76 Baron Cuvier's Lectures on the Natural Sciences. 



There is a French translation by M. Camus, of which the 

 text is nearly the same as that of Scaliger. The translation is 

 as good as might be expected of a man who was not a naturalist ; 

 but the volume of notes which is added to it only renders the 

 subject more obscure. 



The other books of Aristotle, relating to natural history, are 

 much less perspicuous than that of which we have been speak- 

 ing. They are more mingled with discussions respecting tech- 

 nical terms. The Greek language encoiirages these discussions, 

 and the same inconvenience is attendant upon all languages that 

 are faithful to etymology. Each word, in fact, presenting as it 

 were an abridged definition of the thing, necessarily bears the 

 impress of the false ideas which were entertained when it was 

 formed. Whence arises the necessity of defining each expres- 

 sion. Accordingly, the Greek writers ai*e continually explain- 

 ing their terms, distinguishing and subdividing without end. 

 They carry the thing to excess, and Aristotle himself, as we 

 have said, sometimes falls into this error. Those of his works 

 against which this charge is to be made, appear to be much an- 

 terior to the History of Animals, and probably are merely a 

 preparatory undertaking. This applies especially to the WoU' 

 derful Recitals, which are merely a collection of notes put toge- 

 ther without order, but which are interesting on account of 

 their containing extracts from lost books. There is a good edi- 

 tion by Beckmann. 



A book on plants has been attributed to Aristotle, but it ap- 

 pears to be apocryphal. 



Lecture Ninth. — Theophraslus. 



Aristotle died, as we have already said, 322 years before 

 Christ, in the same year with Demosthenes, who committed 

 suicide that he might not fall into the hands of Antipater. 

 After this period, the Macedonian yoke became still more oppres- 

 sive to Greece than it had been even in the time of Alexander. 

 Athens, though retaining its own laws and internal administra- 

 tion, was, in reality, subjugated. But so long as the turbulence 

 of the times allowed, the Athenian schools continued to flourish. 

 These were, the Portico, which was a separate branch of the 

 Cynic sect ; the Academy, where the doctrines of Plato, some- 



