to have 
 been buried some time after his death, and not to 
 have been recovered till two hundred years afterwards. 
 This story is so curious in itself, and of such vital 
 importance in the History of Philosophy, that we shall 
 make no apology for investigating it thoroughly, in 
 spite of the tediousness which a minute examination 
 of details necessarily brings with it. 
 
 The main authority for the opinion is Strabo in 
 a passage of his Geographical Work, where having 
 occasion to speak of Scepsis, a town in the Troad, he 
 mentions two or three persons of eminence who were 
 born there. One of these is Neleus, the son of Co- 
 riscus, a person who was a scholar both of Aristotle 
 and Theophrastus, and who succeeded to the library 
 of the latter in which was contained that of the former 
 also. "For Aristotle 2 ," Strabo goes on to say, "made 
 
 2 Geogr. xiii. p. 124. We have translated the whole of this 
 celebrated passage as it stands in the text of all the printed 
 editions. But besides the words TO. re 'Apto-ToreXou? KOI ret 6eo- 
 (f>pd<TTov fli(3\ia, which we look upon as a marginal note that has 
 crept into the text, there appears to us to be unquestionably a 
 corruption in the latter part. In default of the authority of MSS. 
 a conjecture can only be received with great caution : but still we 
 should be inclined to think that immediately after the word 7rpo<r- 
 
 \df3eTo should come KU\ /3t/3\io7ra>\ai r/e9 'AXefai/Speia, and 
 
 that after ftift\ioQnK^ probably followed something like KCU -nap 
 
 tu7rop7<rac TWV dvTiypd<buv ek pevov 
 
104 STRABO'S ACCOUNT. 
 
 "over his own library to Theophrastus, (to whom he 
 "also left his school), and was the first that I know 
 " of, who collected books and taught the kings in Egypt 
 "to form a library. Theophrastus made them over to 
 "Neleus; he took them over to Scepsis and made 
 " them over to his heirs (rots /uer' aJroV), uneducated 
 "men, who let the books remain locked up without 
 "any care. When however they observed the pains 
 "which the kings of the Attalic dynasty, (in whose 
 " dominions the town was) were at in getting books to 
 "furnish the library at Pergamus, they buried them 
 " under ground in a sort of cellar. A long time after, 
 "when they had received much injury from damp and 
 "worms, the representatives of the family sold"them to 
 "Apellicon of Teos, the books both of Aristotle and 
 "of Theophrastus, for a very large sum. Apellicon 
 " was more of a book-collector than a philosopher ; and 
 "the result was that in an attempt to supply the gaps 
 " when he transcribed the text into new copies, he filled 
 "them up the reverse of well, and sent the books a- 
 " broad full of mistakes. And of the Peripatetic phi- 
 " losophers, the more ancient who immediately succeeded 
 " Theophrastus, as in fact they had no books at all, 
 "except a very few, and those chiefly of the exoteric 
 "class, were unable to philosophize systematically, but 
 
 KCU dveypa\l/ TOUS vvv (pepopevovs Tru/ciKd?. Plutarch, ( Vit. Syll. C. 26,) 
 from whom we have taken these words, unquestionably follows 
 Strabo in the account of which he gives of this affair. He cites him 
 by name almost immediately afterwards, as is remarked by Schnei- 
 der (Prcef. ad Aristot. H. A. p. LXXX.) It was however scarcely 
 the Geography, but the Historical Memoirs of Strabo, which was his 
 authority through the Life of Sylla. Hence the slight divarication 
 of the two narratives ; in the topographical work the circumstances 
 of the story which are most connected with Scepsis are principally 
 dwelt upon ; in the other those connected with Sylla. 
 
PLUTARCH'S ACCOUNT. 105 
 
 " were obliged to elaborate rhetorical disquisitions (/m^ev 
 6i eyew <pL\oao<pl.v Trpay/uLariKMs a\\d 9e<rei$ XrjKvOi^eiv) 
 
 " while their successors after the time when these books 
 " came out, speculated better and more in Aristotle's 
 "spirit than they, although they too were forced to 
 "explain most of his views by guess work (ret TroXXa 
 " eiKOTct \eyeiv} from the multitude of errors. And to 
 "this inconvenience Rome contributed a large share. 
 "For immediately after the death of Apellicon, Sylla 
 " having taken Athens, seized upon the library of Apel- 
 " licon : and after it had been brought here, Tyrannio 
 " the grammarian, who was an admirer of Aristotle, had 
 " the handling of it (^e^e^/o-aro) l by the favour of the 
 " superintendant of the library ; and [so had] some 
 "booksellers, who employed wretched transcribers, and 
 "neglected to verify the correctness of the copies, an 
 " evil which occurs in the case of all other authors too 
 " when copied for sale, both here and in Alexandria." 
 
 Plutarch in his Biography of Sylla 2 , confirms a part 
 of this account, and adds a feature or two which is 
 wanting here. His authority is obviously Strabo him- 
 self in another work now lost, and he is therefore not 
 to be reckoned as an additional witness, but as the 
 representative of the one last summoned, again re- 
 called to explain some parts of his own testimony. 
 From him we learn that Sylla carried the library of 
 Apellicon containing the greater part of the books of 
 Aristotle and Theophrastus, with which up to that time 
 most people had no accurate acquaintance 3 , to Rome. 
 "There," he continues, "it is said, Tyrannio the gram- 
 
 1 In the parallel narrative of Plutarch, the term 
 is used. 
 
 3 Vit. Syll. 26. 
 
 3 OVTTU) Tore <ra<p<a<; jvwpi^o/jLfvct TO 
 
106 GENERAL BELIEF OF THE STORY. 
 
 "marian arranged (evaKtvdaavQai) the principal part of 
 " them, and Andronicus the Rhodian, ohtaining copies 
 "from him, published them and drew up the syllabuses 
 " (TrivaKos) which are now current." He confirms the ac- 
 count of Straho that the early Peripatetics had neither 
 a wide nor an accurate acquaintance with the works 
 of Aristotle and Theophrastus, from the circumstance 
 of the property of Neleus, to whom Theophrastus be- 
 queathed his books, falling into the hands of illiterate 
 and indifferent persons; but of the story of burying 
 the books he says nothing, nor yet of the endeavours 
 of Apellicon to repair the damaged manuscripts. 
 
 Our readers have here the whole authority 1 which 
 is to be found in the writers of antiquity for this 
 celebrated story, which has been transmitted from one 
 mouth to another in modern times without the least 
 question of its truth until very lately. And not only 
 has it been accepted as a satisfactory reason for an 
 extraordinary and most important fact, the decay of 
 philosophy for the two centuries preceding the time of 
 Cicero, but editors and commentators of the works of 
 Aristotle have resorted to it without scruple for a so- 
 lution of all the difficulties which they might encoun- 
 ter. They have allowed themselves the most arbitrary 
 transpositions of the several parts of the same work, 
 and acknowledged no limit to the number or magnitude 
 of gaps which might be assumed as due to the damp 
 and worms of the cellar at Scepsis 2 . Of late years 
 however, as the critical study of the Greek language 
 
 1 The account of Suidas (V. SuAXa?) is obviously extracted 
 from the passage in Plutarch. 
 
 2 Thus Antonius Scainus interpolated the seventh and eighth 
 books of the Politics between the third and fourth. Conringe, 
 who followed him, made up for a scrupulous abstinence from this 
 course by indulging himself freely in hypothesized lacunccy to 
 
THE STORY EXAMINED. 107 
 
 has increased, and the attention of scholars been more 
 drawn towards the philosophical department of anti- 
 quity, the inadequacy of this story to account for the 
 state in which Aristotle's writings have come down to 
 us has become more and more apparent; notices have 
 been found which were quite incompatible with it; 
 and at the present time it may safely be said that the 
 falsity of the account in the main is completely proved. 
 We will endeavour to give our readers some idea of 
 the laborious researches which have led to this result. 
 They have been carried on chiefly, if not entirely, by 
 German philologers, the pioneers in this as in almost 
 every other uncleared region of antiquity' 5 . But we 
 must first call their attention to other circumstances 
 which would, antecedently to the investigations of 
 of which we speak, dispose us to look with some sus- 
 picion on the tale unless very considerably qualified. 
 
 The work of Athenseus to which we are indebted 
 for so much fragmentary information on matters of 
 antiquity, is cast in a form which had particular at- 
 tractions for the readers of the time in which the 
 author live/d, the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and 
 Commodus. A wealthy Roman is represented as hos- 
 
 such an extent that Goettling somewhat facetiously observes "as- 
 teriscis suis interpositis noctem Aristoteliam quasi stellis illustrare 
 sategit." Prcef. ad Arist. Polit. p. vi. 
 
 3 Brandis, Ueber die Schicksale der Aristotelischen Buecher, und 
 einige Kriterien ihrer Aechtheit, in Niebuhr's Rheinisches Museum. 
 vol. i. Kopp, Nachtrag zur Brandisischen Untersuchung &c. in 
 the same work. vol. iii. Fabricius (Biblioth. Grceca. iii. c. 5) 
 mentions a French author who in a work entitled Les amenites 
 de la Critique, published at Paris in 1717? impugns the story 
 of Strabo. Of the two German writers the former has contributed 
 by far the more important investigations of this subject. Stahr, 
 Aristotelia, Zweiter Theil, has availed himself of both, but has 
 added little of his own. 
 
 *" \lp\- 
 
108 ATHEN^EUS'S ACCOUNT. 
 
 pitably entertaining several persons eminent for their 
 acquaintance with literature and philosophy, and the 
 most curious notices imaginable from a multitude of 
 writers, and upon all subjects, are woven ingeniously 
 into the conversation of the guests. Nearly in the 
 beginning of the work, the author, who himself is 
 one of them, enlarges on the splendid munificence, the 
 literary taste, and the accomplishments of the host. 
 Among other things he praises the extent and value 
 of his library. " It was of such a size," he says, " as 
 " to exceed those of all who had gained a reputation 
 " as book collectors, Polycrates the Samian, Pisistra- 
 " tus the tyrant of Athens, Euclid, (also an Athenian,) 
 " Nicocrates of Cyprus, aye, the kings of Pergamus too, 
 " and Euripides the poet, and Aristotle the philosopher, 
 " [and Theophrastus,] and Neleus who had (^aT^^o-ai/ra) 
 " the books of these, from whom king Ptolemy my 
 " countryman, surnamed PhiladelphusT^ow^/ the whole, 
 u and carried them away together with those he got 
 " from Athens and those from Rhodes, to the fair city 
 " of Alexandria 1 ." It is obvious that the author here 
 follows an account very different from Strabo's, one 
 which represented Neleus's library including the costly 
 collections of Aristotle and Theophrastus 2 as forming, 
 together with some others, the basis of the famous 
 collection at Alexandria. Now it is utterly incon- 
 ceivable that if Ptolemy bought the whole library of 
 Neleus, he should have been satisfied to leave the 
 works of Aristotle and Theophrastus only behind in 
 the hands of men so ignorant of their value and care- 
 less of what became of them, as Neleus's heirs are repre- 
 
 1 Athenaei Epitome, p. 3. 
 
 2 The words KCU Qeo<f>pa<rTov are inserted by conjecture. But 
 the MSS. all have rd TOVTWV SiaTtjptja-avTa fiif3\ia. 
 
SILENCE OF THE ANECDOTE-COLLECTORS. 109 
 
 sented to have been, if no other copies of these works 
 existed; and even supposing it possible that he should 
 have done so, would not so singular an incident of 
 literary history have been mentioned by some author 
 of antiquity? Should we not find some record of it 
 in Cicero, from whom we learn so much of the his- 
 tory of Greek philosophy? He even mentions the 
 degeneracy of the Peripatetic school after Theophrastus 
 in strong terms 3 : is it conceivable that if it had been 
 really attributable to the want of their founders' works, 
 he should either not have heard of this, or should not 
 think it worth mentioning? Could such a story have 
 escaped the anecdote-collectors under the Empire, 
 jElian, Phavorinus, and a host of others? Would 
 Diogenes Laertius, who relates how many cooking uten- 
 sils Aristotle passed at the Euboean custom-house, have 
 neglected so interesting an anecdote as this? Such 
 considerations combined with the notice in Athenaeus 
 must prevent an impartial judge from attaching more 
 than a very small degree of credit to that part of Strabo's 
 narrative which denies the publication of the works of 
 Aristotle to any considerable extent before the time 
 of Sylla. And this scepticism will not be diminished 
 when we consider, that the greater part of Aristotle's 
 works are so closely connected with each other that 
 if any were published, all or nearly all must have 
 been so. He continually refers from the one to the 
 other for investigations which are necessary to the argu- 
 
 3 De Finibus, v. 5. Simus igitur content! his p. e. Aristotele 
 et Theophrasto] Namque horum posteri, meliores illi quidem med 
 sententid quam reliquarum philosophi disciplinarum ; sed ita de- 
 generarunt, ut ipsi ex se nati esse videantur. It is strange that 
 the words in italics should not have opened the eyes of men to 
 look for a general cause of a general deterioration. Could they 
 suppose that all the schools had lost all their books ? 
 
110 DIFFICULTY OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 merit which he has in hand. And although these re- 
 ferences may he, and prohably often are, due to a 
 later hand, still this objection cannot be made in all 
 cases ; in those for instance where the special work 
 referred to is not named, but described in such a way 
 that it is impossible not to identify it 1 . 
 
 But after all, these arguments are little else than 
 negative, and although they lead to a probability of a 
 very high order against the truth of Strabo's narrative, 
 they are not absolutely conclusive. In fact the work 
 of disproof is a most difficult one, from the circum- 
 stance of the whole of the literature of the two centu- 
 ries after Theophrastus, enormous as its extent was, 
 having been swept away, except such scanty fragments 
 as are found here and there imbedded in the work of 
 some grammarian or compiler. This will be strikingly 
 evident from the consideration, that if the works of 
 Aristotle which have come down to us had been lost, 
 and a similar story had been related of Plato's works 
 to that which we read in Strabo respecting those of 
 Aristotle and Theophrastus, its refutation would be 
 quite as difficult as that of the one about which we 
 are at present concerned. But the difficulty of the 
 problem did not damp the ardour of the German 
 scholars we have spoken of above. They have rum- 
 maged the voluminous works of the commentators upon 
 
 1 Hitter, (Geschichte der Philosophic, vol. iii. p. 35.) gives a 
 list of the passages in which the philosopher alludes to his own 
 writings. Against many of them the objection we have noticed 
 may be made. A more conclusive one is Poetic, p. 1454. col. 2. 
 lin. 18. (quoted by Stahr. Aristotelia, ii. p. 296) from which it 
 is certain than an Ethics not however necessarily the Nicoma- 
 chean, was published at the time the passage was written. But 
 unfortunately, (supposing the work alluded to really to be the Nico- 
 machean Ethics,) there is perhaps no one of Aristotle's writings 
 so independent of all the rest. 
 
REVIVAL OF PHILOSOPHY. Ill 
 
 Aristotle which the learned eclecticism of the third, fourth 
 and fifth centuries of the Christian era produced, some 
 of them still only existing in manuscript 2 , with indefati- 
 gable diligence, and have detected in the works of much 
 more modern scholiasts extracts from their predecessors, 
 which prove to demonstration that the notice in Athe- 
 nseus in all probability true, and that certainly so much 
 of Strabo's account as is incompatible with it, is false. 
 
 We have seen that, according to the authorities on 
 which the story rests, a very considerable impulse was 
 given in the first century before the Christian era to 
 the study of the Peripatetic philosophy. Andronicus 
 the Rhodian is mentioned as the principal promoter of 
 this revival, having re-arranged the works of Aristotle 
 in a way which was generally received in the time of 
 Strabo, and which formed the basis of the present di- 
 vision. Contemporary with Andronicus, although younger 
 than him, was Athenodorus of Tarsus; and in the next 
 
 3 The Royal Academy of Berlin were induced by the advice of 
 Schleiermacher to publish a complete edition of Aristotle's works, 
 based upon the collation of as many manuscripts as could be made 
 available for the purpose. The execution of this work was placed 
 under the superintendance of two most distinguished men, the 
 one, Immanuel Bekker, the celebrated .editor of Plato, Thucydides, 
 and the Greek Orators, a scholar whose piercing intuition into the 
 genius of the Greek language can only be compared to that of 
 Newton into the laws of the Universe, or that of Niebuhr into 
 the institutions of Antiquity; the other, Christian Brandis, the 
 friend of Niebuhr and guardian of his orphan children. The 
 former fulfilled his portion of the task in 1831, by publishing 
 the text of Aristotle's works, from the collation of more than a 
 hundred manuscripts, in two quarto volumes. The latter, on whom 
 the task of collecting and arranging the Greek Commentators, and 
 of elucidating the philosophy, devolved, published one volume of 
 these (some from hitherto unedited manuscripts) in 1836, and 
 promises in the preface a second, with prolegomena, as soon as 
 the pressure of bad health will allow. 
 
112 ANDRONICUS BOETHUS ADRASTUS. 
 
 generation to Athenodorus, Boethus of Sidon, both ce- 
 lebrated for their acquaintance with the doctrines of 
 Aristotle, and for their investigations of the literary 
 questions connected with them. Now, although the 
 works of all these writers have perished 1 , they were 
 not lost until they had furnished materials to Adrastus 
 and Alexander of Aphrodisias in the second century, 
 and to the eclectic philosophers Ammonius Saccas, Por- 
 phyry, Ammonius the son of Hermias, Simplicius, and 
 David the Armenian in the third, fourth, and fifth ; 
 and of most of these considerable remains have come 
 down to the present time 2 , so that we are enabled, 
 with very great precision, to ascertain the views of " the 
 ancient commentators" (o\ TraXaioi e^^rcu) as Andron- 
 icus and his contemporaries are called by their more 
 modern followers, on several particulars, and among 
 others, on some having a direct bearing upon the 
 story of Strabo. 
 
