XXXVlll 



PREFACE, 



greater than thofe of Ariftotle. And I would have them alio con- 

 fider, that in neglecting and defpifmg the writings of Ariftotle, they 

 at the fame time negled: and defpife the whole Philofophy of Anti- 

 quity, of which Ariftotle's writings may be confidered as a col- 

 ledion. 



Thefe precious Works were, very near entirely loft, and faved 

 almoft by a miracle ; for they were raifed, as it were, from the 

 grave, having been buried, in order to fave them from Attalus, 

 king of Pergamus, who was then making a library, and fearching 

 for books every where ; and it was, perhaps, the greateft glory of 

 Sylla, Roman DiClator, that he brought thefe Works to Rome, at 

 leaft as many of them as remained, and got them tranfcribed from 

 the original manufcript by a fkilful grammarian, who fupplied, as 

 well as he could, what was effaced in the MS. by their lying 

 fo long under ground *. If this fo precious a colledion of Antient 

 Philofophy had periihed, I fhould have thought it the greateft cala- 

 mity that had befallen Philofophy, next to the downfal of the 

 Egyptian Hierarchy, and the deftrudion of the Pythagorean Colleges 

 in Italy. 



The comprehenfive genius of Ariftotle took in all the branches of 

 Philofophy, and made a fyftem of it ftill more complete thai> that of 

 his mafter Plato ; comprehending, in the firft place, Metaphyfics, the 

 higher part of which is Theology, Phyfics, Morals, under which I 

 include Politics, and laftly, Dialedic and Logic. 



As to xhtfirjl Philofophy^ which treats of God and the Principles 

 of Things, Ammonius, who writes his Life, is in the right, when 



he 



* See this Hiftory of the Fate of Ariftotle's Writings told more particularly by 

 Strabo, Lib. xiii. 



