MEMOIR OF AK1STOTLE. 59 



propagation to the zeal of philosophical rivalry. 

 The circumstances of his life, and the esteem in 

 which he was universally held by his contemporaries, 

 afford evidence enough, that the dark side of the 

 picture has been greatly overcharged. Of this we 

 have still more decisive proof in the tone and spirit 

 of his writings, especially the ethical part of them, 

 which breathes a purer morality than is to be found 

 in any antecedent author ; a morality, also, avowed- 

 ly practical, and by which he would have stood self- 

 condemned, had his own conduct been at variance 

 with it. " He exhibited a character as a man (says 

 a modern biographer) worthy of his pre-eminence 

 as a philosopher ; inhabiting courts without mean- 

 ness and without selfishness ; living in schools with- 

 out pride and without austerity ; cultivating with 

 ardent affection every domestic and every social vir- 

 tue ; while, with indefatigable industry, he reared 

 that wonderful edifice of science, the plan of which 

 we are still enabled to delineate from his imperfect 

 and mutilated writings." The humanity of his na- 

 ture appears in the different acts of kindness which 

 he conferred on his relatives and benefactors ; and his 

 scrupulous regard for truth is preserved in his me- 

 morable saying amicus Socrates, amicus Plato, sed 

 magis arnica veritas, " Socrates is dear, and Plato is 

 dear, but truth dearer than all." He possessed con- 

 siderable facetiousness of disposition ; and in his po- 

 litical works are to be found many strokes of genu- 

 ine humour, little suspected by his commentators. 