 We find, for instance, that a point which occupied 
 much of the attention of "the ancients," was to de- 
 termine between the claims of rival works, bearing the 
 same name and upon the same subject, to be reputed 
 the genuine productions of Aristotle. Andronicus ques- 
 tioned the pretensions of the treatise wepl e^o^i/ems, and 
 those of the latter part of the Categories 3 . Adrastus 
 found two editions (if we may use the expression) of 
 the latter work, differing very considerably from each 
 other. The same is stated by him of the seventh 
 
 1 The Paraphrase of the Nicomachean Ethics which has come 
 down to us under the name of Andronicus's, is generally considered 
 to be of a later date. 
 
 * Adrastus, Trept Trjs TCt^eoK TWI/ 'AprroTeA.ovs ffvyypafjifjidrdaVf is 
 said still to exist in an Arabic version. Brandis, 1. c. p. 263. 
 
 3 Brandis, p. 241. 
 
NO DOCUMENTS POSSESSED BY THEM. 113 
 
 Book of the Physical Lectures 4 . Cicero mentions it as 
 a question which could not he decided, as to whether 
 a work on Ethics (apparently that which has come 
 down to us under the title of f}0<*a NiKo/mx eia ) was writ- 
 ten hy Aristotle or by his son Nicomachus. And that 
 the only evidence on the one side or the other was 
 merely internal, is obvious from the remark in which 
 he expresses his inclination towards the latter opinion, 
 " that he does not see, why the style of the son should 
 not bear a close resemblance to that of the father 5 ." 
 Another question which occasioned considerable per- 
 plexity was the arrangement of the several works which 
 were held to be genuine. The present distribution is 
 entirely based upon an arrangement which goes no 
 further back than the time of Andronicus, and is en- 
 tirely different from the one or more which appear to 
 have prevailed before him. There are at this day three 
 known catalogues of the writings, the first is the one 
 given by Diogenes Laertius in his Life, the second, 
 that of the anonymous Greek Biographer, published by 
 Menage. These resemble one another very much, and 
 bear every appearance of having been derived, probably 
 however through secondary channels, from the same 
 source, which has been conjectured with great plausi- 
 bility to be Hermippus of Smyrna's work 6 of which we 
 have spoken in the early part of this essay. But it 
 is impossible to imagine a greater difference than is 
 found between these lists and the works which have 
 come down to us. The names are so completely un- 
 like, and there are so many reciprocal omissions, that 
 a scholar of the sixteenth century was able, with the 
 
 4 Brandis, 1. c. 
 
 5 De Fin. v. 5. 
 
 8 Brandis, p. 249 262. See above p. 2. 
 
114 DIFFICULTY OF ARRANGING THE WORKS. 
 
 aid of a mortal antipathy to the Aristotelian philosophy, 
 to succeed in persuading himself that every thing which 
 has come down to us under the name of the great Sta- 
 girite, was, with very slight exceptions, spurious 1 . The 
 third catalogue is found only in Arahic, and is said to 
 correspond much more nearly with our own 2 . And in- 
 deed a great part of the difference between this and 
 the two former is explicable from the fact that the 
 same work is often referred to under more names than 
 one, not merely by subsequent commentators on Aris- 
 totle, but also by the philosopher himself 3 . But such 
 differences, independently of positive testimony, abun- 
 dantly show that many pieces which now form the 
 component parts of a larger treatise were not left by 
 the author in such an order, or at least, that no au- 
 thentic documents from which any given arrangement 
 could be decisively inferred, came to the knowledge of 
 Andronicus and his brethren. If they had, if, that 
 is, the manuscripts of Apellicon had been, as they are 
 represented, a genuine copy of all or most of Aristotle's 
 works, never till then known, the task of these critics 
 would have been a most easy one. There would have 
 been no occasion for discussions of the internal evidence 
 
 1 Patritius (Discussiones Peripatetics i. p. 16. sqq.) His only 
 exceptions were the Mechanics and the treatise on the doctrines 
 of Xenophanes, Zeno and Gorgias. Some years afterwards a yet 
 more extravagant opinion was propounded, that the present Greek 
 manuscripts of Aristotle were translations from the Arabic. Phi- 
 lippe Cattier (quoted by Harles on Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. vol. iii. p. 207), 
 mentions it as the belief of some. 
 
 3 Brandis, p. 262. 
 
 3 Brandis, p. 26l. Petiti (Observatt. Miscell. iv. 9) and Buhle 
 (Comment ationes Societatis Reg. Gottingensis, vol. xv. p. 57) quoted 
 by Brandis, give several instances of this identity : as also Brandis 
 himself (Diatribe de perditis Arist. librix De ideis ei De bono, p. 7). 
 
ARISTOTLE'S IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS. 115 
 
 to determine between various readings of the text, dif- 
 ferent systems of arrangement, or contending claims as 
 to authorship. A simple reference to a primitive copy 
 would at once have settled all. And what shall we 
 say to the letter of Alexander to Aristotle, complain- 
 ing that he had published his acroamatic works and 
 thus put the world on a footing with his most highly 
 instructed pupils? It is of no avail to say that the 
 letter is not genuine: it very likely may not be so, 
 but it was extracted by Gellius from the book of the 
 very Andronicus whom this tale represents as the first 
 publisher of these writings, and therefore proves his 
 belief at any rate that some of them had been pub- 
 lished long before 4 . 
 
 This evidence seems to prove incontrovertibly that 
 the part of Strabo's and Plutarch's narrative which re- 
 lates to the extraordinary treasure first made available 
 by Andronicus, cannot be true. By another chain of 
 testimony equally elaborate, Brandis has shown that 
 many of the works of Aristotle of the highest and most 
 recondite character that we now possess, were actually 
 in the hands of the Peripatetic school, whose degeneracy 
 has been attributed to the loss of them. It is well known 
 that the successors of the great philosopher in several 
 instances composed works on the same subject (and 
 sometimes identical in title also), with existing treatises 
 of their founder 3 . For indeed the spirit of dogmatism, 
 which is often imputed to the Aristotelian philosophy by 
 persons who are only acquainted with the schoolmen's 
 
 4 Aulus Gellius, Noel. Alt. xx. 5. 
 
 6 Ammonius, Proem, ad Categor. ol yap 
 juoc Koi Oai/j'a^ KOI Qco<ppa<TTO<: Kara tyjXov TOV 
 s KCU 7Tp\ fp/jirive me KOI 
 
 82 
 
116 HIS WORKS KNOWN TO THEJVI. 
 
 modifications of it in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
 turies, is really so alien to it, that it would be difficult 
 to find in the history of civilization an example of a 
 more vigorous and healthy independence of thought, and 
 a greater ardour for investigation than is afforded by the 
 earlier disciples of the Lyceum 1 . Although the works 
 in question have long since been lost, Brandis has suc- 
 ceeded in eliciting from the notices which remain of 
 them in the Commentators we have referred to, very 
 many particulars, which show in some instances that the 
 author actually followed the course of the Aristotelian 
 parallel work, and in more that he made use of it. Under 
 the first of these two classes are brought, by decisive 
 arguments, the Physical Lectures and the first book 
 of the Former Analytics; and there is a considerable 
 probability that the second book of the Former Analytics 
 and thejifth of the Metaphysics may be added to these 2 . 
 Under the second we may number the Latter Analytics, 
 the Categories, perhaps the treatise irepl ep/uj/i/ei'as, the 
 
 1 Aristotle himself is especially noticed for having modified some 
 of his views which had been attacked by other philosophers, with 
 perfect readiness, and without attempting any vexatious resistance, 
 or exhibiting any annoyance : eW rtav 7rpo<r6ev auVo?? (besides Aris- 
 totle, Democritus and Chrysippus are spoken of), dpea-Kovruv ddopv- 
 /?OK /cat dStjKTtas KO\ /ue0' ijbovrjs a<pci<rdv. Plutarch, De virtute morali, 
 p. 448. This passage will serve to show how little Bacon's well- 
 known representation of him as one who " bore, like the Turk, no 
 brother near the throne," is founded on fact. But, in truth, the 
 great father of modern science imputed to Aristotle all the positive- 
 ness and dogmatism of the modern Aristotelians : his disgust at the 
 idolaters was extended to the object of their idolatry. Somewhat 
 similarly he confounds the practice of the later Peripatetics (pi &e<re^ 
 XrjKvQityvTcs) with that of their founder. (Novum Organum, lib. i. 
 71-) 
 
 2 Brandis, pp. 266269, 28 J, 282. 
 
KNOWN ALSO TO THE STOICS. 117 
 
 Topica, the treatises on the Heavens, on Generation 
 and Decay, on the Soul, and the Meteor ologica. Fur- 
 ther researches on the principle here indicated may very 
 probably add to the lists, but a very small part of either 
 would be sufficient to demonstrate, when we consider 
 that almost every one of these treatises would involve 
 the possession of some others in order to be itself intel- 
 ligible, that it was not the want of acroamatic works 
 that produced the decay of the Peripatetic school. 
 
 To make an objection to the inference which these 
 facts allow us to draw against the correctness of Strabo's 
 story on the ground that Theophrastus may possibly have 
 chosen to keep the works of Aristotle as well as his own, 
 in his private possession, and communicate the use of 
 them only to the more favoured of his scholars, would be 
 a most arbitrary proceeding ; as there is not the slightest 
 historical ground for such an hypothesis. But Brandis 
 has precluded even this step. He has shown that Chry- 
 sippus the Stoic (who in his dialectical work quoted by 
 Plutarch 4 , speaks in the highest terms of the cultivation 
 of that branch of science by the Academics down to 
 Polemo, and by the Peripatetics down to Strato inclusive), 
 in several of his particular doctrines had an especial 
 reference to the former treatment of the same by Aris- 
 totle, Eudemus, and Theophrastus 5 . His discussion of 
 the Idea of Time is entirely based upon that of Aris- 
 totle, and exhibits an unworthy endeavour to conceal 
 the similarity 6 . Nay, the ancient commentators of 
 
 3 Brandis, pp. 270, 272275. 
 
 4 De Stoic. Repugn, p. 1045, fin. 
 
 5 Brandis, pp. 246, 247- 
 
 6 To the passages illustrative of this position collected by Baguet, 
 De Chrysippi vita, doclrind, et reliquiis, pp. 170, 181, Brandis adds 
 Aristot. Phys. Ausc. iv. (1014). 
 
118 KNOWN AT ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 highest reputation maintained that the whole of the 
 Stoics' Logical Science, on which they prided themselves 
 much, was nothing more than a following out of Aris- 
 totle's principles, and, in particular that their doctrine 
 of Contraries (ra evavna) was entirely derived from 
 Aristotle's hook on Opposites (-n-epl avrwn^evw^h 
 
 But it was not only to philosophers either of his 
 own or of rival sects that the works of Aristotle were 
 known at the time when they are reported to have 
 heen lying in the cellar at Scepsis. Aristophanes of 
 Byzantium, the celebrated grammarian of Alexandria 
 in the early part of the second century hefore Christ, 
 made an abridgement of his Zoological works 2 , and also 
 wrote commentaries apparently on these, or some other 
 of his works relating to Natural History 3 . But hefore 
 his time, Antigonus of Carystus under Ptolemy Euer- 
 getes (B. c. 247 222), in his Collection of Wonderful 
 Stories, quoted largely both from these and from the 
 works of Theophrastus on similar subjects. Kopp says, 
 that he used not only these, but also the work on 
 Foreign Customs, (fldp&apa vo/uniua,) and that the same 
 is probable both of Callimachus and Nicander 4 , and he 
 acutely remarks, that the reason that the works on the 
 Parts of Animals and the Generation of Animals are 
 not so often cited as the Natural History, is that the 
 latter furnished far more material for works that would 
 
 1 Simplicius ap. Brandis, p. 247, not 30. 
 
 8 TO. Trepi 0u<rews fco'wi/, Hierocles cited by Schneider, Prcef. 
 ad H. A. p. xviii. 
 
 3 Artemidorus Oneirocr. ii. c. 14. on which see Schneider. 1. c. 
 p. xix. 
 
 4 Rheinisches Museum, vol. iii. pp. 95 98- He also says that 
 Aratus in his Prognostics, made use of the Meteorological works 
 of Aristotle. 
 
NATURE OF EXOTERIC WORKS. 119 
 
 possess a general interest, whereas the former necessarily 
 implied a certain knowledge of physiology in the reader. 
 But that they could not have remained unknown while 
 the last was published, is evident from the circum- 
 stance that in it the author frequently refers to them. 
 Nor were the writings which related to physical phe- 
 nomena the only ones which we are sure reached Alex- 
 andria. Andronicus related that in the great library 
 there were found forty books of Analytics and two of 
 Categories, professedly the work of Aristotle. Of the 
 former of these four only, of the latter one, in both 
 instances those which we have, were decided upon by 
 the ancient critics to be genuine 5 . Besides which the 
 Alexandrine writers who formed Canons of Classical 
 Poets, Historians, and Philosophers, included Aristotle 
 among the last, surely not on the strength either of 
 his mere reputation, or only of his exoteric works. 
 
 But what, after all, was the nature of these exoteric 
 writings ; for we are now obviously come to a point 
 at which the accurate determination of this question, 
 which the continuity of the narrative has hitherto pre- 
 vented, becomes necessary. We shall endeavour to be 
 as brief as possible in our answer. 
 
 If we apply to Aristotle himself for information, 
 we shall find nothing at all in his writings to confirm 
 the popular opinion of a division of his doctrines into 
 two classes, of which the one was communicated freely, 
 while the other was carefully reserved for those disci- 
 ples whose previously ascertained character and talents 
 were a security for their right appreciation of them. 
 Wherever the term exoteric occurs, it is with reference 
 to a distinction not of readers or hearers, but of ques- 
 
 5 Ammonias, Simplicius, and David the Armenian, cited by 
 Brandis, p. 250. 
 
120 HIS OWN USE OF THE TEKM. 
 
 tions treated on. It signifies little or nothing more 
 than extrinsic, separate, or insulated. That facility of 
 comprehension as regards the main subject-matter was 
 not necessarily a characteristic of such works, appears 
 from a passage in the Metaphysics 1 , in which the writer 
 excuses himself from touching upon the doctrine of 
 Ideas (or Constituent Forms,) any more than the order 
 of his work demanded, assigning as a reason, that his 
 views on this particular were already matters of fa- 
 miliarity from the exoteric discourses. It is notorious 
 that this was one of the deepest and most difficult 
 questions of the ancient philosophy, being in fact the 
 point where the schools of the Academy and Lyceum 
 diverged, and, consequently, if any part of Aristotle's 
 views had been confined to a chosen few, if there had 
 been such a thing as an interior coterie, here would 
 have been proper matter to be reserved for them. Simi- 
 larly, in the Nicomachean Ethics*, he refers his readers 
 to the " the exoteric discourses" for an analysis of the 
 human mind. The law of subordination among the 
 parts of a composite whole, as, for instance, the law 
 of harmony in music, is another subject which he con- 
 siders as "rather proper for an exoteric investigation 3 ." 
 In "the exoteric discourses," he discussed the Philo- 
 sophy of Life, the relative importance of the several 
 elements which go to make up happiness, and the con- 
 ditions which the social relation imposes on a man 4 . 
 
 1 p. 1076. col. 1. 1. 28. TedpvXXrjTai jap TCI TroXXa KOI viro TCOV 
 e'fwTcpiKwi/ \ojtav. Metaph. xiii. init. 
 
 2 p. 1102. col. 1.1.26. 
 
 3 Politic, i. p. 1254. col. 1. 1. 33. KOI jap cv TOW /A; 
 o>/? 6<rTi Tie ap-ftf], olov dp^ovia^. dXXa TavTo. pev urwe e 
 
 4 Politic, p. 1323. col. 1. 1. 22. In a remarkable passage (Sat. 
 57 72.) the Stoic Persius sums up all the great questions 
 
ERRONEOUS MODERN 
 
 And in the same he proposes that an examination of 
 the Idea of Time should be gone into 5 . Here then 
 we have ample evidence that the most abstruse sub- 
 jects, physical, metaphysical, and moral, were treated 
 of somehow or other in discourses bearing the name of 
 exoteric, a name to which modern usage has almost 
 indissolubly attached the notion of shallowness if not 
 of something like fraud also. Of any thing like Free- 
 masonry, any thing amounting to a severance of know- 
 ledge into two distinct spheres, the one. to be inhabited 
 by the vulgar, the other by choicer spirits, there is not 
 a vestige. If any acroamatic work by Aristotle has come 
 down to us, the Nicomachean Ethics is one. Yet in 
 it is nothing requiring such profundity of reflection or 
 sobriety of mind as would be demanded by the psy- 
 chological discussion in the exoteric work to which the 
 author refers. And as for the terms by which Plutarch 
 and Clement of Alexandria denote that class of works 
 which they place in contradistinction to the exoteric, 
 they are in part not used by Aristotle at all, and in 
 part used in a totally different sense 6 . The phrases by 
 
 with which the philosophy of his school engaged. The parts 
 printed in italics would all have been handled by Aristotle in the 
 exoteric discourses to which he in this passage refers, 
 
 causas cognoscite rerum; 
 
 Quid sumus ; et quidnam victuri gignimur ; or do 
 Quis datus ; aut metae quam mollis flexus, et unde; 
 QMS modus argento; quid fas optare ; quid asper 
 Utile nummus habet ; patriot, carisque propinquis 
 Quantum elargiri deceat ; quern te Deus esse 
 Jussit ; et humand qua parte locatus es in re. 
 It is apparently to this work of Aristotle that Cicero refers Acad. 
 ii. 42. De Fin. ii. 6. 13. iv. 18, 20, 26, and De Offic. iii. 8. 
 
