62 Baron Cuvier^'s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. 



extent of his knowledge, as a part of his works is entirely lost 

 to us, and the other we have received only in an altered state. 

 Strabo, in the third book of his Geography, infonms us what was 

 the destiny of these books. Aristotle, when dying, had be- 

 queatlied them to Theophrastus, his favourite pupil, and his 

 successor in the school. Theophrastus, in his turn, left them to 

 Neleus, who carried them to Lepsis, a city of Asia Minor, then 

 dependent upon the kingdom of Pergamos. The heirs of Neleus 

 fearing that they should be carried off by Attalus, who, at this 

 period, was forming a libi'ary on the plan of the Alexandrian, 

 concealed them in a vault, where the damp destroyed a part of 

 them. Appelicon, who afterwards became possessor of them, 

 had the gaps filled up ; but unfortunately the persons whom he 

 employed in this work were not very well qualified for it, and 

 their inappropriate restitutions have been more injurious than 

 useful. Appelicon carried these books to Athens, where Sylla 

 found them, when he took possession of that city. They were 

 then transported to Rome, and a grammarian named Pyrranion 

 had numerous copies made of them. Andromicus, the Rho- 

 dian, superintended the publication, and divided the work into 

 chapters. This division was very ill done, and the titles have 

 frequently no relation to the subject, or are derived from the 

 most frivolous circumstance. 



Of the two hundred and sixty works of Aristotle of which 

 Diogenes Laertius has preserved the titles, many are only known 

 to us by their names. Among the latter, we have especially to 

 regret a series of anatomical descriptions in eight books, accom- 

 panied with painted figures, which corresponded to the text by 

 references, and a collection of natural things arranged in an 

 alphabetical order, — a real dictionary of natural history, which, 

 without doubt, contained nearly all the matters of which Aris- 

 totle gave a brief account in his other works. It consisted of 

 thirty-eight rolls, and would form a large quarto volume. Ano- 

 ther great loss to those who are interested in the history of the 

 Greek republics, is that of a collection of the constitutions of a 

 hundred and fifty-eight independent states. It was a kind of 

 preparatory work of the author to his book on politics. 



Aristotle, in his works, embraces nearly the whole range of 

 human knowledge ; but he does not, like his predecessors, con- 



