148 



PROFESSOR THOMPSON, ON THE GENUINENESS OF 



2. The next passage 1 shall quote refers not to the Sophista, but to the Politicus, 

 which is a continuation of it. It is familiar to readers of the Politics, in the first 

 chapter of which Aristotle writes thus : ''Oc70£ fxev ovv o'lovrai ttoXitikov kuI fiacriXiKov 

 KOI o'lKovoixiKov Kut Seo-TTOTiKov eTvui Tov uvTov ov KoXws Xeyovaiv' TrXriOcL yap Kat o\i- 

 yoTtjTi i'oixii^ov(Ti ^ia(pfpeiv dX\' ovk ei^ei tovtcov €KaarTov...UK ovotv dta(pepova-av ixeyaXrjv 

 oiKiav tj atiiKpav ttoXiv. "Those persons are mistaken who pretend that the words 

 statesman, king, housemaster and lord mean all the same thing, differing not specifically, but 

 only in respect of the number of persons under their controul ; for, say they, a large house- 

 hold is but a small state." With this compare Plato's Politicus, 258 e: irorep' ovv tov ttoXc- 

 TiKov Koi (iaaiXea Kai oe(nroTt]v Kat er o'lKovofxov drjaoixev w^ kv iravra ravra Trpoaayopev- 

 ovTe<;, ri Toaavra^ rej^i/a? awras elvai (puifiev, oaairep ovofxaTa eppijdtj. " Are we then to 

 identify the statesman with the king, the lord, or the master of a family ; or are we to say 

 that there are as many separate arts as we have mentioned names .'"' The young Socrates is 

 not prepared with an answer, whereupon he is further asked: "What.-' can there be any 

 difference, as regards government, between a household of large and a town of small dimen- 

 sions ?" (rt Se; fxeydXrii c^W" o'lKtiaews, tj afxiKpa^ av TroXecos o'yifos uwv ti irpoi ap- 

 Ynv ^toiaerov). " There can be none," says the facile respondent. " Is it not then clear," 

 rejoins the other, " that there is but one science applicable to all four, and that it is a mere 

 question of words whether we choose to call such science Kingcraft or Politic or (Economic ?" 

 {e'lTe ^aaiXiK^v e'lxe -TroXiTiKrjv e'lre o'ikovo/ixiktjv t<s ovofxa^ei /xr)d€v auTw oia<pepwfi.e6a.) 



3. There is a passage in Aristotle's treatise De Partibus Animalium (i. c. 2), too long for 

 quotation, in which he describes and criticizes that method of division or classification of which 

 the author of this dialogue gives us specimens, styling it /ueaoToiuia or ^t-^oTomia, the method 

 of mesotomy or dichotomy. " Some persons," says Aristotle, " get at particulars by dividing 

 the genus into two differentiae : but this method is in one point of view difficult, in another 

 impracticable." " It is difficult in this process," he observes, " to avoid discerption or lacera- 

 tion of the genus {^lacnrav to yevos), for example, to avoid classing birds under two distinct 

 heads, an error is committed in the 'written divisions' (jyeypa/i/nevat Siaipeaei^), in which some 

 birds -come under the genus Terrestrial, and some under that of Aquatic Animals (e/ce? yap 

 Tovs fJ-ev (xera twv evvcpwv (7Ufij3a'cvei otrjpfjo'Oai tov^ o ev aXXw yevet), so that birds and 

 fishes are both classed under the term Aquatic Animals." In a zoological treatise, nothing 

 could have been worse than such a classification ; which occurs both in this dialogue and 

 in the Politicus^. Again, in the Politicus, 264 a, animals are divided into tame and wild, 

 ^iriprjTo ^ufXTrav to ^(fov tm Ti6da(p nal ayp'tw. This distinction does not escape 

 Aristotle, who in the treatise referred to, proceeds to observe that a classification of this 

 popular kind mixes up creatures widely diverse in structure {waff otiovv Xwov ev TavTai^ 

 {tcu^ ^laipea-ecTiv) inrdp-)^eiv), and not only so, but the distinction itself is a conventional one : 

 for nearly all tame animals exist also in a wild state; for instance, man, the horse, the ox, 



^ Soph, 220 A : TO juey ire^ou yevov^ t& 6' eTepou vcwtlkov 

 ^wov. Politic, 264 c : tj/? fjikv d-yeXaioiv TpoipTJv etrn fxev 

 evuSpov, ej-Ti oe ^tjpofiaTLKov, The words 'written divisions' 

 are supposed to refer to a work now lost, a collection of Pla- 



tonic 'Divisions' similar perhaps to that of the 'Definitions' 

 attributed by some to Speusippus, and compiled partly from 

 the Dialogues and partly from Plato's oral teaching. 