 5 Phys. Auscult. p. 217. col. 2. 1. 31. Bekk. 
 
 6 Plutarch, Vit. Alex. C. 7- opposes TOV ijtiiKOV *a\ ITO\ITIKOV \oyov 
 
 to ai airopptjTai KCU fiaQvrepai Si8a<rKu\cu and describes these latter 
 
122 ACROASES, A TECHNICAL PHRASE, LECTURES. 
 
 which he designates such works as appear to stand in 
 opposition to the exoteric are \6yoi eymicXuH, \oyoi Kara 
 (friXoa-ocfriav and /ue'0oos, and in such cases we are al- 
 ways directed to scientific treatises containing a system 
 of several parts methodically arranged and organically 
 cohering, such in short would be formed by the outline 
 of a continuous course of lectures on some main branch 
 of philosophy. And that the works included under the 
 name acroamatic or acroatic by the philosophers since 
 the time of Andronicus Rhodius, were of this descrip- 
 tion seems most probable, not only from the appearance 
 presented by those which have come down to us, but 
 from the fact that at the time when Greek philosophy 
 was first imported into Rome, the word aKpoaaeis had 
 become the technical term for such productions. Crates 
 Mallotes, who came to Rome on an embassy between 
 the second and third Punic war, is spoken of by Sue- 
 tonius in terms which seem to show that a similar 
 distinction to that which obtained in Aristotle's works, 
 prevailed also in his 1 . 
 
 as as ol ai/Soes iS/ws ctKpoajmaTtKa? KCU eTTOTTTtKCis Trpocrayopevovre^ 
 OVK egetyepov ek TOUS 7roA\ou?. Clement. Stromm. V. p. 475, classes 
 Pythagoras, Plato, Epicurus, the Stoics, and Aristotle together as 
 philosophers who concealed a part of their opinions, (\eyovan Be 
 KCU ol 'Apio-ToreAoi/s, TO. pev ea-wrepiKCt eivai TWV crvyypaiJLiJiaTtav 
 avTtav, T-a e KOWO. re Ka\ egwTepiKa,) and says that as the Pythagoreans 
 have their aKouoyictTtKoV and fjiadrj^aTiKov, so the Peripatetics have 
 their ev%oov and 67rto-T//xoi/iKOi/. The terms aKpoa^ariKo^, eTroTrrt- 
 o<?, ewrepiKos and eVto-T^oi/iKo^ are never used by Aristotle, and 
 the word aVo'/j/otjTo? only in the ordinary classical sense. Even 
 the phrase efwre^tKo? is often applied by him not in reference to 
 to these discourses. For instance, TO?? eu>Qev \oyois (Polit. p. 1264, 
 ! 39,) "with discussions foreign to the subject"; egtorepiKif ap%ri 
 (Id. p. 1272, 1. 19,) "external rule"; eguTepio ir'nT-rowi T-a?? ir\ei- 
 o-rat? TWV TTo'Xewi/, (Id. p. 12Q5, 1. 32,) " do not apply to the gene- 
 rality of states." 
 
 1 Suetonius, De cl. grammat. cap. 2, " plurimas acroases subinde 
 
TWO CLASSES OF ARISTOTLE ? S WORKS. 123 
 
 If now we keep steadily in view this distinction 
 which it is plain that Aristotle himself made in his 
 discourses, the distinction between cyclical, methodical, 
 scientific productions, and insulated, independent essays, 
 we shall perceive at once from the nature of the case, 
 that without any premeditated design on the part of 
 the author, the former would only be appreciable by 
 genuine disciples, those who were able and willing to 
 afford a steady and continuous application to the de- 
 velopement of the whole, while the latter might be 
 understood by those who brought no previous know- 
 ledge with them, but merely attended to the matter 
 in hand 2 ; that the one required a severe and rigid 
 logic to preserve all parts of the system in due co- 
 herence, the other readily admitted of the aid which 
 the imagination affords to the elucidation of single 
 points, but which often becomes mischievous when they 
 are to be combined; that to the first the demonstra- 
 tive form of exposition would alone be appropriate, 
 to the second any one, narrative or dialogic or any 
 other, which might be most fit for placing the one 
 matter to be illustrated in a striking light. But we 
 must be very careful not to confuse these resulting 
 
 fecit, assidueque disseruit" There is obviously a distinction in- 
 tended between the dissertations which he continually delivered, 
 and the lectures which he gave from time to time. 
 
 2 An illustration may perhaps be useful in clearing up what we 
 apprehend to have been the real division. For the demonstration of 
 Pythagoras's celebrated Theorem,, (the 4?th Proposition of the first 
 Book of Euclid) the whole of the preceding part of the Book is 
 requisite. This then is an example of a Xoyos Kara QiXcxroQiav. But 
 in the particular case of an isosceles triangle, the property of the 
 square of the hypothenuse being equal to twice the square of one 
 side, may be directly shown to a person ignorant of geometry, as it 
 is by Socrates in Plato's dialogue Meno. This we conceive might 
 be described as a 
 
124 CICERO'S IMITATION OF THE EXOTERIC 
 
 distinctions with the primitive one from which they 
 flowed, and still more not to suppose that they were 
 the cause of it; for we shall see presently that want 
 of attention to this caused in later writers first of all 
 inaccurate expressions as to the nature of this cele- 
 brated division and finally an utterly erroneous view 
 of it, and of the spirit in which it originated. 
 
 Cicero in two of his letters to Atticus 1 speaks of 
 having composed two works in the manner of Aris- 
 totle's exoteric ones. The points of comparison which 
 these two treatises (the De Finibus, and the De Re- 
 publicd) offer, consist in the dialogic form in which 
 they are written and the prefaces which serve to in- 
 troduce to the reader the dramatis persona who carry 
 on the discussion. The objections which some of these 
 propound to the view which it is the design of the 
 author to elucidate are turned into a means of bring- 
 ing it out in stronger and bolder relief. This mode 
 of treatment in the hands of a master obviously offers 
 many advantages. The dramatic interest keeps the at- 
 tention of the reader from flagging, and the peculiar 
 obstacles which the differences of individual tempera- 
 ment not unfrequently interpose to the reception of 
 any doctrine may be in this way most clearly set 
 
 1 Ad Attic, iv. 16. Hanc ego de Republica quam institui dispu- 
 tationem in African! personam et Phili et Laelii et Manilii contuli : 
 adjunxi adolescentes, Q. Tuberonem, P. Rutilium, duo Laelii generos, 
 Scaevolam, et Fannium. Itaque cogitabam, quoniam in singulis libris 
 utor procemiis, ut Aristoteles in iis, quos egwreptKovs vocat, aliquid 
 
 efficere ut non sine causa istum appellarem, &c Ad Attic, xiii. 
 
 19. Quae autera his temporibus scripsi, Aristoteleum morem habent; 
 in quo ita sermo inducitur ceterorum, ut penes ipsum sit principatus. 
 Ita confeci quinque libros vre/oj reXcoi/, &c. On the same principle he 
 had constructed his books De Oratore; (Epp. Attic, iv. 16; Epp. ad 
 Famil i. 9- 23.) 
 
DIALOGUES OF ARISTOTLE. 125 
 
 forth and most easily removed. The dialogues of 
 Plato are an obvious example of this. But if we 
 consider the De Oratore, De Finibus, and De Re- 
 publicd of Cicero to represent with tolerable accuracy 
 the character of the Aristotelian dialogues, we see at 
 once a very considerable change. The genial produc- 
 tive power of the artist has given way to the systematic 
 reflection of the philosopher. The personages intro- 
 duced are not living and breathing men with all their 
 feelings, prejudices, and individual peculiarities, they 
 are mere puppets which speak the opinions entertained 
 by those whose name they bear. These opinions may 
 be fairly and lucidly stated, they may be backed by 
 all the pomp and power of rhetoric, as they are in 
 Cicero and as they probably were in Aristotle, but the 
 speakers have no life, the scene no reality, and in spite 
 of the pains taken by the author to prevent it by al- 
 lusions to particular times, places, and circumstances, 
 we rise from the perusal with our opinions more or 
 less modified, but with no more distinct recollection 
 of the parties by whom the discussion has been carried 
 on than if they had been distinguished by the letters 
 of the alphabet instead of the names of knpwn cha- 
 racters 2 . But what these productions have lost as 
 works of art, they have gained as works of science. 
 The distinct and explicit exposition of a principle 
 which prevents them from being the former, is a merit 
 in them as the latter. And as the dialogic form, even 
 
 * Bishop Berkeley's Hylas and Philonous, and Minute Philoso- 
 pher make no pretension to dramatic effect. The very names of the 
 collocutors indicate the principles which they profess. In our opin- 
 ion, Berkeley has acted wisely, but would have done better still to have 
 dropped the dialogic form. Harris's Three Treatises are an attempt 
 to come much nearer to the Platonic Dialogue, and in our judgment, 
 a signal failure. 
 
126 THEIR STYLE. 
 
 where it fails in producing the dramatic impression 
 that we receive from Plato, admits to the fullest ex- 
 tent of all the assistance which rhetoric can afford, it 
 is not wonderful that it should have been selected by 
 Aristotle as an appropriate one for many or even most 
 of his exoteric treatises 1 . 
 
 Neither in those cases where he adopted this 
 form can we be surprized .that Aristotle should have 
 made use of a style, which however unfit for the pur- 
 poses of a rigidly scientific investigation, is not at all 
 inappropriate to compositions such as we have described. 
 A few relics (and unfortunately a very few,) have come 
 down to us of them ; about thirty lines in the original 
 Greek are quoted by Plutarch 2 from one of the most 
 celebrated, and Cicero has in a Latin dress preserved 
 two other small fragments 3 . The first of these is part 
 of a treatise which was either addressed to Eudemus, 
 Aristotle's disciple, or written on the occasion of his death, 
 and from the nature of the extract, no less than from 
 the name it bore, 4 seems to have treated upon the 
 
 1 Cicero, although he does not expressly say that the exoteric 
 works were all dialogues,, speak of them as if they were nearly co- 
 extensive. So too Ammonius (Introd. ad Categ. 2) divides the 
 regular treatises of Aristotle into two heads : TWV a-wTaj/jLaTiKwv vd 
 jueY vvTOTrpoGta-ira K.OLI aKpoa/jLariKO,' TCI Be StaXoyiKCt KOI e^tarepiKCt. But 
 Simplicius and Philoponus prevent us from construing their expression 
 too rigidly. The former says B<%7 Be Stgptjficvtftv O.VTOV TWV crvyypafj.- 
 JJLGITWV, er? Te Ta earre^tKa, oia TO. i<rTOpiKGt KO\ TCI SiaXoyiKct, KCLI O\OK 
 TGI ij.tj ctKpa^ aKpifleias (ppovTityvTa, at ek TCI aKpoa/jLaTiKa, &C. (ad 
 Phys. Auscult. init.) and the latter speaking of the exoteric writings, 
 says " among which are the Dialogues, of which Eudemus is one." 
 (ad Arist. De Anima, i. 138.) 
 
 2 De Consolat. ad. Apollon. p. 115. He also alludes to the same 
 work in his life of Dion, cap. 22. 
 
 3 De naturd Deorum, ii. 37- De Officiis, ii. 16. 
 
 ' $ -rrepi ^u^ 9 ' 
 
SOME FRAGMENTS PRESERVED. 127 
 
 immortality of the soul, and the miserable condition of 
 man while imprisoned in the body, as compared with 
 that which preceded and will follow the present life. 
 Our existence on earth is regarded as a punishment in- 
 flicted upon us by the Gods, and in support of this 
 opinion an appeal is made to the experience of the 
 human race manifesting itself in proverbs and mytho- 
 logical tales to that effect. The dead are represented 
 as dwelling in a higher sphere of Being than the living, 
 and as dishonoured by any expressions or feelings on the 
 part of the latter which involve an opposite opinion. 
 The language in which these sentiments are embodied 
 is of proportionate dignity to the theme ; it is totally 
 unlike the dry and jejune style in which the works 
 which have come down to us are written ; on the con- 
 trary it is rather diffuse and ornamented, and fully 
 enables us to understand the expression of Cicero " Aris- 
 totle, with his golden flood of language 6 ," which judging 
 from his rigidly demonstrative works alone, we should 
 deem singularly inappropriate. One of the passages 
 preserved in Cicero is even more gorgeous and eloquent 
 than the one in Plutarch, and for the sake of the subject 
 we will endeavour to give some notion of its rhythm 
 and structure, although of course a translation twice 
 
 5 It is probably this treatise which is referred to in the Ni- 
 comachean Ethics, p. 1102. col. 1. 1. 26, and which was quoted by 
 Cicero in his dialogue Hortensius (ap. Augustin. c. Julian, vol. x. 
 p. 623. ed. Benedict.). The Fragment is given by Orelli in the 
 seventh volume of his edition of Cicero's works pp. 485 6. 
 
 6 Veniet, flumen orationis aureum fundens, Aristoteles. Acad. 
 Pr. ii. 38. In another passage Torquatus alleges that his adver- 
 sary is prepossessed against Epicurus, because his writings are 
 deficient in those "ornaments of style" which he finds in Plato, 
 Theophrastus and Aristotle. De Fin. i. 5. To the scientific works 
 this phrase is about as applicable as to the elements of Euclid. 
 
128 THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 removed from the original, can do this but very inade- 
 quately. The argument is the common one of Na- 
 tural Theology, the evidence which the wonders of the 
 Universe afford of the existence of an intelligent Crea- 
 tor. Aristotle's reasoning appears to be directed against 
 those who asserted that such an inference was the re- 
 sult of a traditional belief handed down from generation 
 to generation, and interpreting all phenomena into an 
 accordance with itself. He attempts by an illustration 
 to show that this is not the case, but that it proceeds 
 from the natural conviction of the human mind, un- 
 swayed by any particular bias, as soon as its attention 
 is roused to these objects. "Suppose there to exist," 
 says he, "a race of beings, who had always inhabited 
 "a region in the heart of the earth, dwelling in fair 
 " and lordly mansions adorned by statues and pictures, 
 " and provided with all the appliances of luxury in which 
 " those whom the world envies, abound, but who never 
 "had visited the surface. Now, if these had heard by 
 "rumours and hearsay that there was a certain Divine 
 " Power, living and acting, and then at some time the 
 "jaws of the Earth were to open and allow them to 
 " quit their obscure dwelling-place and come forth into 
 " the region which we inhabit, then, when all at once 
 "they beheld Earth, Sea, and Sky, the enormous 
 " clouds, the mighty winds, when they gazed on the 
 " Sun, and perceived how vast, how beautiful it was, 
 "how potent in its operation, how by diffusing its 
 " light through the whole of the Heaven it was the 
 " cause of the day : and again, when night had veiled 
 " the earth in darkness, and they observed the whole 
 ' firmament studded and lit up with stars, the moon 
 " with her varying phases, now increasing, now wan- 
 "ing, and all rising and setting and running on their 
 
EXOTERIC WORKS THE MOST STUDIED. 129 
 
 "courses steadily and unvaryingly for an eternity of 
 "ages; surely, when they heheld all this, they would 
 "believe hoth that there were Gods, and that these 
 " mighty works were from their hand !" The passage 
 in the De Officiis appears rather to be a summary of 
 Aristotle's expressions in his own words than a trans- 
 lation like the above, but even there the reader will 
 easily recognize an oratorical structure quite unlike what 
 is to be found in any of the philosopher's works which 
 have come down to us. 
 
 From these few and meagre specimens of the ex- 
 oteric works of Aristotle, we may observe without any 
 difficulty that in every respect they were calculated in 
 a rhetorical and superficial age, such as that of the 
 successors of Theophrastus was, to supersede the others. 
 Literature became fashionable in high places. Philo- 
 sophers thronged to the courts of an Antigonus, a 
 Ptolemy, or an Attains, and exerted themselves in 
 making royal roads to knowledge for the sake of their 
 patrons. A general acquaintance with the doctrines of 
 the school to which they attached themselves was all 
 that these latter could pretend to, and the instructor 
 soon found out that very little more would be sufficient 
 for himself. Why should he bestow time and labour 
 on what would not be available to his purposes ? 
 Why should he trouble himself with thinking out the 
 results which he could find ready provided to his hand ? 
 Above all, why should he neglect works which supplied 
 food to his fancy and grace to his style, agreeably and 
 lucidly written, and generally acceptable in literary so- 
 ciety, for the dry and laborious systematic treatise whose 
 only merit was its rigidly logical connection. The very 
 discipline of the Lyceum, as we have shown in an earlier 
 part of this essay, contributed its share to the work of 
 9 
 
130 CICERO'S KNOWLEDGE OF THEM. 
 
 deterioration, by producing an unconscious indifference 
 to the truth of opinions provided only they were plau- 
 sible and coherent; and the vanity of possessing a 
 multifarious knowledge lost the only check which could 
 have restrained it. The age of thought gave way to 
 an age of mere accumulation of learning, and in such a 
 one what could take any man to works like Aristotle's 
 scientific ones? In the time of Cicero a considerable 
 impulse had certainly been given to philosophy. Yet 
 how instructive is the story which he relates in the 
 introduction to his Topica. His friend Trebatius had 
 stumbled while looking over his library upon the Topica 
 of Aristotle, of which he had never heard, and on 
 learning from Cicero the nature of the work was seized 
 with a strong desire to read it. The obscurity of the 
 book repelled him, and an eminent rhetorician to whom 
 he applied for assistance told him that of those works 
 of Aristotle he knew nothing. " This I was by no 
 means surprized at," says Cicero, " that a rhetorician 
 should know nothing of a philosopher, of whom philoso- 
 phers themselves, with the exception of a very few, knew 
 nothing 1 ." And although Cicero deservedly prides him- 
 self upon being the introducer of Greek philosophy 
 among his countrymen, it is extremely questionable 
 whether, with the exception of those works which have 
 a direct application to oratory, his knowledge of Aris- 
 totle was not confined to the exoteric writings. It is 
 certainly these which he takes as his model and his 
 basis in his own philosophical treatises. 
 
 Where a writer's opinions are studied rather than 
 his principles and method, where readers do not take 
 
 1 Topica, i. 1. So too in a fragment (ap. Nonium, v. conten- 
 dere,) he says, " Magna etiam animi contentio adhibenda est expli- 
 cando Aristoteli." 
 
