MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 63 



liness strikingly discernible in all his writings ; not 

 professedly set forth, but interwoven with the tex- 

 ture of his discussions, and rather betrayed uncon- 

 sciously than demanding to be recognised. His 

 knowledge acquired by reading can therefore only 

 be reckoned an accidental help to the display of 

 those amazing powers of reason and reflection which 

 he naturally possessed, and which may be said to 

 have qualified him to survey, with the discerning eye 

 of intuition, every object of human understanding. 

 There is scarcely a phenomenon which the natural 

 world presents, or the human mind conceives to be 

 the subject of scientific or speculative investigation, to 

 which he did not extend his inquiries. In his Ethics 

 he has given a full and satisfactory delineation of 

 the moral nature of man, and of the discipline and 

 exercise best adapted to its improvement. In his 

 Politics he considers men in their social capacity, 

 depending mainly for their happiness and perfection 

 on the public institutions of their respective coun- 

 tries. To ascertain what are the different arrange- 

 ments that have been found, under given circum- 

 stances, practically most conducive to these grand 

 and ultimate purposes, is the important question 

 which he undertakes to solve. The labour he be- 

 stowed on the inquiry may be conceived from the 

 fact, that he had carefully examined two hundred 

 systems of legislation, many of which are nowhere 

 else described. In what may be termed speculative 

 science he stood unrivalled, and it was in this tie- 



