CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY, MIDDLE AGES 35 

 increasing throng of pupils for the space of twelve years. During this period 

 he displayed indefatigable activity. He was granted the right to use for edu- 

 cational purposes a temple dedicated to Apollo Lycieus, after whom the place 

 was called the Lyceum, the archetype of learned educational institutions 

 throughout the world. Here every morning Aristotle gave scientific lectures 

 to his chosen pupils, often old and highly reputed men of science, who col- 

 laborated with him; and, further, every evening he held more popular courses 

 for younger collegiates. Moreover, he found time to write an incredible 

 amount on very different subjects: logic, metaphysics, art, politics, psychol- 

 ogy, and biology. This extraordinary activity testifies to his inexhaustible en- 

 ergy and splendid powers of organization. It is obvious that his disciples had 

 to carry out the rough work. Aristotle kept aloof from public life; indeed, 

 he was a foreigner in Athens. He was a conservative and a monarchist, how- 

 ever, and when after Alexander's death Athens rebelled against the Mace- 

 donian supremacy, his position became dangerous. For lack of other means 

 of calumniating him he was accused, like Socrates, of "godlessness." In 

 order, as he himself said, to save the Athenians from committing a fresh crime 

 against philosophy he fled to the island of Euboea; there he died shortly 

 afterwards, in the year 3x1. In external appearance he is said to have been of 

 small stature and corpulent; his carriage was proud, his manners arrogant and 

 sarcastic, his dress and way of living courtly, refined, and elegant. These 

 latter characteristics brought him personal enemies, who sought to blacken 

 his character. It is not possible, however, to bring any serious accusations 

 against him as a private person. It is true he appropriated with considerable 

 lack of bias the results of the work of earlier philosophers, but the ideas of 

 literary copyright were not so strict as they are now. On the other hand, he 

 treated different thinkers with true humanity; his polemics, when he went 

 in for them, were always courteous and his arguments founded on facts. 

 Towards his family, his friends and pupils, and even his slaves he was affec- 

 tionate and considerate. 



Aristotle's sphere of activity was, as mentioned above, extraordinarily 

 extensive, and equally universal has been his influence during these thousands 

 of years in such widely separated spheres as biology, metaphysics, statesman- 

 ship, and art. In the present work it is of course possible to deal at any length 

 only with his biological work; besides this, however, we must touch upon 

 his general ideas so far as they affect his views on life in nature. And as varied 

 as his own interests have been the judgments passed on him by others; he 

 has been by turns elevated to the skies and dragged in the mud. On the whole 

 the biologists have been the most loyal; up to recent times, and not least in 

 our own day, he has had devoted admirers, and his works have been remark- 

 ably free from the bitter criticisms which biologists of more recent times 

 (Linnaeus, for example) have passed on his predecessors. The philosophers 