APPARENT INCONSISTENCY OF ARISTOTLE. 131 
 
 the trouble to put themselves upon his standing ground, 
 to enter into his thoughts, and follow them out through 
 the ramifications of his system, there will often appear 
 a want of harmony between the results at which he 
 arrives. There is indeed a point from which all these 
 will appear in their true perspective, but this point is 
 on an eminence which demands both time and labour 
 to ascend. This want of agreement in his results was 
 imputed to Aristotle at an early period, certainly be- 
 fore the time of Cicero, who notes it and gives a partial 
 explanation of it. " On the subject of the Chief Good," 
 says he, " there are two kinds of works, the one written 
 " in a popular manner, and termed by them exoteric, the 
 "other elaborated with greater care, (limatius] which 
 " they left in the form of notes, (quod in commentariis 
 " reliquerunt.) This makes them thought not always 
 " to say the same thing ; although in the upshot there 
 "is no discrepancy at all, in those at least whom I 
 "mentioned, [Aristotle and Theophrastus] neither do 
 "the two differ the one from the other 2 ." Here Cicero 
 only speaks of those works which the author kept by him 
 and continually made additions to, a class of writings 
 which did not form an important part of the scientific 
 ones 3 . But it is quite plain that the remark might be 
 
 2 De Finibus, v. 5. 
 
 8 Ammonius (Introd. ad. Arist. Categ. ) describes those writings 
 which he calls yVojui/^/xariKa, which answer to Cicero's commentarii, 
 as common-place books kept by Aristotle for his own use, some 
 of them devoted to one subject, some miscellaneous. Simplicius 
 says of them (Proleg. in Cat.} (We? Be TO. Vtyuty/*onjca M iraVrp 
 crirov%rj<; af<a elvai. He however does not seem to know much about 
 them himself, for he quotes Alexander of Aphrodisias as his autho- 
 rity. But all the ancient Commentators are agreed in making the 
 acroamatic works a separate class, and a more important than the 
 h ypomn e.matic. 
 
 92 
 
132 INNER AND OUTER DOCTRINES. 
 
 extended to the whole of these latter ; in every one of 
 them might be found instances where Aristotle might 
 "appear not to say the same thing" as in his more 
 popular publications, but where at the same time " in 
 the upshot there would be no discrepancy at all." Now 
 here we have the fact which formed the basis of the 
 subsequent opinion that Aristotle had an inner and 
 an outer doctrine, an opinion which gathered strength 
 and distinctness as it passed from one hand to 
 another, and is in modern times repeated with a con- 
 fidence that would lead one to imagine it rested on the 
 explicit assertion of the author himself. But neither 
 in Strabo, Plutarch, nor Gellius is there any hint of 
 such a wilful suppression of sentiments on the part of 
 Aristotle 1 , although all three of these authors allude 
 to a division of his works into two classes adapted to 
 different mental qualifications in the readers. In Cle- 
 ment of Alexandria appears the first trace of any such 
 notion, and the expressions which he makes use of are 
 hardly sufficient to justify us in concluding that he had 
 at all a decided opinion on this score 2 . But it was a 
 suggestion which would not fail to be caught hold of 
 
 1 The word dir 6 p prjr a may seem opposed to this statement, 
 (Plut. Vit. Alex. 7) but it seems only intended to indicate those 
 writings which were not published; and which were kept secret 
 not because they contained peculiar doctrines, but from the same 
 reasons which prevent any man from showing a work yet growing 
 under his hands to any but his particular friends. One of these 
 works was the Rhetoric, as has been remarked by Niebuhr in a 
 note to the History of Rome, vol. i. p. 19. Eng. Trans. 
 
 2 Stromm. V. p. 4>7<5. After speaking of double doctrines of the 
 Pythagoreans, Plato, Epicurus and the Stoics, he adds, Aeyovo-t Be 
 KO\ 01 'Apt<rTOT\oi9 TO /U6i/ <r(aTpiKa clvat TUV ffvjypa/jiijidrfav airran/j 
 TO. Be Koivd T KO.\ egu)TpiKci, where the true reading would seem 
 to be ai/Tou instead of 
 
GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE THEORY. 133 
 
 in an age singularly attached, as the declining Roman 
 empire was, to mystical orgies and secret associations. 
 Before Clement indeed, Lucian had taken advantage of 
 it for the purpose of a jest, where in his Sale of Philo- 
 sophers, he puts Aristotle up to auction as a double 
 man 3 . But obviously this is only a ludicrous version 
 of the fact that his works were of very different kinds, 
 stated, as it is not unlikely that even the Aristotelians of 
 that age would be fond of doing, in a paradoxical form. 
 Nay, even when we get down to the close of the fourth 
 century, to the rhetorician Themistius, a very great 
 allowance must be made for the conceits of his affected 
 style, before we can safely form our estimate of 
 his real sentiments. No one can dream of taking in 
 their literal sense such phrases as those of "Aristotle 
 shutting up and fortifying his meaning in a rampart 
 of obscure phraseology, to secure it from the ravages 
 of uninitiated marauders*" or " considering that know- 
 ledge was like food and drugs, one sort proper for the 
 healthy, another for the sicfr" and therefore " involving 
 his meaning in a wall of cloud, the doors of which two 
 guardians, Perspicuity and Obscurity, like the Homeric 
 Hours, stood ready to open to the initiated and close 
 upon the profane*" But after making all proper al- 
 lowance, there is no question that in the time of 
 Themistius the opinion of the double meaning of Aris- 
 
 3 Vol. iii. p. 112. Ed. Bipont. 
 
 4 Oral, xxiii. p. 294. 
 
 5 Oral. xxvi. p. 319. The allusion is to Iliad. V. 750, and 
 there are some others in the context, equally tasteless and strained, 
 to the marshalling of the Median army by Cyaxares (Herod, i. 103.) 
 and to the palace of Agbatana with its concentric sevenfold walls 
 (Herod, i. 98.) 
 
134 ITS FINAL ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 totle was widely received 1 . Ammonius, in the fifth 
 century, thinks it necessary to state, apparently in op- 
 position to the popular belief, " that the dialogues of 
 "Aristotle differ very much from the direct treatises 
 " (avTotrpovwircL) ; that in the latter, as addressing his 
 " discourse to genuine students, he not only delivers 
 "his real opinions, but employs the severest methods, 
 " such as people in general cannot follow ; while in the 
 " latter, as they are written for general use, he delivers 
 " his real opinions too, but still employs methods not 
 "rigidly demonstrative but of such a kind that the 
 "ordinary run of people are able to follow them 2 ." 
 But his scholar Simplicius no longer swims against the 
 tide : he asserts that in the " acroamatic works Aristotle 
 "aimed at obscurity, in order through it to repel the 
 more indolent from him 3 ." The wit of the satirist and 
 the flourishes of the rhetorician were thus translated 
 into plain prose; and from this time forward the du- 
 plicity of Aristotle's doctrines may be considered as 
 reckoned among the most indisputable facts. 
 
 Having now thoroughly satisfied ourselves that the 
 narrative of Strabo requires much qualification, we may 
 enquire whether there is any part of it which is con- 
 sistent with what from other sources we know really 
 was the case. And there seems nothing to prevent 
 us from believing that Neleus's heirs really possessed 
 
 1 One great reason of this no doubt was the desire of recon- 
 ciling him with Plato, which is observable in Themistius, and was 
 by his time the great object of philosophers. See especially, 
 Oral. xx. pp. 235, 6. Utterly unable to ascend to the point which 
 would enable them to appreciate both, they endeavoured to esta- 
 blish a spurious agreement by the help of fictions like this. 
 
 - Ammonius, /. supr. c. 
 
 3 Ad Auscult. Physic, fol. 2, 6. 1. 22. 
 
QUALIFICATION OF STRABO'S STORY. 135 
 
 some books which had belonged to Aristotle and Theo- 
 phrastus, that Apellicon purchased these, and that 
 they were brought by Sylla to Rome and there first 
 made known to people in general. But that these 
 were works of any great importance we have seen 
 could not be the case ; nor that the decay of the Pe- 
 ripatetic school was owing to the want of them. A 
 part of the story relates to matters of fact, for which 
 Strabo is a most respectable witness; a part to a mat- 
 ter of opinion, on which he is no authority whatever 
 beyond any competent person of the present day. The 
 one half is reconcileable with the fact that the princi- 
 pal acroamatic works of Aristotle were in the hands of 
 his successors, and in the Library at Alexandria, du- 
 ring the interval between Neleus and Apellicon. It is 
 in accordance also with the notice of Athenaeus that 
 Ptolemy carried the libraries of Aristotle and Theo- 
 phrastus to Alexandria, and likewise with various other 
 stories which having a less obvious bearing upon the 
 question, we have for the sake of perspicuity omitted 
 noticing before, but now present to the reader in a 
 note 4 . The other is inconsistent with these and many 
 
 4 1. Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions it as a prevalent opinion 
 that Demosthenes owed his skill in oratory to the study of Aristotle's 
 Rhetoric, and takes some trouble to prove by quotations in that 
 work from Demosthenes, that all his famous orations (the XII. Phi- 
 lippics, as they were called) were delivered before the treatise was 
 written. (Ep. i. ad Ammceum.) 
 
 II. Theophrastus corresponded with Eudemus concerning cer- 
 tain errors in the copies of the 5th Book of the Physical Lectures. 
 (Andronicus Rhodius ap. Simplicium, quoted by Brandis, p. 245.) 
 
 III. Valerius Maximus relates that Aristotle first of all gave 
 his Rhetoric to a favourite Scholar, Theodectes, and that it was 
 published under his name: but that his greediness for reputation 
 afterwards induced him to claim it for himself, by quoting from 
 it in another work as his own production, (viii. 14.) 
 
136 CHARACTER OF APELLICON. 
 
 other facts and may be rejected without invalidating 
 the reputation of Straho either for veracity or accuracy 
 as regards matters which came within his scope, a re- 
 putation which we should be the last persons to desire 
 to destroy. 
 
 What then was the nature of these documents the 
 preservation of which was the foundation for so remark- 
 able a story? We can only guess an answer, but we 
 will nevertheless make the attempt. 
 
 Athenaeus 1 , quoting from the work of Posidonius 
 the historian, a contemporary of Pompey the Great, 
 gives a sketch of the character of Apellicon, which 
 seems to throw some light upon this question. A man 
 of vast wealth and of a restless disposition, and an 
 adopted citizen of Athens, he appears to have alter- 
 nately plunged himself into the turbulent politics of 
 his time, and cultivated literature in a spurious kind 
 of way. His taste for letters was a mere bibliomania, 
 and brought him into trouble. He purchased, while 
 the fit for philosophy was upon him, "the Peripatetic 
 " books and the library of Aristotle and a great many 
 " others, being a man of great property. Moreover he 
 " surreptitiously obtained possession of the ancient ori- 
 " ginal decrees of the Assembly, which were preserved 
 " at Athens in the temple of the Mother of the Gods, 
 " and from the other cities too he got hold of what- 
 " ever was ancient and curious." This theft obliged 
 him to save his life by flying the country; in the 
 troublous times however, which soon after succeeded, 
 he contrived to procure his recal by joining the party 
 of the demagogue Athenion. This individual had in- 
 duced his countrymen to take a part in the confederacy 
 
 1 Athenaeus, v. cap. 53. pp. 214 -5. 
 
A COLLECTOR OF CURIOSITIES. 137 
 
 which Mithridates had organized against the power of 
 Rome. In an evil hour Apellicon quitted book-collect- 
 ing for military service. He took the command of an 
 expedition against Delos, which was occupied by Orbius 
 the Roman praetor; but displayed such utter ignorance 
 of the commonest duties of a commander that his ene- 
 my soon found an opportunity of attacking him una- 
 wares, destroyed or captured the whole of his troops, 
 and burnt all the machines which he had constructed 
 for storming the city. The unfortunate dilettante es- 
 caped with his life, but died, in what way is not known, 
 before Sylla stormed Athens and seized on the library 
 which had cost him so dear 2 . It seems almost certain 
 from this account of Apellicon, that it was the posses- 
 sion not of the works but of the autographs of them 
 which was the attraction to him. Can we then con- 
 ceive that it was the original autographs of Aristotle 
 and Theophrastus which he purchased from the repre- 
 sentatives of Neleus's family? Autographs of what 
 works ? Not of the exoteric : for these were so gene- 
 rally known that he would have had no difficulty in 
 filling up the gaps which the damp and worms had 
 produced in his copy. Nor of the systematic treatises; 
 for if the original manuscript of these had existed, An- 
 dronicus would have had no difficulty in determining 
 what was the production of Aristotle, and what not, 
 in the various cases where that question arose. Of 
 neither of these classes of writing then can we imagine 
 that the story of Strabo is to be understood But if 
 we suppose Aristotle to have left behind him, as every 
 literary man whose energies last to the end of his life 
 will do, collections on various subjects, rough draughts 
 
 2 Stahr, Aristotelia, ii. p. lip. 
 
138 DRAUGHTS OF ARISTOTLE'S WORKS. 
 
 of future works, commonplace books some of a miscel- 
 laneous nature, some devoted to particular matters, 
 containing, it may be, extracts from other writers, re- 
 ferences to their opinions, germs of thoughts hereafter 
 to be worked out, lines of argument merely indicated; 
 it is very conceivable that these documents, so long as 
 a healthy and lively philosophical spirit existed in the 
 Peripatet^. school, would receive very little attention. 
 If they were too fragmentary and unsystematic for pub- 
 lication they would remain in the possession of Theo- 
 phrastus and Neleus 1 , too curious to destroy, too un- 
 finished to make any use of; and if the heirs of Neleus 
 were illiterate men, they would see nothing in them 
 but so many slovenly and disjointed scrawls, and not 
 dream of putting them among the sumptuous collec- 
 tion of books which they sold to King Ptolemy. But 
 in the time of Apellicon, the state of things was 
 changed. The relics of the founder of the school 
 would have acquired a sacred character, and unsaleable 
 as they might have been to Ptolemy, who appears to 
 have been a real lover of literature and not a mere 
 book-fancier, would fetch a good price with the pur- 
 chaser of stolen records. And it is not at all inconsis- 
 tent with this view, that a person whose acquaintance 
 with philosophy was of such a kind, should mistake 
 the nature of the documents he had got hold of, 
 " attempt to supply the gaps when he transcribed the 
 " text into new copies, fill these up the reverse of 
 
 1 Parts of some of them may very likely have been incorpo- 
 rated by Theophrastus, Strato, and others, in works of their own; 
 a proceeding which in those days would not have been considered 
 a plagiarism. Such too was doubtless the case with all mere col- 
 lections, such as the Problems and the book irep\ dav/jiaa-itov duov- 
 o-juaVwi/, which, as we have it now, probably contains additions 
 from several hands. 
 
PROBABLE SPECIMENS OF THESE. 139 
 
 " well, and send the books out into the world full 
 " of mistakes 2 ." 
 
 Such is the theory which, it appears to us, will 
 reconcile the varying accounts respecting Aristotle's 
 writings, and while it sweeps away all that is adven- 
 titious in the statement of the Greek geographer, 
 will leave his testimony substantially unimpaired. And 
 this theory is in fact confirmed by the state in which 
 some of the works of Aristotle have come down to us. 
 For some of these are not merely books kept by the 
 author and continually worked at, like the Rhetoric, and 
 Theophrastus's History of Plants, nor are they mere 
 notes for lectures, a dry skeleton of the subject, complete 
 in themselves and only requiring the illustration and 
 developement which would be supplied by the extem- 
 poraneous efforts of the instructor. Neither of these 
 two descriptions will explain all the phenomena which 
 strike the reader in the Poetics and the Politics, as 
 these two treatises are found in our manuscripts. Neither 
 of them complete the discussion of the range of topics 
 which they promise, and it is impossible to receive as 
 a satisfactory explication of this fact that they are 
 only fragments of complete works of which the re- 
 mainder has been lost. This is quite incompatible with 
 what we find in them, namely redundancies, whole 
 paragraphs recast, and standing together with those for 
 which they seem meant as a substitute. Such appear- 
 ances are only to be understood on the supposition that 
 the work in which they occur was an interleaved draught 
 of a future treatise, itself never published (nor yet in- 
 tended for publication) by the author. In such a case 
 we should expect to find what we do find here, and 
 
 3 Strabo, /. supr. c. 
 
140 POETICS POLITICS. 
 
 certainly not, to the same extent, in any other work, 
 scholia containing archaeological or historical notes in- 
 serted in the midst of metaphysical divisions, imperfect 
 analyses, defective enumerations, tacit references to 
 writings of others or to opinions current at the 
 time, allusions to questions treated on by the author 
 in the work, which are no where to he found, gaps 
 where obviously something was to be inserted, and ex- 
 pressions so slovenly as to be almost or wholly ungram- 
 matical 1 . And on the supposition that these works 
 were note-books devoted to the particular subjects on 
 which they treat, kept by the author until the materials 
 they contained had been worked up and published in a 
 complete form, and then discarded by him, we shall 
 see in what relation they probably stood to the works 
 read by Cicero 2 , and named in the catalogues of Dio- 
 genes Laertius and the anonymous Biographer 3 , and 
 understand what kind of writings those in all proba- 
 
 1 See the Appendix. 
 
 3 De leg. iii. 6. De divin. ii. 1. Epp. ad Quint. Frai. iii. 5. 
 
 3 Diogenes quotes Trep\ TTOJ/TWI/ in three books, Trpay/jiareia Tc'^i/t/9 
 TroirjTiKrjs in two books, Troif/TiKa in one book (perhaps the treatise 
 we have), trep\ TpayuSuav in one book ; all of which had some rela- 
 tion to the Poetics ; and TroAtriKo? in two books, virep airo'uuav in 
 one book, Trep\ (3a<ri\eias in one book, 7rep\ TraiBeia? in one book, 
 OiKOi/o/JUKO? in one book, TroXiTiKa. in two books, TroAiTiK^ anpoao-i cos 
 tj Qeofypdo-Tov in eight books, 7rep\ liKa'uav in two books, SiKaito/xara 
 in one book and 158 constitutions of democratic, oligarchal, aristo- 
 cratic, and monarchical states, all having some bearing on the 
 Politics. To these perhaps may be added from the anonymous 
 writer 7rep\ evyeveias in one book, Trep\ ffva-a-n-iiov J) <rv/j.iro<ri(av in one 
 book, 0e<reis TroXtrtKat in two books, TroXiTiKrj axjodao-/? in twenty 
 books, TpuAAo? in three books, SiKaita/jiaTa iroXeiav in one book. 
 However these writings may have been confused by the unskilful 
 epitomizers of Hermippus, it is quite plain that Aristotle wrote a 
 great deal more on both these subjects than has come down to 
 
 us. 
 
