THE COMMENTATOEIAL SPIRIT. 205 



ascribe too large dimensions to that which occupies the whole of his 

 own field of vision. Thus he may come to consider such study as the 

 highest aim, and best evidence of human genius. To understand 

 Aristotle, or Plato, may appear to him to comprise all that is possible 

 of profundity and acuteness. And when he has travelled over a por- 

 tion of their domain, and satisfied himself that of this he too is master, 

 he may look with complacency at the circuit he has made, and speak 

 of it as a labor of vast effort and difficulty. "We may quote, as an 

 expression of this temper, the language of Sir Henry Savile, in con- 

 cluding a course of lectures on Euclid, delivered at Oxford. 4 "By the 

 grace of God, gentlemen hearers, I have performed my promise; I 

 have redeemed my pledge. I have explained, according to my ability, 

 the definitions, postulates, axioms, and first eight propositions of the 

 Elements of Euclid. Here, sinking under the weight of years, I lay 

 down my art and my instruments." 



"We here speak of the peculiar province ot the Commentator ; for 

 undoubtedly, in many instances, a commentary on a received author 

 has been made the vehicle of conveying systems and doctrines entirely 

 different from those of the author himself; as, for instance, when the 

 New Platonists wrote, taking Plato for their text. The labors of 



' O 



learned men in the stationary period, which came under this descrip- 

 tion, belong to another class. 



o 



3. Greek Commentators on Aristotle. The commentators or dis- 

 ciples of the great philosophers did not assume at once their servile 

 character. At first their object was to supply and correct, as well as 

 to explain their teacher. Thus among the earlier commentators of 

 Aristotle, Theophrastus invented five moods of syllogism in the first 

 figure, in addition to the four invented by Aristotle, and stated with 

 additional accuracy the rules of hypothetical syllogisms. He also not 

 only collected much information concerning animals, and natural 

 events, which Aristotle had omitted, but often differed with his mas- 

 ter ; as, for instance, concerning the saltness of the sea : this, which 

 the Stagirite attributed to the effect of the evaporation produced by 

 the sun's rays, was ascribed by Theophrastus to beds of salt at the 

 bottom. Porphyry, 5 who nourished in the third century, wrote a book 

 on the PrcdlcaUcs, which was found to be so suitable a complement 



' Exolvi per Dei gratiam, Domini auditores, promissum ; liberavi fid em 

 explicavi pro meo modulo, defiuitiones, petitiones, communes sententias, et octc 

 I'riores propositions Elementorum Euclidis. Hie, annis fessus, cyclos artemqiie 

 repono. Buhle, Arist. i. 2S4. 



