48 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



observation some have thought to savour too much 

 of arrogance and self-conceit to have been made by 

 Aristotle ; but whether it was ever uttered or not, 

 his success soon demonstrated that he had not rated 

 Ms scholastic talents too high. The Academy be- 

 ing in the possession of his friend, he made choice 

 of the Lycaeum, a place which Pericles had prepared 

 for the exercising of his soldiers, and which lay in 

 the immediate suburbs of Athens, on the banks of 

 the Ilissus. It was well shaded with trees, and 

 adorned with a temple of the Lycian Apollo. Here 

 he established a gymnasium, where he taught philo- 

 sophy to such as had an inclination to hear his dis- 

 courses. It was his custom to teach walking con- 

 stantly every day along the shady avenue (or Peri" 

 paton) of the temple, until the hour of anointing, 

 which the Greeks generally performed before meals ; 

 and from this habit his scholars and his philosophy 

 derived the name of Peripatetic. His Acroatic lec- 

 tures were given in the morning to those who were 

 his regular pupils. A considerable part of them is 

 still preserved in his works, which form an abstract 

 or syllabus of treatises on the most important branches 

 of speculative science. His Exoteric discourses were 

 held tfter supper (always an early meal with the 

 ancients), at which occasional visitors were admit- 

 ted. They constituted the amusement of his even- 

 ing walks ; for he thought exercise peculiarly useful 

 after eating, for animating and invigorating the na- 

 tural heat and strength, which the too rapid succes- 



