MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 5J 



paganism, that he was cited before the tribunals of 

 his country; a mere pretext, to give a plausible 

 disguise to the conspiracy formed against his life. 



Accordingly, he was accused of impiety before the 

 Areopagus by the hierophant (or priest) Eurymedon, 

 abetted by Demophilus, a man of more weight in 

 the Republic ; both of them being instigated to this 

 cruel persecution by the declared enemies of the ac- 

 cused. The heads of the accusation were that he 

 had introduced certain philosophical tenets, contrary 

 to the religion of the Athenians ; that he had ho- 

 noured the memory of his wife Pythias and hii 

 friend Hermias with hymns and statues ceremonies 

 which belonged solely to the majesty of the gods. 

 As the inscription on the altar and the ode in praise 

 of Hermias have both been preserved, nothing more 

 is required to shew the utter groundlessness of the 

 accusation ; and from the frivolous nature of this 

 charge, which was considered the chief article in the 

 impeachment, we may warrantably conjecture, that 

 the reproach of worshipping Pythias with honours 

 due to the Eleusinian Ceres, was equally unfound- 

 ed. A more reasonable and a more natural infe- 

 rence might have been, that the virtues of the wife 

 had inspired the husband with more than a common 

 degree of attachment ; and that, after her death, he 

 had expressed his affectionate regard with an amiable 

 enthusiasm, which the malice of his enemies con- 

 strued into an act of criminal idolatry. As for the 

 alleged impiety of his philosophical tenets, his denial 



