MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 55 



crime. According to Laertius, Dionysius, and other 

 creditable authors, his death was occasioned by the 

 natural infirmity of his stomach, which was greatly 

 increased by over- watching and excess of study. 

 To this malady he had long been subject, and to 

 assuage it he was in the habit of applying a bottle of 

 warm oil to his breast. Considering his frequent 

 indisposition, it is more remarkable, as one of his 

 biographers observes, that he lived so long, than that 

 he did not live longer. Some have recorded the 

 dying words which he is said to have addressed to 

 those standing around him, " Thou Cause of Causes 

 have mercy on me ;" but their genuineness may be 

 doubted, as they rest on no authority more ancient 

 than the testimony of a Christian writer. The Sta- 

 girites brought the body of their philosopher from 

 Chalcis to his native place, where it was buried with 

 vast solemnity, and where a magnificent tomb was 

 built, and an altar erected to his memory. 



Of Aristotle's appearance and habits little is 

 known. In stature he was short, having slendw 

 limbs, a high nose, small eyes, a weak voice, and a 

 stammering hesitation in his speech. It was per- 

 haps to make amends for the niggardly bounty of na- 

 ture, that he took more than ordinary pains in the 

 dress and ornaments of his person. His constitu- 

 tion was delicate and sickly, but he counteracted its 

 infirmities by temperance. His application to books 

 was indefatigable. So incessant was he in the pur- 

 suit of knowledge, that he regularly devoted to it 