ESTIMATE OF THEM. 141 
 
 bility were, which descended with the rest of Aristotle's 
 lihrary to Theophrastus, and from Theophrastus to 
 Neleus, which were neglected by the librarians of 
 Ptolemy Philadelphia, and emerged from their ob- 
 scurity in the vault of Scepsis to be purchased by the 
 antiquarian Apellicon. Only in making this estimate 
 we must not forget the different importance which such 
 writings possess for us, deprived for ever of those which 
 were formed out of them, from that which they may 
 have had for their author and his immediate successors, 
 to whom they would appear in no other light than the 
 scaffold, by the aid of which the cathedral has been 
 erected, does to the architect. And perhaps we may 
 properly imagine that the greater fulness of these pro- 
 cured their preservation after they were recovered, while 
 many others of the same kind, but yet further removed 
 from completeness, were suffered to perish. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 REMAINING WORKS OF ARISTOTLE. 
 
 WE shall conclude this memoir hy a list and a brief 
 literary notice of the Works which have come down to 
 us under the name of Aristotle, in the order in which 
 they are given in the edition of the Berlin Academy. 
 
 I. Categories. (Karriyopiai or KCtTqyopiai ire pi TWV 
 Seicct i yeviKO)TGLTwv yevwv.) 
 
 The genuineness of this work was much disputed 
 in the time of the ancient commentators. Adrastus 
 found a work on the same subject hearing the name 
 of Aristotle, and, singularly enough, consisting of ex- 
 actly the same number of lines. It was however by 
 them determined to be genuine, with the exception of 
 the last part, which treats on what the Latin Logi- 
 cians term the Post-pr&dicamenta. This extends from 
 the tenth chapter to the end. The work of Harris 
 called Philosophical Arrangements is an exposition, 
 very much in the manner of the old commentators, of 
 this Treatise. A short but most masterly critique on 
 it will be found in Kant's Kritik der reinen Ternunft, 
 p. 79- Adrastus wished to call the work rd -n-po TCOI> 
 TOTTt/coji/, considering it as merely an introduction to 
 the Topics, an appellation of which Porphyry disap- 
 proves. The evidence which determined the ancient 
 critics in their decision between the rival works bear- 
 ing this name was solely internal. The cast of thought 
 and the phraseology appeared to them to be Aristotle's, 
 and they conceived that references to this one were to 
 
LOGICAL WRITINGS. 143 
 
 be found in others of the Aristotelian writings. But 
 before Aristotle, Archytas the Pythagorean philosopher, 
 in his work irepl TTCLVTOS, had written on the Ten 
 Categories, and some of the moderns 1 have considered 
 that this work was to be referred to one of that School. 
 Grotius quotes the book without naming Aristotle as 
 the author*. Brandis however on the principle we have 
 indicated above (p. 116) has established the prevalent 
 opinion on this subject, on evidence possessing a very 
 high degree of authority. 
 
 II. On interpretation. (Trepl e 
 
 A philosophical treatise on grammar as far as re- 
 lates to the nature of nouns and verbs. Some of the 
 old commentators from its obscurity imagined it to be 
 a mere collection of notes, and Andronicus considered 
 it not to be Aristotle's. Alexander of Aphrodisias, 
 however, and Ammonius proved it to be his, and to 
 have been used by Theophrastus in a treatise of the 
 same name which he wrote. Still the latter of these, 
 as well as Porphyry, suspected that the last part of 
 the work was the addition of some more modern hand. 
 
 III. Former Analytics, i. n. Latter Analytics, 
 
 I. II. (avaXvTiKa TrpOTepa, ava\VTiKoi vcrrepa.) 
 
 Of the former of these treatises the true and ancient 
 title was Trepl GvXXoyiviuLov and that of the latter Trepl 
 aVo^e^ews-. Diogenes Laertius, (Tit. 23) speaks of 
 eight books of the Former Analytics, or as one MS. 
 has it, ten, and of two of the Latter. And Petiti 
 conceived that the work which is referred to in the 
 
 1 Jonsius De Histories Philosophies Scriptoribus p. 4. " Auctor 
 libri de Categoriis, quicumque Platonicorum vel Pythagoreorum is 
 demum fuerit." 
 
 2 Ad Matth. Ev. xiv. 4 
 
144 LOGICAL WRITINGS. 
 
 Nicomachean Ethics ,' has not come down to us. 
 The old commentators found forty books on this sub- 
 ject, professedly by Aristotle, and determined on 
 the genuineness of these only, rejecting all the rest, 
 Their subject is that which in modern times is es- 
 pecially termed Logic, but would be more properly 
 called Dialectics, that is, an examination of the possible 
 forms in which an assertion may be made and a con- 
 clusion established. 
 
 Theophrastus, Eudemus and Phanias, scholars of 
 Aristotle, wrote treatises on the same subjects as these 
 three of their master, and called them by the same 
 name, a circumstance which probably had some connec- 
 tion with the number of "Analytics" ascribed to him. 
 
 IV. Topics. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. (TOTTIKCI.) 
 
 An analysis of the different heads from which de- 
 monstrative arguments may be brought. It was con- 
 sidered by the ancient commentators as the easiest of 
 all Aristotle's systematic writings. The Romans how- 
 ever, as Cicero tells us in the preface to his work of 
 the same name, found it so difficult as to be repelled 
 by it, although he himself praises it no less for its 
 language than for its scientific merits. His own work 
 is an epitome of it made by himself from memory 
 during a sea voyage from Velia to Rhegium 2 . 
 
 V. On sophistical proofs, i. n. 
 
 An analysis of the possible forms of fallacy in de- 
 monstration. This work has a natural connection with 
 the Topics, as Aristotle himself remarks in the begin- 
 ning of the last chapter of the second book. 
 
 1 VI. 3. p. 1139. col. 2. tin. 27- Bekk. 
 * Epp. Fam. VII. 19- 
 
PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL WRITINGS. 145 
 
 The preceding works taken together complete Aris- 
 totle's Logical writings, and with the introduction of Por- 
 phyry to the Categories have gone generally in modern 
 times by the name of the Organum, from the circum- 
 stance of Aristotle having called Logic opyavov opydvwv. 
 The philosopher gave this name to the art because of 
 all others it is the most purely instrumental, that is, 
 the most entirely a means to something else, and the 
 least an end to be desired for its own sake. The term 
 however, was in subsequent ages misapplied to mean 
 that it was the best of all instruments for the dis- 
 covery of truth, as opposed to the observation of facts, 
 and the art was correspondently abused. 
 
 VI. Physical Lectures, i. n. in. iv. v. vi. vn- 
 
 VIII. \(j)vcriKr) a/CjOoao'is). 
 
 It is a very questionable matter whether this treatise 
 was published by the author as one organic whole. The 
 last three books probably formed a treatise by themselves 
 under the name Trepl Kii^'crews 3 , and the five first another, 
 under that of 0v<n/ca. Again, of these the first one is 
 quite independent of the rest, and is devoted to the 
 discussion of primal principles (a^ou) 4 , to which every 
 thing in nature may be resolved. This book is ex- 
 tremely valuable for the history of philosophy before 
 the time of Aristotle. He discusses in it the theories 
 of Melissus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and 
 others. The second is taken up with an examination 
 
 3 Simpl. ad Phys. Auscult. f. 21 6. Diogenes however gives a 
 work TT6p\ (aircrew? in two books. This is not conclusive against the 
 opinion quoted in the text. See below, the notice respecting the 
 Rhetoric, pag. 159- 
 
 4 Perhaps it is to this book that the title irep} apxw> * n Diogenes's 
 Catalogue, refers. 
 
 10 
 
146 PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL WRITINGS. 
 
 of the ideas of Nature, Necessity, and Chance ; and 
 the next three with the properties of Body, or rather 
 with the analysis of those notions of the understanding 
 which are involved in the idea of Body. Of this work 
 abstracts and syllabuses (/ce^aXaTa /cal a-wfyeis) were 
 very early made by the Peripatetic school 1 , and these 
 by keeping their attention fixed upon the connection of 
 a system of dogmas, perhaps contributed much to divert 
 them from the observation of nature, and to keep up 
 that perpetually-recurring confusion between laws of 
 the Understanding and laws of the external World 
 which characterizes the whole of the ancient physical 
 speculations. 
 
 VII. On the Heavens, i. n. m. iv. (Trepl ovpa- 
 
 vov). 
 
 Alexander of Aphrodisias considered that the proper 
 name for this work was Trepl Koa^ov 9 as only the first two 
 books 'are really on the subject of the heavenly bodies 
 and their circular motion. The two last treat on the 
 four elements and the properties of gravity and light- 
 ness, and afford much information relative to the 
 systems of Empedocles and Democritus. 
 
 VIII. On Generation and Decay, i. n. (^repl 76- 
 
 KOL 
 
 This work treats on those properties of bodies which 
 in our times would be consideredfto be the proper sub- 
 jects of physiological and of chemical science. Many 
 other notions, however, of a metaphysical nature, are 
 mixed up with these, and it is only for its illustration 
 of the history of philosophy that this work, like the 
 
 1 Simplicius, (Introd. ad. Phys. Ausc. vi. and vii.) 
 
PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL WRITINGS. 147 
 
 rest of the physical treatises, is of any value to the 
 modern student.) 
 
 IX. Meteorology. I. II. III. IV. 
 
 The first of these hooks was by some in the time 
 of the old commentators held not to be genuine; and 
 Ammonius and others considered that the fourth should 
 immediately follow the second of the last treatise, with 
 which the subjects on which it treats, the changes ef- 
 fected in bodies by heat and cold, moisture and dry- 
 ness, &c., are certainly more nearly connected. 
 
 X. To Alexander, on the World, 
 
 The titles of this tract in the various MSS. differ 
 much from one another. In one it is called Trepl /cou- 
 fjLoypa(j)6ias', in another Trepi KOCT/ULOV KOI eTcpwv ctvayKaiwv', 
 in a third cruvo\j/is <piXocro(pias Trepl /cocrjuof ; in Stobseus 
 e7ri<7ToX>7 Trepl TOV 7rai>To9, which Fabricius holds to be 
 the true title. He considers the work to be genuine, 
 contrary to the opinion of Scaliger, Salmasius, Casau- 
 bon, Voss, and Buhle. Fabricius's opinion has been 
 taken up by Weisse, but the spuriousness of the piece 
 is glaring. Stahr 2 has, as we think, satisfactorily shown 
 that it is in all probability a composition of very late 
 date, based upon Apuleius's work De Mundo. He 
 remarks that it is not mentioned by any writer before 
 Apuleius: for that the passage of Demetrius (De Elocut. 
 243) does not really contain any allusion to it. On 
 the other hand, Simplicius expressly states that Aris- 
 totle wrote no one treatise on this subject ; and that 
 this very circumstance was the inducement for Nicolaus, 
 one of the later Peripatetics, to do so. 
 
 2 Aristoteles bei den Roemern. p. 165. et scq. 
 
 102 
 
148 PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL WRITINGS. 
 
 XI. On the Soul. I. II. III. (-Tre/cn 
 
 In the first of these books are discussed the opinions 
 of preceding philosophers upon this subject; in the se- 
 cond, the Soul in its sensible relations; in the third, 
 in its rational ones. A celebrated dialogue of Aris- 
 totle's, to which we have before referred, bore this 
 same title; and such as consider that the exoteric 
 works were all in the form of dialogues, imagine that 
 in the Nicomachean Ethics 1 he alludes to it. There 
 are parts, however, of the third book of this treatise 
 which seem apt for his purpose in that place, and al- 
 though the work serves to make up that system of 
 Aristotle's to which the preceding physical treatises as 
 well as the following belong, it is sufficiently independ- 
 ent of them to allow of its being perfectly understood 
 without their perusal; a character which in our opinion 
 is the only essential one of an exoteric writing. 
 
 XII. Eight tracts on physical subjects, namely, 
 (a.) On Perception and Objects of Perception. 
 
 (jrepl aia-0q<T(t)$ Kctt aidOrjTwv.) 
 
 (b.) On Memory and Recollection, (-n-epl 
 
 (c.) On Sleep and Waking. (wept VTTVOV Kal eyprj- 
 
 (d.) On Dreams, (wep 
 
 (e.) On the Prophetic Vision in Sleep, (ire pi 
 
 KCtO' VTTVOV 
 
 .} On Length and Shortness of Life, 
 
 KOL 
 
 (g.) On Youth and Age, Life and Death, 
 
 Kal yrjpws Kat Trepl ^ooijs /cat QUVCLTOV.) 
 
 (h.) On Respiration, (-n-epl a 
 
 1 Pag. 1102. col. a. lin. 27- 
 
PHYSICAL WRITINGS. 149 
 
 XIII. Oil Breath. (Trepi TOV 
 
 This treatise, of which the subject is the same as 
 that of the last mentioned, except that there is more 
 reference in it to the lower animals, has been con- 
 sidered by many not to be by Aristotle. Sylbourg 
 considers the style to point to Alexander of Aphrodi- 
 sias as its author. Meursius thought it probably to 
 be by Theophrastus, and Patritius by Strato, principally 
 because such a book is mentioned by Diogenes among 
 the writings of these. Fabricius considers it to be 
 Aristotle's, because Aristotle himself, in his treatise 
 On the Movement of Animals, appears to allude to it, 
 and Galen quotes it as his. But neither of these two 
 passages are quite conclusive. 
 
 XIV. Accounts of Animals, i ......... x. (irepl ra 
 
 This work is variously entitled in the manuscripts, 
 
 (^TTCpl <^Jft)t/ i<JTO|Of'a, TWV TTCpl ^COWV \(TTOpia. Pliny 2 , where 
 
 he speaks of Aristotle's magnificent work On Animals* 
 in fifty books, appears to include together with this 
 all the treatises on natural history which follow it, 
 (and indeed are naturally connected with it,) as well 
 as some on comparative anatomy, now lost. The same 
 may be said of Cicero's notice of them 3 . This work 
 was illustrated by diagrams of the several parts of 
 animals, which together with the necessary explanations 
 perhaps formed a treatise by themselves. He alludes 
 to them in several passages by the names of r\ kv dva- 
 
 To/JiCLLS cia. f ypa(pr)' ai avaTOju.ai' ai avaTo^al ciayeypaiu.fJLevai. 
 
 Schneider, who has published an edition of this work, 
 
 2 Nat. Hist. viii. 17. 
 
 3 DC Fin. v. 4. 
 
150 PHYSICAL WRITINGS. 
 
 most learnedly illustrated as regards the snbject, not 
 perceiving in it any traces of the injury which Aris- 
 totle's works, according to Straho's account, received, 
 was induced to consider it as one of the exoteric pub- 
 lications. But, in fact, the whole of the works on 
 natural history are as closely connected with one an- 
 other as the several parts of the Organum, and it 
 would be difficult to assign any reason why the one 
 class should be regarded as exoteric and the other not 
 so. Of the probable gradual growth of these works 
 we have spoken above. 
 
 XV. On the Parts of Animals, i. n. in. iv. 
 
 XVI. On the Movement of Animals, 
 
 A curious tract investigating the influences which 
 operate db extra upon animals. This treatise, together 
 with the one following, and that On Breath, are often 
 put together with the eight tracts before mentioned, 
 (No. XII.) and make up in the aggregate what are called 
 the Parva Nat ur alia. 
 
 XVII. On the Locomotion of Animals, 
 
 peias 
 
 XVIII. On the Engendering of Animals, i. n 
 III. IV. (wept ^u> 
 
 XIX. On Colours, 
 
 This has been considered by some critics to be the 
 work of Theophrastus. Plutarch speaks of a treatise 
 by Aristotle of the same name in two books. 
 
PHYSICAL WRITINGS. 151 
 
 XX. From the Book on Sounds, (e/c rov 
 
 Apparently this tract is only a fragment; although 
 Porphyry, who has preserved it in his commentary on 
 the Harmonicon of Ptolemy, says that he has given 
 the whole work. 
 
 XXI. Physiognomica. 
 
 Of this tract the last chapter of the Former Ana- 
 lytics is a sort of compendium. Buhle considers it 
 spurious. It is not mentioned hy any of the old com- 
 mentators, but is by Stobseus and by Diogenes Laertius 
 in his catalogue. 
 
 XXII. On Plants, (irepl 
 
 Aristotle wrote two books on plants, but not these 
 which we have. They are a translation into Greek 
 from the Latin ; and even this version was considerably 
 removed from a Greek original, having been made by 
 some Gaul from an Arabian version, which again was 
 only derived from a more ancient Latin translation. 
 The original of all these, according to Sealiger's view, 
 was only a cento of scraps taken partly from Aristotle, 
 and partly from the first book of Theophrastus's History 
 of Plants. Aristotle's work was already lost in the time 
 of Alexander of Aphrodisias. 
 
