Chap. IX. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. i6t 



To what I have faid on the comparlibn of the philofophy of Pla- 

 to with that of Ariflotle, I will add an obfervation upon the man- 

 ner in which thefe two philofopbers have treated philofophy, andT 

 tranfmitted it to pofterity. Plato appears to have been fo fond of 

 his Mafter Socrates's method of inftrucling his hearers by ccnverfa- 

 tion, that all his writings upon philofophy are in dialogue. Now, 

 if a man is to be inftructed in philofophy, or in any other fcience, 

 by a living mafter, I am perfuaded converfation is the bell method ; 

 for a man, by proper queftions put to him, may be made to 

 inftru6t himfelf; which is the pleafanteft way of being taught. 

 Of this we have fome fine examples in the Dialogues of Plato : 

 And even in writing, a fmgle quellion, or perhaps two or three 

 in philofophy, may be properly enough handled in the way of 

 dialogue. But, in a whole fyftem of fcience, (fuch as Plato has 

 given us upon the fubject of government in his lo books upon Po- 

 lity, and his 12 books upon La a\% which are all in Dialogues,) I 

 think Ariftotle's didadtic ftile, proceeding, according to the method 

 of fcience, by definition and divifion, and the arguments thence 

 arifmg, is infinitely preferable. And, indeed, if his Logic, con- 

 tained in his Categories, his book of Interpretation, and his four 

 books of Analytics, had been given us in the way of Dialogue, it 

 would, I imagine, have been hardly intelligible, inftead of being, as 

 it is come down to us, a mod beautiful fyftem of fcience, and as 

 perfpicuous as it could have been by the nature of the fubjed. 



And here I conclude wliat I have to fay upon the fubje£t of 

 Ariftotle's philofophy ; which, till about the beginning of this 

 century, was the only philofophy in Europe. Who would de- 

 fire to know more of it, may read what I have further written in 

 the Origin of Language; where I have fhown how much, not on- 

 ly philofophy, but the fine arts, have been obliged to him; parti- 



VoL. V, X cularlv 



