PREFACE. Ivii 



Archytas the Tarentine, entitled 7rep< rou ttuvto^, or of the JJniverfe^ 

 which contained the whole dodrine of the Categories, as it is con- 

 tained in Ariftotle's Work to which he has given that name. This 

 we learn from the commentary of Simplicius upon that Work of 

 Ariftotle, whei'ein he has ingrofTed almoft the whole Work of 

 Archytas, from which it appears that Ariftotle has done little more 

 than tranflate into Attic the Doric of Archytas ; for his Categories 

 are the very fame in name, in number, and in nature, with thofe of 

 Archytas ; and there is only fome difference in the way of arranging 

 them * ; but as to the method of explaining and illuftrating them, 

 it is exadly the fame ; and, in fome inftances, I think Archytas has 

 explained them better than Ariftotle. Even the terms of Art in this 

 work he has taken from Archytas ; for the word y.o(,T'/\yo^io(.i^ which 

 Ariftotle has made the title of his book, and which, by many even of 

 the antient interpreters, is fuppofed to be a word firft ufed by 

 Ariftotle in a Philofophical fenfe, is the term ufed by Archytas to 

 denote a prsedicate ; and he alfo ufes the words JcocTTiyo^ovf/.Bi/ou, and 

 VTroKsifjiBvov, in the fame fenfe with Ariftotle ; and likewife the terms 

 ysvog and h^og; and he diftinguifhes thofe general ideas into three 

 claft^es, viz. the ysvog yevoov the yevog hSuVi and the fimple si^og^ 

 which is the common divifion made by the Peripatetics ; for they 

 tell us that all thefe ideas are either a Ge7ms^ having under it other 

 Gemifes^ or a Genus having under it only Speciefes, or it is a fimple 

 Species^ having under it only Individuals ; and therefore it is called 

 by Ariftotle*s Greek interpreters, the h^og Ii^ikcotoctov. 



But this is not all that he has taken from Archytas ; for there is 

 another work of his which he has copied as faithfully, and, I think, 

 rather at gre?,ter length, as appears from extra(5ts which Simplicius 



Vol. III. i has 



* Thus, for example, Archytas has put the category of Tri^o-of before ttojov, whemas 

 Ariftotle has arranged them contrary ways ; and, I think, from the account Simplicius 

 gives of the matter, for a very good reafon. 