 XXIII. On Wonderful Stories, (irepl 
 
 This book, in spite of its title, is nothing more than 
 a collection of strange accounts, nor does it appear to 
 have formed a part of a larger work of at all a different 
 description. The latter part is obviously spurious, and 
 with respect to the remainder various opinions have been 
 
152 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS. 
 
 held. Dodwell conceives Theophrastus to have been 
 the author, Scaliger Aristotle. Buhle considers the 
 whole to he a patchwork of extracts from the works 
 of the latter. Our opinion is, that the germ of the 
 work is to be looked for in one of those note-books or 
 vTro/uLvrifjLara which were appropriated to collections, and 
 from which supplies were occasionally drawn for more 
 systematic writings : and that this was, in its trans- 
 mission down to our times, added to by several hands, 
 and some of these most unskilful ones. See our notice 
 of the Problems below (No. XXV). 
 
 XXIV. Mechanics. 
 
 The first part of this work touches upon the prin- 
 ciples of mechanics, and is followed by a number of 
 questions which are resolved by a reference to them. 
 This latter division is probably only a part of the 
 TrpoftX^fjiaTa eyKVK\ia or questions on the whole cycle 
 of science, which we find mentioned as a work of 
 Aristotle's in two books by Diogenes Laertius, and 
 which is quoted by Aulus Gellius. 
 
 XXV. Problems. (TrpoftX^ara). 
 
 This is a collection of questions on various subjects 
 in thirty-eight divisions, of which the first relates to 
 medical, the fifteenth to mathematical, the eighteenth 
 to philological, the nineteenth to musical, the twenty- 
 seventh and three following to ethical, and the rest 
 mainly to physical and physiological matters. Theo- 
 phrastus is also said to have compiled a collection of 
 problems, and Pliny quotes him as the authority for a 
 circumstance which we find mentioned in this work 1 . 
 
 \ 
 
 1 Prob. xxxiii. 12. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxviii. 6. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS. 153 
 
 In his treatises, too, trepi KOTTWV and Trepl tipdrcw, there 
 are several coincidences with the Problems of Aristotle ; 
 and hence some have held him really to be the author 
 of these, while others have considered those works to 
 he nothing more than a patchwork of Aristotle's Pro- 
 blems. 
 
 Besides the TrpoftX^aTa e^KVKXia which we men- 
 tioned in the last article, Diogenes mentions two books 
 
 of TrpofiXijiuLaTa eTnreflea/xeVa, (problems farther C0W- 
 Sldered), and two of TrpoflXrjimaTa e/c TWV ArjfjLOKpiTov. 
 
 Moreover Plutarch and Athenaeus, and other authors, 
 quote from the TrpofiXijimaTa (pucruca. That the work 
 which has come down to us is neither any one of these, 
 nor the aggregate of them all, is certain. Sylbourg in 
 his preface points out several instances in which Aris- 
 totle himself speaks of questions discussed in them, 
 which will be looked for in vain in the present treatise. 
 Neither do we find most of the quotations made by 
 Aulus Gellius, Macrobius, Apuleius, and Alexander of 
 Aphrodisias. On the other hand, some citations which 
 Gellius produces from the TrpoftX^fjLara eynvicXia, and one 
 which Macrobius does from the TTjOo/BX^Vara Availed are 
 found. So are two citations by Cicero, and one by 
 Galen, quoting generally from the Problems. These 
 circumstances indicate that the work has been very 
 much changed since it came from Aristotle's hands ; 
 and the most plausible hypothesis seems to be that the 
 nucleus of the work is a selection 2 from the collections 
 of Aristotle and Theophrastus, added to it in its course 
 down to us. There are many repetitions to be found 
 in it, some even three times over with the change of 
 
 2 Perhaps by some Alexandrine scholar. Aristophanes the cele- 
 brated grammarian epitomized some of Aristotle's works on Natural 
 History (flicrnr/rx cited by Schneider. Pref. ad H. A. p. xviii.) 
 
154 MATHEMATICAL WRITINGS. 
 
 only a few words ; there is a great difference of style 
 observable in several parts ; in many of the more ancient 
 manuscripts some passages are omitted and others dif- 
 ferently arranged ; and as regards the philosophy, it 
 is impossible to suppose that a part could proceed either 
 from Aristotle or Theophrastus, or from any philosopher 
 of an undegenerate age. A great deal is no doubt 
 due to the book-makers under the Roman empire: it 
 was a work particularly well suited to the manufacture 
 of such Miscellanies as the taste of that time delighted 
 in, and, with the exception of the works on natural 
 history, appears to have been by far the most generally 
 popular of any of the Aristotelian writings. These 
 circumstances render it necessary for the historian of 
 philosophy to be extremely cautious how he infers the 
 opinions of Aristotle upon any subject from it. 
 
 XXVI. On Indivisible Lines, (irepl CLTO/ULWV 
 
 This tract is said by Simplicius to have been by 
 some of the ancient commentators ascribed to Theo- 
 phrastus. 
 
 XXVII. The Quarters and Names of the Winds. 
 
 Oe&eis Kal TrpocrrjyopiaL). 
 
 A fragment from Aristotle's work Trepl o-rj/uLeicov ^1^- 
 mentioned by Diogenes in his catalogue. It is 
 found in some manuscripts of Theophrastus's works, but 
 Salmasius considers it to be by Aristotle. 
 
 XXVIII. On Xenophanes, on Zeno, on Gorgias. 
 
 (TTCpl EevotyavovSj irepl Z,r)V(*)vos, Trepl Topyiov). 
 
 This fragment, according to Brandis, is the only 
 one of all the works which have come down to us under 
 

 THE METAPHYSICS. 155 
 
 the name of Aristotle's, which presents the least indica- 
 tion of that treatment which the manuscripts are said to 
 have met with at the hands of Apellicon. This too 
 and the Mechanics are the only works which Patritius 
 allowed to he genuine. It is singular that one of the 
 manuscripts ascribes it to Theophrastus. Another gives 
 
 as a title /card ras- ^o^a? TWV <pi\oao(f)u)v. 
 
 XXIX. The Metaphysics, i. n xiv. (rd 
 
 JUL6TO. TO. <f)VCTLKa). 
 
 This collection of treatises is said to have been 
 called by Andronicus by this name, because when he 
 endeavoured to group the works of Aristotle together 
 systematically, these remained after he had completed 
 his physical cycle, and he had no better resource than 
 to put them together after it. Harris 1 gives a different 
 account of the name, which he grounds on a passage 
 in a manuscript work of Philoponus. Men, he con- 
 ceives, were led to the study of the highest causes, by 
 an ascent from the contemplation of the lower or phy- 
 sical. Hence the first philosophy (Prima Philosophia) 
 which treats of them, was, from being subsequent in 
 time to these physical enquiries, called Metaphysical. 
 Brandis 2 relates from a manuscript commentary of As- 
 clepius, (a writer of no great value,) that Aristotle had 
 during his lifetime committed the several treatises, 
 the aggregate of which goes by this name, to his scho- 
 lar Eudemus, who considered that they were not in a 
 fit state for publication; but that after his death sub- 
 sequent Peripatetics (oi /meTayevevrepoi) endeavoured to 
 work them up into a whole, supplying what was defi- 
 
 1 Additional note to the second of The Three Treatises, pp. 
 .364, 5. 
 
 - Rhein. Mus. i. p. 242, note If). 
 
156 
 
 ARRANGEMENT OF THE METAPHYSICS. 
 
 cient from other works of their founder. Whatever 
 may be the truth of this story, it is unquestionable 
 that the arrangement of the several books is purely 
 arbitrary, and several variations have been proposed, 
 among others one by Petiti, which we annex with the 
 addition of those works named by Diogenes Laertius 
 in his catalogue, which he conceived to be identical 
 with the several parts of this work. In the Greek 
 manuscripts, the first book is denoted by the letter (A), 
 the second, not by the letter (B), but by (a), the 
 third by (B), the fourth by (F), and so regularly on 
 to the fourteenth. 
 
 Greek 
 MSS. 
 
 Du Val's 
 arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 Petiti's 
 arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 Works cited by Diogenes Laertius 
 corresponding to the several parts of 
 the Metaphysics. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 irepi djD^wi/, a. 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 irepi 7ri(TTr]/J.(ai' ) a. 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Treot doycoi/, /3'. 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 71 e^Ol eTTtCTTf/^COl/, /3'. 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 Trept TWJ/ TrocravaK Xeyo/jievuv. 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 1} 
 
 Trept el^cov KOI ycvu) i/, a. 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 7T6|[)t UA^? 1 . 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 Tre/ot evepyeias 1 . 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 tj K\oyr] Ttav evavrnav. 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 Trent 7n<Trti /j.r]s . 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 7rep\ (f)t\o<ro(})ia<;, a. 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 trcpt (bi\o<Tod)ict<?, (3 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 TTcpi (bi\o(ro(bi(x.S) y . 
 
 The thirteenth and fourteenth books are not found 
 in the old Latin version, or that of Argyropylus. The 
 second book (a of the Greek MSS.) was considered by 
 some of the ancient commentators to be the work of 
 Pasicrates the Rhodian, brother of Eudemus. Alex- 
 ander of Aphrodisias says that it is by Aristotle, but 
 
 1 These are not mentioned by Diogenes. 
 
ETHICAL WRITINGS. 157 
 
 is mutilated. Others have held that it is a sort of 
 scholium, and that its proper place is as a preface to 
 the second book of the Physical Lectures. And the 
 circumstance of its being denoted by so singular a 
 mark in the manuscripts would incline us to believe 
 that some opinion of this sort was widely received. 
 
 XXX. Nicomachean Ethics, i. n. in....x. (*}0t/cd 
 
 Nt/couaveta.) 
 
 CD 
 
 This is one of the most perspicuous, as well as 
 most valuable of the works of Aristotle which has come 
 down to us. Although in a scientific form, there is a 
 reference throughout to practical utility, and Aristotle 
 himself seems to avow that he has sacrificed some of 
 the rigidness of his method to this consideration. It 
 is, however, unequalled to this day as a treatise on 
 Morals. On the subject of the name different accounts 
 are given. Most of the ancient commentators assert 
 that it was so called by Aristotle because inscribed 
 to his son Nicomachus. Cicero appears, as we have 
 seen, to consider the son the author. Petiti endeavours 
 to show that the treatise was written at a time when 
 Nicomachus was not born. It was probably, like the 
 Rhetoric, worked at by the author after having been 
 published, and this will account for some of those 
 passages which he considers to be interpolations by 
 the son. 
 
 XXXI. The Great Ethics. I. II. (v&m /meyaXa.) 
 
 XXXII. The Eudemian Ethics, i. n. in. iv. v. 
 
 VI. VII. (iOiK 
 
 This work was in ancient times attributed to Theo- 
 phrastus or Eudemus. The third and three following 
 
158 ETHICAL WRITINGS. 
 
 books agree considerably both in subject and style 
 with the fifth, sixth, and seventh of the Nicomachean 
 Ethics. Some of this agreement may be artificial and 
 arise from the transcribers interpolating the one work 
 from the other. But it seems highly probable that 
 both this treatise and the Great Ethics are a work 
 made up from the notes of Aristotle's scholars. They, 
 particularly the last named, which, contrary to what 
 its name would lead us to expect, is by far the shortest, 
 seem to stand in very much the same relation to the 
 Nicomachean, as the little book Anweisung zur Men- 
 schen-und-Weltkenntniss (which was published by a 
 scholar of Kant's from notes of a course of lectures 
 delivered by him) does to the work Anthropologie in 
 pragmatischer Hinsicht, which the philosopher himself 
 published. 
 
 XXXIII. On Virtues and Vices, (irepl dperwv /ecu 
 
 KCLKICOV. 
 
 A spurious fragment preserved by Stobams. The 
 author is by some scholars supposed to be Andronicus 
 of Rhodes ; but others think it should rather be attri- 
 buted to a platonising eclectic of later times. 
 
 XXXIV. Politics. I.. ..VIII. (TroXiTura.) 
 
 Of this work we have given our opinion in an 
 earlier part of this Essay. 
 
 XXXV. Economics, (rnxovofwcd.) 
 
 Of Aristotle's work bearing this name Diogenes 
 Laertius only mentions one book ; and of these it seems 
 quite evident that both are not by the same author. 
 Erasmus held the first to be Aristotle's but to be only a 
 fragment, but Niebuhr considers that lately discovered 
 authorities incontestably prove it to be by Theophrastus. 
 
RHETORICAL WRITINGS. 159 
 
 If the second book is Aristotle's, it is probably a 
 collection made by him when collecting materials for 
 his historical and philosophical writings on government. 
 It is chiefly a string of instances of oppression exer- 
 cised by one people upon another, or by tyrants upon 
 their subjects. 
 
 XXXVI. The Art of Rhetoric, i. n. in. ( 
 
 Besides these books which contain his exposition of 
 the art, Aristotle wrote one other which contained a 
 history of it and of its professors from the earliest times 
 to his own. Of this Cicero speaks in the highest terms, 
 but it is unfortunately lost. The division into three 
 books is ingeniously conjectured by Stahr 1 to be due to 
 Andronicus of Rhodes. Some of the MSS. collated by 
 Bekker mark this division as peculiar to the manuscripts 
 of the Latin arrangement. The Greek one terminated 
 the first book with the end of the ninth chapter, and 
 made our second book the third. Jonsius conjectures 
 that the treatise mentioned by Diogenes in his cata- 
 logue under the title Trepl av^fiovXias, is the sixth and 
 seventh chapters of the first book of this work. That 
 this treatise is a different one from that which Aristotle is 
 said to have made over to his scholar Theodectes 2 ap- 
 pears from a passage 3 in which he quotes that production. 
 Hence it would seem that independently of the Rhetoric 
 to Alexander, the author of which is uncertain, Aristotle 
 published three distinct works on this subject, which 
 certainly accords with what Cicero says 4 , that the Peri- 
 
 1 Aristoteles bei den Roemern, p. 30. 
 
 2 See above, p. 135, note 4>, and compare Cicero, Brut. 64,. 
 :J P. 1410, col. 2, line 2 ed. Bekker. 
 
 4 De Oratore,\. 10. 
 
160 RHETORICAL WRITINGS. 
 
 patetics boasted "that Aristotle and Theophrastus not 
 only wrote better, but wrote much more on the subject 
 of oratory than all the professed masters of the science." 
 
 But it seems to us more probable that the work 
 which he cites was one by Theodectes, his own scholar, 
 and that Valerius Maximus mistook for an act of envy 
 what was more probably meant and taken for a flatter- 
 ing encouragement. The first sketch of the Rhetoric 
 was, as is remarked by Niebuhr, published long before 
 it was worked up into the form we have it in now, 
 and in this interval Theodectes, of whom Cicero speaks 
 as a writer on the subject, probably published his book. 
 It will be observed that Aristotle does not cite the trea- 
 tise as his own ; but this was overlooked by Valerius, or 
 the authority whom he followed, and the tale we have 
 mentioned above was coined to illustrate the passage. 
 It may also be remarked that the double publication of 
 the Rhetoric will serve to account for the growth of that 
 story which Dionysius of Halicarnassus takes so much 
 pains to refute. No one could have hazarded such a 
 fiction with all the quotations from Demosthenes under 
 his very eyes. It must have originated with some one 
 who used a copy of the early edition ; while Dionysius 
 in his refutation used the later. 
 
 XXXVII. The Rhetoric to Alexander. 
 
 This treatise is not mentioned by Diogenes Laertius 
 in his catalogue of Aristotle's works ; and the dedicatory 
 preface at the beginning is a solitary instance, if it be 
 a writing of Aristotle's, of such a style. Quintilian 1 
 appears to quote it as the production of Anaximenes of 
 
 1 Compare Quintilian, lust. Oral. iii. 4. 9- with Rhetoric, p. 
 1421. col. b. lin. 8. 
 
POETICAL CRITICISM. 161 
 
 Lampsacus, a contemporary of the Stagirite. Neither 
 the style nor the treatment of the subject accords with 
 the character of the last work, and perhaps what most 
 contributed to procure its ascription to Aristotle is the 
 circumstance that the writer claims the authorship of 
 
 the re-^yai TW 9eo$e/cr>7 ypcKpei&ai, which, according to 
 
 the story of Valerius Maximus spoken of in the last 
 Article, could only belong to Alexander's preceptor. 
 Notwithstanding this, Victorius and Buhle have attri- 
 buted the work to Callisthenes. We should be inclined 
 to consider it the performance of a sophist of a very 
 late date, and should regard the allusion to Theodectes 
 rather as a confirmation of the opinion. 
 
 XXXVIII. On the Poetic Art. (irep\ TTO^^.) 
 
 On the subject of this work we have spoken (p. 139)- 
 It has been considered by others a fragment of the 
 two books On Poets, which Macrobius quotes 2 , but it 
 hardly seems possible to consider it in this light. If it 
 is derived in any way from a published work, it must 
 have been by a process of epitomizing and selecting, and 
 that not very skilfully. 
 
 * Saturnal, v. 18. " Ipsa Aristotelis verba ponam ex libro quern 
 " de Poetis subscripsit secundo": The quotation which follows ap- 
 pears to be taken from a work of a very different character to the 
 fragment which we have. 
 
 11 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE POLITICAL TREATISE. 
 
 THE Political Treatise of Aristotle is so important 
 for the elucidation of Greek history and Greek philo- 
 sophy, that it seems desirable to give some of the 
 reasons which have led us to form the opinion we have 
 expressed in the text (p. 140), at greater length than 
 would be allowed by the limits of an ordinary note ; and 
 the principal of them are accordingly here subjoined. At 
 the same time, however satisfactory we may deem them, 
 we cannot expect that they will appear at once equally 
 conclusive to those who have been accustomed always 
 to regard the work in a different light, and we would 
 request such persons, after perusing the following note, 
 to study the treatise itself, and then decide whether 
 the form of its composition is, or is not, incompatible 
 with any other view than the one we have taken 
 of it. 
 
