56 THE GREEK SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY. 



lation of facts, and manifest a wonderful power of systematizing ; but 

 are not works which expound principles, and therefore do not require 

 to be here considered. 



The Physical Lectures are possibly the work concerning which a 

 well-known anecdote is related by Simplicius, a Greek commentator 

 of the sixth century, as well as by Plutarch. It is said, that Alex- 

 ander the Great wrote to his former tutor to this effect ; " You have 

 not done well in publishing these lectures ; for how shall we, your 

 pupils, excel other men, if you make that public to all, which we learnt 

 from you ?" To this Aristotle is said to have replied : " My Lectures 

 are published and net published ; they will be intelligible to those who 

 heard them, and to none besides." This may very easily be a story 

 invented and circulated among those who found the work beyond their 

 comprehension ; and it cannot be denied, that to make out the mean- 

 ing and reasoning of every part, would be a task very laborious and 

 difficult, if not impossible. But we may follow the import of a large 

 portion of the Physical Lectures with sufficient clearness to apprehend 

 the character and principles of the reasoning ; and this is what I shall 

 endeavor to do. 



The author's introductory statement of his view of the nature of 

 philosophy falls in very closely with what has been said, that he takes 

 his facts and generalizations as they are implied in the structure of 

 language. " We must in all cases proceed," he says, " from what is 

 known to what is unknown." This will not be denied ; but we can 

 hardly follow him in his inference. He adds, "We must proceed, 

 therefore, from universal to particular. And something of this," he 

 pursues, " may be seen in language ; for names signify things in a 

 general and indefinite manner, as circle, and by defining we unfold 

 them into particulars." He illustrates this by saying, " thus children 

 at first call all men father, and all women mother, but afterwards 

 distinguish." 



In accordance with this view, he endeavors to settle several of the 

 great questions concerning the universe, which had been started among 

 subtle and speculative men, by unfolding the meaning of the words 

 and phrases which are applied to the most general notions of things 

 and relations. We have already noticed this method. A few examples 

 will illustrate it further : Whether there was or was not a void, or 

 place without matter, had already been debated among rival sects of 

 philosophers. The antagonist arguments were briefly these : There 

 must be a void, because a body cannot move into a space except it is 