 I. In the third Book, the author, on the occasion of 
 mentioning certain states where an executive power, 
 almost supreme, was entrusted to one individual, 
 although the rest of the institutions partook more or 
 less of a democratic character, gives Epidamnus as an 
 existing instance 1 . In the fifth Book, he has occasion 
 again to refer to this functionary, but he speaks of his 
 
 1 p. 1287- col. a. lin. 7- 
 
NOT WRITTEN CONTINUOUSLY. 163 
 
 office as one which no longer existed*. A revolution, 
 gradual but complete, had in the interval been effected 
 at Epidamnus. The constitution had acquired a com- 
 pletely popular character, and the office of Supreme 
 Administrator had together with the other oligarchal 
 features of the government, been swept away. That 
 such blemishes as this would not have been left standing 
 in a work published by the author himself, few persons 
 will be inclined to question. Still it may be argued 
 that although not published by him, it may yet have 
 been in course of preparation for publication in its 
 present form, and that its last finish, in which such in- 
 congruities would have been removed, may have been 
 prevented by his death. But this argument may be 
 shown to be inadmissible. In this same fifth Book 
 there is a passage 3 obviously written while the expe- 
 dition and death of Dion the Syracusan, (which latter 
 happened soon after the dethronement of Dionysius 
 the tyrant by his agency,) was a subject of common 
 talk and considered as an event of the day. "One 
 cause of despotical governments being overthrown is," 
 says Aristotle, " dissension among those parties in whose 
 hands they are, as in the instance of Gelon's relations, 
 and at the present time (KOI vvv) in that of Dionysius' s." 
 Dion's death, which he mentions presently afterwards, 
 took place in the first half of the year 353, B. c. Now 
 Aristotle was at this time little more than thirty years 
 of age, and was at Athens pursuing his studies under 
 Plato. (See above, p. 11.) We cannot therefore sup- 
 pose that the Politics is a work, the elaboration of which 
 was cut short by the author's death, without at the same 
 time supposing that this expression was by him suffered 
 
 2 p. 1301. col. b. lin. 2fi. 
 8 p. 1312. col. b. lin. 10. 
 
 112 
 
164 
 
 EVIDENCE OF 
 
 to stand for a period of more than thirty years, of which 
 every succeeding one would render its impropriety more 
 glaring. 
 
 II. In a passage of the first Book 1 , in the course 
 of an analysis of the different elements which enter 
 into the Social Relation, the question is started whether 
 the acquisition of external objects of desire, necessarily 
 and in the nature of things is a part of the office of the 
 master of a household. For the purpose of elucidating 
 his views on this subject, the Author digresses into a 
 general discussion of the question of Production (>) 
 KTYITIKYI). Some kinds of this he considers as pointed 
 out by Nature herself to Man ; the exercise of them 
 is necessary to the supply of his natural wants in the 
 Social State, and consequently, (this Social State itself 
 being grounded in Nature,) the industrial tendency 
 which prompts him to such exercise is to be regarded 
 as analogous to those ordinary instincts which direct 
 the animal creation to the particular regions that furnish 
 the food required by their peculiar organization. But 
 Production has a natural limit, and this limit is short 
 of the extent to which the powers of Man are capable 
 of carrying it. Its natural limit is the satisfaction 
 of the natural wants of the Community, under the 
 highest possible form of civilization. So soon as this 
 limit is passed, Production changes its character. Its 
 employment (epyov) then becomes the accumulation of 
 means without reference to an end ; and it assumes the 
 character, according to the views of the ancients, of a 
 spurious, unnatural, and sordid pursuit. To this species 
 of Production, Aristotle proposes to appropriate the name 
 
 1 p. 1256. col. a. lin. 4. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY PARTS. 165 
 
 of Acquisition (rj ^prj/uLariffriK^). The same arguments 
 which prove that the former kind was, in the nature 
 of things, part of the duty of the head of the Family, 
 would show that this latter is not; and such is the 
 conclusion to which Aristotle comes, and which he 
 formally states (p. 1258. col. a. lin. 18). 
 
 But when we look to the place where this discussion 
 commences, we see plainly that in the first draught 
 of the text it could not have existed. Originally perhaps 
 the passage (p. 1256. col. a. lin. 15) ran thus : ei yap 
 
 TOV xprjuaTKTTiKOv Oecopijaai woOev yjpr\i*.aTa. K.GLI /CTJ/CTIS 
 >J yjprw.aTiaTiK.ri TJ9 oiKOVo/niKris ftepos av i^.~\ But 
 
 as this conclusion could not be assented to without a 
 limitation, the writer subjoined the words which follow 
 
 in the MSS. r] $e KTijais TroXXa Trepiei\ri<pe fj.eprj Kal o 
 
 0)(TT TTpWTOV Tf yeWpyiKIJ TTOTCpOV M^/OOS Tl TtJS 
 
 , tj crepov TI yevos, Kai KaOoXov r] irepl Tr)v 
 
 Tpo(jjv 7n/me\ia KOI KTYICTIS, as a memorandum for him- 
 self of the form which the discussion necessary for 
 explaining the nature of such limitations must take. 
 Subsequently he expanded this germ into the essay 
 (as we may almost call it) which extends from the words 
 aXXd MV c'iSij ye TroXXa Tpo<pij$ (p. 1256. col. a. lin. 19) 
 down to the formal restatement, with all its proper 
 qualification, of the position contained in the words be- 
 tween brackets. Finally we may conjecture that some 
 person into whose hands the MS. fell, sollicitous not 
 to lose a line that had come from the pen of the great 
 author, strung the original question, the memoranda, 
 and the explanatory excursus together in a continuous 
 series, and thus produced the strange confusion which 
 we find in our manuscripts, where the grammatical 
 construction and the scientific arrangement are equally 
 violated. 
 
' 
 
 166 EVIDENCE OF 
 
 That some such solution of the difficulties which 
 meet us in this passage is likely to be the true one, 
 is confirmed by the words which occur shortly after: 1 
 (pvcrews yap SGTIV epyov Tpo(>rjit TW ycvvrjOevTi Trape^eiv' 
 TravTi yap ef oil yiverai Tpo<prj TO XCITT OJULGVOV eo~Tiv. 
 
 Now these words are nothing more than the sub- 
 stance of what is said more fully in an early part of 
 the explanatory note: 2 r\ fj.ev ovv Totdvrrj KTtjais VTT avrrjs 
 
 rijs 0uc76W9 SiSo/ULevrj Tracnv, wcnrep Kara TYJV irpw- 
 yevecriv evOvs, ourco Kai TeXeitoOeicriv, KO.I yap Kara 
 e <*px*is yevefftv TO. pev crvveKTiKTei TWV ^owv TO- 
 
 ' i \ ^ ? t Ti>^/ < 
 
 cravTrjv TpoCprjv <os ucavriv eivai /ULe^pis ov av cvvrjTai avTO 
 avrip irop'^eiv TO yevvrjOev, olov oo~a O-KO)\TJKOTOK? rj yoro- 
 ocra $e QCOTOKCI, -roTs yevojmevois e^et Tpo<prjv ev av- 
 i TWOS, TY\V Tov Ka\ovfjivov ya\aKTo$ (pvo~iv. 
 
 Yet that the former passage is not a condensation of 
 the latter, put in for the purpose of reminding a reader, 
 is manifest on the inspection of the context. As it 
 stands, it is completely superfluous, and apparently un- 
 accountable, except on the supposition that at the time 
 it was written the long explanatory note did not exist- 
 
 Ill. In the third Book is proposed for discussion 
 the question whether government by a Monarch on 
 whom there is no constitutional check, or by a Code 
 of Laws absolutely rigid and unchangeable, is the al- 
 ternative to be preferred, on the hypothesis that in 
 the one case the laws, and in the other the autocrat, 
 shall be the best conceivable. The heads of the argu- 
 ments on both sides are given. But strangely enough, 
 we find in this place, that immediately after the sub- 
 ject has been to all appearance concluded, it recom- 
 
 1 p. 1258. col. a. lin. 35. 
 
 2 p. 1256. col. b. lin. 7. 
 
INTERLEAVING. 167 
 
 mences afresh. Here in fact are two long paragraphs, 
 of which the one is obviously intended to be a recast- 
 ing of the other, standing side by side, the original 
 one closely following its more digested and orderly ar- 
 ranged substitute. Their identity is quite manifest on 
 the most cursory perusal, after the attention of the 
 reader has once been directed to the circumstance. 3 
 It is worth remarking that the passage where the ma- 
 gistracy at Epidamnus, to which we before adverted, 
 is spoken of as existing, occurs in what we consider 
 the prior in time of these two rival paragraphs. 
 
 IV. Towards the end of the third book (p. 1288. 
 col. a. lin. 37) Aristotle mentions having discussed an- 
 other subject which may be regarded as the connecting 
 link between his Moral and his Political philosophy, 
 namely, whether the qualities which go to make up 
 the perfection of a man, as a man, are the same in 
 kind and degree as those which constitute his perfec- 
 tion as a citizen ; or, in the phraseology of the Greek 
 philosophy, whether the virtue of a man is identical 
 with the virtue of a citizen. This, he says, he has 
 settled in his first Book (ei> TOIS irpwTo^ Xoyois). But 
 the subject is really handled not in the first, but the 
 third Book 4 . Now we can scarcely conceive that Aris- 
 totle himself could cite his own work so inaccurately, 
 and we might be inclined perhaps to consider that the 
 expression TT/OWTOI Xo7oi referred to a former treatise 
 and not a former part of this one. But we are pre- 
 vented from doing this by the recurrence of the same 
 
 8 The two paragraphs are p. 1285. col b. lin. 19 p. 1286. ult. 
 and p. 1287- col. a. lin. 1. col. b. lin. 36. 
 
 Namely from p. 1276. col. b. lin. Ifi. to 1277- col. b. lin. 17. 
 
168 DIFFERENT DIVISION OF BOOKS. 
 
 phrase in another passage 1 where it is impossible to 
 avoid referring it to the first book of the Politics. 
 We are therefore inclined to conjecture that at the 
 time this reference was made, the first Book did not 
 terminate where it now does, but was continued on 
 into what is now the third, that the present second 
 Book, (which is perfectly insulated from all the rest of 
 the treatise, and consists entirely of a review of certain 
 constitutions existing in the time of Aristotle, together 
 with a discussion of the political writings of Plato, 
 Phaleas of Chalcedon, Hippodamus of Miletus, and 
 others,) was wanting, and that the then second Book 
 commenced with the words eTre/ Sc raDra Suopurrat. 
 (p. 1278. col. b. lin. 6 9 .) 
 
 V. Other passages might be produced which ap- 
 pear to indicate the accumulation of materials, or the 
 growth of thoughts, in a manner which we could not 
 expect to find either in a published work, or one in 
 course of preparation for publication. 
 
 Thus the examination of what rights constitute 
 citizenship, a question entered upon by him in the 
 beginning of the third Book, has every appearance of 
 being a collection of notes put down by him while he 
 was in the course of coming to his opinions. His first 
 definition of citizenship is ' participation in judicial and 
 
 1 p. 1278. col. b. lin. 18. 
 
 2 It could not have commenced further on in the work than 
 this, for it is only a few lines further on (col. b. lin. 18.) that he 
 quotes "the Jirst book." Yet in another passage (p. 1295. col. a. 
 lin. 4.) he quotes as in the first book a discussion which does not 
 occur till more than six pages further, i. e. in p. 1284. col. b. 
 lin. S5. seqq. Hence a still greater confusion seems necessary to 
 be supposed. We must believe the same expression vrp&Toi \oyot 
 to refer to one division in one place, to another in another! 
 
GRADUAL GROWTH OF NOTES. 169 
 
 official functions' (ncrc-^eiv Kpicrecas /cat apxfjs, p. 1275. 
 
 col. a. lin. 23). Then he goes on to say that this 
 definition is more applicable to democracies than to 
 any other form of government, and after exemplifying 
 the truth of this observation by the cases of Lacedaemon 
 and Carthage, proposes to alter it and substitute for it 
 the position ' that a citizen is one who has a right to 
 a share in functions either deliberative or judicial' (< 
 
 c^ova ia Kowwveiv ap\W ftovXfVTtKtjs fj KpirtKrjs, col. b. 
 
 lin. 21). Then follow two notes of which the second 
 grows as it were out of the first, and continues to the 
 end of the chapter (p. 1276. col. b. lin. 15). In the 
 former he distinguishes between the legal and the 
 natural definition of citizenship, and in the second 
 remarks upon certain political writers of the time, 
 who had raised a question connected with the definition 
 of citizenship, namely, what constituted the identity 
 of a state. After this he again resumes the thread of 
 the discussion. But these notes are not like the one 
 we mentioned above: they are very short, but they 
 refer to a great many points, and even the opinions 
 which are remarked on are rather implied as known 
 than distinctly stated. 
 
 In the fourth Book (p. 1290. col. b. lin. 21) he 
 attempts an analysis of States considered as masses of 
 individuals. But the passage is in disorder and the 
 enumeration incomplete. The fifth class he speaks of 
 is the military one. The mention of this class suggests 
 a critique upon the Republic of Plato, in reference to 
 a similar analysis which is introduced there. On re- 
 verting to his own division, he proceeds not with a 
 sixth t but a seventh class. 
 
 Some way further on (p. 1297. col. b. lin. 35) he 
 begins the subject again, as it were from a new point 
 
170 REFERENCES TO 
 
 of view. He proceeds to attempt a classification of 
 states, by analyzing government into its component 
 functions, and exhausting the number of ways in which 
 the various judicial, executive, and deliberative duties 
 of the state may be performed. But the division is 
 incomplete, and to all appearance designedly so. See 
 for instance p. 1300. col. a. lin. 23. seqq., where it ap- 
 pears plain that the author did not wish to enumerate 
 all the different modes by which the functionaries might 
 be appointed, but only the more important ones,- those 
 perhaps on which he had certain remarks to make. 
 Still a complete enumeration is so apparently necessary, 
 that the passage seems to have been tampered with by 
 some person who desiderated it 1 . 
 
 The confusion in one or two of these passages some 
 may be inclined to attribute merely to ordinary causes, 
 such as the ignorance or carelessness of transcribers, or 
 the damaged condition of the manuscripts which they 
 copied. We are not disposed to accept this solution 
 of the difficulties which meet us so constantly in the 
 work ; although it is extremely difficult to say what 
 degree of disarrangement may not be due to this cause. 
 Such an hypothesis however can hardly be entertained 
 in such cases as the following. 
 
 VI. In a passage in the third Book the manuscripts 
 
 1 Thus the passage Ka\ TO Tivas CK TTCIVTIOV rtt9 
 Tavai TCI? Be K\tip(a jj a'/x0o?i/, ras /JLCV K\tjpu) TCCS Se alpeo-ei, o 
 (p. 1300. col. a. lin. 38 40), appears to have been introduced by him 
 because after the cases where all were the appointing body to offices, 
 he thought those ought to come where a particular class appointed, 
 not observing that those cases of this kind which were of practical 
 importance had been already noticed in the preceding clause TO Be 
 Htj TrdvTd*;, &c. The same cause is the origin of the interpolations 
 i; K TIVWV (lin. 35), and TO %e rti/ct? e aVa'i/TUJi/. (col. b. lin. 4). 
 
AN OMITTED DISCUSSION. 171 
 
 all run as follows 2 I el yap dSvvarov e d Tret I/TOW Giro 
 OVTWV elvai TroAti/, eel $ cmnrrov TO KaO' avrov epyov ev 
 TOUTO o CLTT dperfjs* 7rei $ dSvvarov o/uoiOW elvai 
 rofs TroX/ras, OVK av eiv] fjiia apery irdXirov KCLI 
 
 dvfyos dyaOov. It appears impossible by an alteration 
 of a kind and degree which the principles of conjectural 
 criticism would sanction, to produce any tolerable sense 
 of this passage. The question on which Aristotle is 
 engaged is the one we alluded to before (p. 167.) whether 
 
 the perfection of civism (apery iro\irov dyaOou) is 
 
 identical with the perfection of humanity (apery dv$po$ 
 dyaOov). "This question may," he says, after resolving 
 it in one way, " be settled with the same result by 
 another course of investigation, viz., by determining 
 what is the idea of the perfection of a state 3 ." Now a 
 
 2 p. 1276. col. b. lin. 37 40. One manuscript alone has o/xoiw? 
 
 for O/XOiOl/5. 
 
 3 aAAa KOI KCCT' d\\ov Tpoirov COTTI SicnropovvTas eVeA0e?i/ TOV O.VTOV 
 \oyov Tre/oi T;5 dpicTTtj^ i jro\tTeia<s. (col. b. lin. 36). It is scarcely 
 necessary to remark that supposing the work a finished one, the 
 meaning we have given in the text to this passage would not be 
 defensible. But that it really is the only true one, and that the last 
 four words are merely a memorandum to indicate what the a\\o? 
 TpoTros is, is quite obvious by the course of the argument. There 
 are not wanting many other instances of expressions equally slovenly. 
 Thus p. 1301. col. b. lin. 39> ^'o KOI /jid\i<rTa Buo ylvovTat TroXireTai, 
 SfjfjLos KCU o\iyap%ia' evyeveia yap KCU dperij ev oXtyois, Tavra Se ev 
 rrXeioffiv, where the object to which raura refers is to be gathered 
 from a passage a long way back (p. 1301. col. a. lin. 30) and is 
 really freebirth, and such like qualifications, attaching equally to 
 the richest and the poorest. Just before too: dpoXoyovvTe*; Be TO 
 aTrXto? eivai B/KCKOI/, TO KaV dgiav $ict(j)epovTai, the principle alluded 
 to by the words TO aVXco? is TOO? iVou? t'o-wi/, KC TOUC CBW<r<Wt dviatav 
 dgiovvQai. (see col. a. lin. 25 35). See also p. 1278. col. a. lin. 10, 
 ov$e \vdepov fjiovov, a\X bcroi TUV epytav el<r\v d(f)eifjt.et'ot TCOI/ avay- 
 ttaitav' Tdiv d' aj/ayKaiwi/ ol fjiev ev\ \6iTovpyovvTe<; TO. TotavTct cov\oi f 
 ol Be KOIVO\ ftdvavffoi KOI 0^re?. The passage too, which has given 
 
172 PROBABLE SUBJECT 
 
 perfect state requires that the employment of the mem- 
 bers of it should be different, but that each one should 
 perform his duty in the best imaginable manner. That 
 mental and bodily state of the individual which is the 
 best adapted to produce this result in the highest con- 
 ceivable degree, is in the language of Greek metaphysics 
 called his virtue or perfection (apery}. If now the 
 duty to be performed be different, the virtue (or talent) 
 which is requisite to produce the performance will be 
 different. But such is the case in the perfection of a 
 state : there must be a division of labour, handicrafts- 
 men as well as philosophers, tillers of the soil as well 
 as politicians. It is therefore inconsistent that all the 
 citizens should be of the highest order of mind (O-TTOV- 
 Saioi), or indeed of the same order whatever it may be 
 (O/ULOIOI). Now on looking back to the passage in question, 
 we shall see, that if we suppose a note to have been in- 
 terposed between the two clauses of it, developing the 
 line of argument which we have sketched out, the second 
 clause will be in exactly the terms which on reverting to 
 the thread of the discussion would be required, and the 
 substitution of the more general phrase o/moiovs for 
 ffwovSalovs will appear peculiarly appropriate. 
 
 And that such a discussion was introduced here, 
 is not a mere hypothesis to account for the phenomena 
 which the text in this passage presents, but is ren- 
 dered extremely likely by some references made by 
 the author in other parts of the work apparently to it. 
 
 so much trouble to critics, TTO\XOU? yap etyvXerevo-e fvovs KCU 
 peToiKovs (p. 1275. col. b. lin. 3?), is probably not corrupt, but only 
 a careless expression, and meaning that Clisthenes put many 
 foreigners into the tribes (thus making them complete citizens), 
 and gave to many slaves the rights of metics; the word firo'iycre 
 being left to be gathered from the sense of the former part of the 
 phrase. 
 
OF SUCH SEPARATE DISCUSSION. 
 
 In p. 1289. col. b. lin. 40, he has the following observ- 
 
 ation ert TT/OOS rat? /cara TT\OVTOV cia(popais etrrtp rj /uei/ 
 /caret yevos fj $e /car' a^err/i/, KCLV ei TI or) TOIOVTOV erepov 
 eiprjTai Tro'Xea)? eti/ai /uepo? ei> rots Trepi rrjv aptcn-o- 
 KpctTtav' e/cet yap $t(Xo/ue0a e/c ntfar&i' nepwv avayKaicw 
 eWt TraVa TroXt?. Now the only passage remaining in 
 the manuscripts to which this description will at all 
 apply, is one which does not precede but follow the 
 reference in question, namely the paragraph beginning 
 
 with the words on jmei/ ovv TroXtretat TrXeiovs (p. 1290. 
 
 coL b. lin. 21.) ] The allusion must therefore be to a 
 passage now no longer remaining. And where we 
 are to look for this, will we think be irrefragably de- 
 termined by another observation (p. 1293. col. b. 
 lin. 30.) which shows that the discussion described by 
 the phrase ra Trepl rrjv dpKTTOKpariav, was really an 
 examination into the best form of government, the 
 ideal perfection of a state, in which, and in which 
 alone, (according to Aristotle's views) the perfection of 
 humanity and of civism are identical for any portion 
 of the community whatever 2 . Here then we have a 
 confirmation of our conjecture as to the deficiency which 
 we remarked in the original passage. But that this 
 deficiency should have been occasioned by the errors of 
 transcribers is perfectly impossible. The essay intended 
 to fill up the gap must have existed in a separate 
 form, or it could not have entirely disappeared. Yet 
 
 1 And even here a reference is made to an earlier treatment 
 of the question OTI /uei/ ovv iroXiTelat 7rX/ou?, KOI $i tjv aiTiav, *pr]Tai. 
 
 irep\ /? $ttj\0o fj.fv 
 tv TO?? irptoTOts Aoyots. Trjv yap f* Ttav apurTuv ctTrAftK KOT' 
 dpcrijv iroXiTfiav, KOI fjiij Jrpo'i VTrodea-iv TWO. djaduv ai/fy>oi/, novrjv 
 c'tKtiiov irpovayopcveiv dpurroKpa-riav. ev ^ovy yap aTrXwc o aurov 
 dvtjp Kai iroAiTij? dyado': fffTtv ot Se ev Ta?? oAA.ai? dyadot 
 Ttji/ jToXiTe'tav elffi rrjv avrtav, 
 
174 SEPARATE DISCUSSION OF TYRANNY. 
 
 it could not have been a separate work, or it would 
 not have been quoted as an organic part of this one, 
 as we see is the case. 
 
 VII. The instance of an obvious deficiency which 
 we have just given, although perhaps one of the most 
 striking cases of this kind, is not the only one. In 
 the enumeration of the different archetypal forms of Go- 
 vernment, he expresses his intention to treat of Despotic 
 Monarchy (or Tyranny,} the last in order ; " for of all," 
 says he, "it has the least claim to be considered a 
 "Polity, and polities are the subject with which our 
 "investigation is concerned." Then follow the words 
 
 Si rfv fjiv ovv airiav rexa/crm TOV Tpoirov TOVTOV, e'ipriTai 
 
 (p. 1293. col. b. lin. 30.) Now certainly we might 
 refer this observation to the reason which has just 
 been assigned, but if this be its right application, how 
 very superfluous and unnecessarily formal it is. A 
 couple of pages further on, the number of different 
 modifications which the despotic form of government 
 assumes are enumerated, (p. 1295. col. a. lin. 1 24.) 
 and the author winds up the paragraph by saying 
 "These are the different species of Despotic Monarchy, 
 " so many and no more from the causes which have been 
 " mentioned 1 " But the reader will look in vain for this 
 professed mention of the causes; and, putting this 
 circumstance together with the formal statement before- 
 mentioned, we have little scruple in conjecturing that 
 the latter really followed a separate discussion of the 
 nature of Despotic Government, which also contained rea- 
 sons why the forms it assumed should be so many 
 and no more. 
 
 TCIVTO. KO. Tocravta ia TO? e 
 
TACIT ALLUSIONS TO OTHERS. 175 
 
 VIII. There is another class of cases, in which 
 the author obviously alludes to the writings of contem- 
 poraries, but the allusions are so little explicit and 
 at the same time it is so obvious that they are allu- 
 sions that it seems impossible to avoid one of two 
 inferences, either that the passages in which they occur 
 are little else than memoranda for the writer himself, 
 or that the work is a collection of notes for lectures, 
 and that a formal oral statement of the opinions re- 
 ferred to had antecedently been given. The latter view 
 has been entertained with respect to most of Aristotle's 
 writings 2 , but in our opinion it is inconsistent with 
 the comparatively full developement of some parts of 
 this work, with the incompleteness of the whole as a 
 system, and above all, with the contemporaneous ex- 
 istence of such phenomena as those of which we have 
 above given an example (p. 167) where an original pa- 
 ragraph stood side by side with its intended successor. 
 The following may serve as instances of the allusions 
 we speak of, although an inspection of the whole course 
 of the argument in the context is necessary to appre- 
 ciate their force. 
 
 In the early part of the third Book 3 , Aristotle ob- 
 serves that in the question of what constitutes citizen- 
 ship, exiles and persons disqualified for some particular 
 reason may in a certain sense be termed citizens, "but,'' 
 he adds, "a citizen, simply and unconditionally, is by 
 
 2 Thus the expression in the Nicomachean Ethics (p. 1147. 
 col. 2. lin. 8.) ov Xoyov Be? irapd TUJV (pvcnoXoyujv dx.o\ieiv has been con- 
 sidered such as would naturally be used by a lecturer addressing 
 his class. 
 
 3 p. 1275. Col. a. lin. 20. KCU TTp\ ruv aVi^wi/ KCU <j)vyd(av 
 ret Toiavra KCU Siairoe?!/ KOI \veiv' iroX'tTr^ 8' aVXw? ovSevi Tiav aA- 
 
 KCU 
 
176 DIVISION OF GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 " none of the other definitions more completely described, 
 "than by the one * that he is a participator in judicial 
 "'and official functions' 1 '. Now these "other defini- 
 tions" are not explicitly given, either as those of the 
 author, or of any other person, but what some of them 
 at least were are hinted by some phrases in the few 
 sentences immediately preceding. One was apparently 
 that fixed residence in the particular spot (rw oi/ce?i/ 
 KOV) was the essence of citizenship; another that the 
 right of suing and being sued at law constituted it. 
 (TWV ciKaitov imere^eiv ovrws WCTTC KOI SIKTIV vireyeiv Kat 
 
 In the fourth Book 1 he speaks of certain political 
 writers, and says that their usual mode of considering 
 the various modifications of Government, was to sup- 
 pose two types, pure Oligarchy and pure Democracy, 
 and to regard the other forms as compounds, in various 
 proportions, of these. Similarly they held that there 
 were two archetypal species in musical composition, the 
 Dorian and the Phrygian, of which the rest were but 
 compounds. "But," says he, "the better and the truer 
 " mode of division is that which we adopted, to lay 
 " down the properly constituted forms of Government 
 " as being two or one in number, and regard the rest 
 " as lapses from this type." Now, if we recur to Aris- 
 totle's own division, we find that he really lays down 
 neither one nor two properly constituted archetypal forms 
 of Government, but three; namely, Monarchy ', Aristo- 
 cracy and Polity. These three differ from one another 
 in the circumstance that the supreme authority in them 
 is respectively in the hands of one individual, a minority 
 
 1 p. 1290. col. a. lin. 24. d\ij6ea-T(pov 3e KCU (3e\Ttov eo? *7/Af?<? SieV 
 
 fj 
 
PARALLEL DIVISION BY OTHERS. 177 
 
 and a majority, while they agree with one another, 
 and are regarded as uncorrupted and legitimate forms 
 (6p6al TToXireiai} in that the recognized end of govern- 
 ment is, equally in all of them, the advantage not of 
 the governors hut of the whole. Tyranny, Oligarchy, 
 and Democracy, in which the interest not of the whole, 
 hut severally of the One, the Few, and the Majority, 
 is the recognized end, are considered hy him as lapses 
 or deviations respectively from the three types 3 . Now 
 there is nothing in the interval between this formal 
 division and the passage with which we are at pre- 
 sent concerned to prepare us for a resolution of the 
 tripartite distribution into the alleged bipartite one ; 
 although certainly it may be argued that Monarchy is 
 only a particular case of Aristocracy and may be here so 
 considered. This view of the subject however does not 
 accord with Aristotle's manner of treating the question 
 of Monarchy in the latter part of the third Book 3 . 
 Should we not rather be justified in supposing that as 
 the writers of whom he is speaking neglected the con- 
 sideration of the Monarchical form, so Aristotle in 
 comparing his own division with theirs, threw out of 
 consideration that part of it to which theirs furnished 
 no parallel, and thus that the two properly constituted 
 types to which he alludes are the Aristocracy and 
 Polity of his former division 4 . If this opinion be a 
 
 2 p. 1279. col. a. lin. 1. col. b. lin. 10. The term 7rapeK/3aWi? 
 (lapses) was apparently first used by Aristotle in this technical 
 sense, as appears from his promise to explain it. (p. 1275. col. b. 
 lin. 2.) 
 
 8 p. 1284. col. a. lin. 3. seqq. 
 
 4 The one properly constituted type which he speaks of, is in 
 our opinion the dpiff^n iroXiTeia (the ideally best form) that was 
 discussed in the excursus which we have above (p. 172) attempted 
 to show, must have been intended for insertion in p. 1276. col. b. 
 lin. 39- 
 
 12 
 
178 ALLUSION TO POPULAR ERRORS. 
 
 sound one ; if the author really did thus tacitly mo- 
 dify his statements with a reference to the treatment 
 of the same suhject hy others, we cannot but regard 
 the work as neither published nor intended for publi- 
 cation 1 . 
 
 In another passage in the same book 2 , we find a 
 reference apparently to a popular error in some political 
 writings of the day, arising from unconscious associa- 
 tions with the etymology of the words apiaToKparia and 
 evvo/uLia. " It is thought," says Aristotle, " a matter 
 " of impossibility that a state in the hands of the 
 " Best should not be well-governed (T^V apicrroKparov- 
 *' nevriv TroXff M*) evvoju.e'ia-Oai) ; if not, it must be in the 
 " hands of the worthless (TrovrjpoKpaTovjmevrjv). But good 
 " government (evvojuLia) does not mean that there should 
 " be good laws without obedience being paid to them. 
 " Hence we must understand one kind of good govern- 
 " ment consisting in obedience to the existing laws, 
 " and another consisting in the goodness of the laws 
 " that are adhered to, seeing that obedience may be 
 " rendered to laws even though they be bad. And 
 " this point again (i. e. the goodness of laws) ad- 
 " mits of a twofold distinction, for the laws obeyed 
 " may either be the best applicable to those who are to 
 " obey them, or unconditionally the best." There is 
 nothing in the context calling for this division of 
 subjects included in the term Ewo/uua; and it would 
 seem only intended as an indication of the clue to 
 
 1 An allusion to the controverted division seems to be con- 
 tained in the words StoVi Be TrAetou? TWV elpr^eviav. (p. 1290. col. b. 
 lin. 22.) They certainly cannot apply to the chapter immediately 
 preceding them. 
 
 1 p. 1294. col. a. lin. 19. 
 
AN OBSCURE PASSAGE EXPLAINED. 179 
 
 some fallacious opinions which the writer had in his 
 eye 3 . 
 
 The same political writers are perhaps those alluded 
 to in the early part of the sixth Book ; but the expres- 
 sion is general in its form. Aristotle proposes to dis- 
 cuss the modifications of government which arise in 
 cases where a combination is formed of heterogeneous 
 elements, such as courts of law regulated on the prin- 
 ciples of aristocracy with election to offices on those 
 of oligarchy, or an oligarchal executive council and 
 oligarchal courts of law with an aristocratical mode of 
 selecting magistrates 4 . These are cases, he says, which 
 ought to be considered, and in the current theories were 
 not so 5 . 
 
 We will terminate this long and somewhat wearisome 
 discussion by directing the attention of the reader to one 
 other passage, which although certainly corrupt, and, 
 besides, very slovenly expressed, may perhaps be tolerably 
 explained on the principle which has been stated. Vio- 
 lent revolutions, by which the whole constitution of the 
 
 3 It may be said that this paragraph is an instance of those dis- 
 cussions of possible objections which we have remarked on above 
 (p. 64), and that the fallacy which is detected is too shallow to have 
 been used any where but in the public disputations we there spoke 
 of. Considering how very apt the ancients were to confuse notions 
 with objects, (a confusion of which many instances might be given 
 both from Plato and Aristotle), we are not inclined to this opinion. 
 Parallel sophisms might be produced from writings of the present 
 day which are not without their enthusiastic admirers. The par- 
 ticular instance however may be easily spared from our argu- 
 ment. 
 
 4 In this part of the work, personal merit or peculiar race are 
 considered as aristocratic principles, and a high pecuniary qualifica- 
 tion as the oligarchal one. 
 
 5 ovfr e<TKfjifjitvoi ft clo\ vvvt. p. 1317- col. a. lin. 4. 
 
180 IDENTITY OF THE STATE 
 
 government was changed, were of almost daily occurrence 
 in the petty states of Greece. They were generally 
 alternate oscillations between an oppressive and grinding 
 oligarchy and an unbridled and as oppressive democracy, 
 and the hatred which the contending parties reciprocally 
 entertained for each other was something scarcely conceiv- 
 able by modern readers, notwithstanding the experience 
 of the last century has illustrated the reigns of terror 
 at Argos and Corcyra by the parallel instance of Paris 1 . 
 Now under these circumstances nothing was more natural 
 than for the triumphant party to refuse to take upon 
 themselves the pecuniary obligations which had been 
 contracted by their predecessors. But injustice cannot 
 bear the naked sight of itself and instinctively seeks for 
 a veil of reason, however flimsy and transparent. 
 Wherever their common interests unite a large body 
 of men in one course of policy, writers will arise to 
 justify it by a plausible theory. Such was the case in 
 Greece. The philosophical principle on which the de- 
 fence of such acts was based, was that the identity of 
 the state, the subject of these obligations, did not go 
 back further than the revolution which changed the 
 character of the constitution. Before that point, it 
 was not the state, but the Few, or the Tyrant, who con- 
 tracted obligations; why should the state discharge these, 
 more than one individual burden himself with the debts 
 of his neighbour ? Naturally, the particular case which 
 oftenest occurred, was that in which Democracy succeeded 
 Oligarchy, and accordingly this is the case which would 
 
 1 Even the horrible massacres which took place in these states 
 during the triumph of the popular faction are perhaps less revolting 
 than the formal oath which Aristotle represents as being taken by 
 the oligarchs in some others: KO.\ TW ^tjfjita KCLKOVOVS e^o/^ot KO.\ /3ov\v<rta 
 o TI a\> e^w KCIKOV. Politic, v. p. 1 310. col. a. lin. 9- 
 
THE SAME FOR ALL FORMS. 181 
 
 be peculiarly insisted upon in the theories constructed 
 to justify such policy. Hence when Aristotle, re- 
 ferring to these theories without formally explaining 
 their views, wishes to assert the general principle that 
 the question of what constitutes identity in a state 
 is entirely separate from the question of the justifica- 
 tion of this or that form of government, he does it 
 by a loosely-worded remark specifically referring to 
 these. " If then there are any cases," says he, " of 
 democracies under these circumstances, the acts of this 
 form of government are to be considered acts of the 
 state, in exactly the same sense as the acts of the oli- 
 garchy, or the tyranny, are 2 ." 
 
 2 p. 1276. col. a. lin. 13, e'ltrep ovv KOI ^rj/jiOKparovvrai rii/e? Kara 
 
 TOV TpOTTOV TOVTOI', O/UL0itt TtJS 7TO\OK (fictTedlf ClVCtl [VaUTf/^] TCI? 
 
 dets KO\ Tdt? CK T ^ 9 o\iya-ia<: KCU T 
 
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